Channel 4 gets in security for Cathy Newman after abuse

Channel 4 presenter Cathy Newman has been subjected to ‘vicious’ online abuse forcing the news programme to call in security experts, its editor has revealed

Channel 4 presenter Cathy Newman has been subjected to ‘vicious’ online abuse forcing the news programme to call in security experts, its editor has revealed.

The newsreader has received threats and abuse following an on-air interview with a Canadian professor with controversial views on gender.

The editor of Channel 4 News, Ben de Pear, said that the security measures for Newman were a ‘terrible indictment of the times we live in’.

He wrote on Twitter: ‘Our Channel 4 News onscreen journalists expect to be held to account for their journalism but the level of vicious misogynistic abuse, nastiness and threat to Cathy Newman is an unacceptable response to a robust and engaging debate with Jordan B. Peterson.

‘Such is the scale of threat we [at] Channel 4 News are having to get security specialists in to carry out an analysis.

‘I will not hesitate to get the police involved if necessary.’

Twitter trolls had called Newman a ‘c***’, a ‘b****’, a ‘f***ing idiot’ and said she was ‘not attractive to look at’.

Newman, 43, who retweeted her colleague’s comments, hosted a half-hour discussion this week with Prof Peterson, a psychologist who has gained an online following for his attacks on political correctness.

In the lively interview Canadian psychologist Jordan B. Peterson said it was wrong to say that the gender pay gap resulted only from sex

In the lively interview he said it was wrong to say that the gender pay gap resulted only from sex.

He said there were ‘multiple reasons’ for the gender pay gap which included women being more ‘agreeable’ than men, and that gender was a smaller component than ‘radical feminists’ claimed.

Newman challenged him, saying that a nine percent hourly wage gap existed and that it felt unfair for women.

The full half-hour exchange has been shared on YouTube by Channel 4 News and has been watched more than two million times since it was published on Tuesday.

The professor has since defended Newman from online abuse on Twitter, saying: ‘If you’re threatening her, stop.

Professor Peterson said there were ‘multiple reasons’ for the gender pay gap which included women being more ‘agreeable’ than men, and that gender was a smaller component than ‘radical feminists’ claimed

Transcript: Pay gap debate

Newman: That nine per cent pay gap, that’s a gap between median hourly earnings between men and women. That exists.

Peterson: Yeah but there’s multiple reasons for that. One of them is gender but it’s not the only reason. If you’re a social scientist worth your salt you never do a univaried analysis. You say, well, women in aggregate are paid less by men, then we break it down by age, interest, occupation personality.

Newman: But you’re saying basically it doesn’t matter if women aren’t getting to the top, because that’s skewing that gender pay gap, isn’t it. You’re saying that’s just a fact of life.

Peterson: No, I’m not saying it doesn’t matter. I’m saying there are multiple reasons for it that aren’t being taken into account.

Newman: But why should women put up with those reasons?

Peterson: I’m not saying that they should put up with it, I’m saying that the claim that the wage gap between men and women is only due to sex is wrong, and it is wrong, there’s no doubt about that. The multivaried analyses have been done.

Newman: You keep talking about multivaried analysis. I’m saying that nine per cent pay gap exists, that’s a gap between men and women. I’m not saying why it exists, but it exists. Now if you’re a woman, that seems pretty unfair.

Peterson: You have to say why it exists.

Newman: But do you agree that it’s unfair?

Peterson: Not necessarily.

Newman: If you’re a woman, and on average you’re getting paid nine per cent less than a man, that’s not fair, is it?

Peterson: It depends on why it’s happening. I can give you an example. There’s a personality trait known as agreeableness, agreeable people are compassionate and polite, and agreeable people get paid less than disagreeable people for the same job. Women are more agreeable than men.

Newman: Again, a vast generalisation. Some women are not more agreeable than men.

Peterson: That’s right, and some women get paid more than men.

Newman: So you’re saying that by and large, women are too agreeable to get the pay rises they deserve?

Peterson: No, I’m saying that that’s one component of a multivaried equation that predicts salary. It accounts for maybe five per cent of the variance, something like that. So you need about another 18 factors, one of which is gender. And there is prejudice, no doubt about that, but it accounts for a much smaller proportion of the variance in the pay gap than the radical feminists claim.

Source: Channel 4 News

‘Try to be civilized in your criticism. It was words. Words, people, words. Remember those?’

Newman had thanked him for the discussion, saying: ‘Enjoyed doing battle with you Jordan – thanks for being a good sport.’

She also said: ‘I thoroughly enjoyed my bout with @jordanbpeterson as did 100s of 1000s of our viewers. Viva feminism, viva free speech.’

Later in the discussion the psychologist seemed to have Newman lost for words when talking about offence and free speech.’

‘You’re exercising your freedom of speech to certainly risk offending me, and that’s fine, more power to you as far as I’m concerned,’ he said.

Newman stopped and said she was ‘trying to work that out’, with Professor Peterson saying: ‘Gotcha’.

She admitted: ‘You have got me, you have got me.’

STV news presenter Halla Mohieddeen agreed with Ben de Pear about the need for security measures saying it was ‘terrible’.

Meanwhile Louisa Loveluck of the Washington Post said: ‘And people wonder why there aren’t more women at the top.’

And fellow journalist Gaby Hinsliff said: ‘This is awful but worse, unsurprising. WTF is WRONG with people who consider death threats a reasonable response to a TV interview they didn’t like?’

Douglas Murray of the Spectator had criticised her interview, calling it ‘catastrophic’, though there is no suggestion that he has been involved in online abuse.

Newman previously voiced her support for former BBC journalist Carrie Gracie, who resigned as the broadcaster’s China editor over equal pay.

‘Brilliant letter by @BBCCarrie & a tragedy for the BBC to lose such a talented China Editor #equal pay,’ she wrote on Twitter.

The professor also praised the broadcaster for putting the entire interview online after a portion of it was shown on TV.

He said: ‘I am surprised, relieved in a profound sense and impressed that Channel 4 put this up uncut.’

He has been in the UK promoting his new book, 12 Rules For Life. According to the publisher it argues that ‘happiness is a pointless goal’ and says the author has a ‘frank and refreshing message about the values of individual responsibility and ancient wisdom.’

His YouTube channel features many videos about the Bible, many of them approaching three hours long and some of them with more than a million views.

In 2016 he said he had been heckled and had the door to his office glued shut after one video in which he said he would refuse to use gender neutral pronouns.

Newman, pictured right in Tattoo Fixers: Stand Up To Cancer, has previously voiced support for the equal pay movement

Twitter trolls aimed abuse at Cathy Newman after the interview which prompted Channel 4 News to call in security experts

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