The Power of Social Media

[icyfroth]

Advertisers drop Southern Cross Austereo over Pauline Hanson backflip

Pauline Hanson and her chief of staff, James Ashby, have taken action against Southern Cross Austereo after the right-wing politician's interview with The Jess Rowe Big Talk Show podcast was removed following a Twitterstorm.

Mr Ashby contacted SCA CEO Grant Blackley and senior staff members to confirm the party would be suspending its campaign, which was scheduled to air in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne.

'The network needs to readdress the way it deals with issues like this,' Mr Ashby said. 

'The problem is the interview showed a human side of Pauline that the keyboard warriors who despise everything about her didn't want you to see. But I feel for Jess that she was so hurt by what happened.'

Hanson had appeared on Jessica Rowe's LiSTNR podcast to discuss her time in prison for electoral fraud in 2003, her children, and other lighthearted topics like her favourite tipple

Rowe promoted the podcast on social media as Hanson talking about 'love, raising kids and why she keeps going'.

But the episode soon faced backlash on Twitter, with Australian of the Year Grace Tame accusing Rowe of 'subtly enabling', 'normalising', and 'valorising' Hanson.

Rowe later asked LiSTNR to 'take down the Pauline Hanson interview'.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-10059299/Advertisers-abandon-Southern-Cross-Austereo-P... 

Like her or not, Pauline Hanson, has just as much right to be heard as young upstart Grace Tame. Especially when it was a lighthearted interview not involving politics.

It's reprehensible that Jessica Rowe was facing a barrage of hate and possibly a career in tatters from the professional hate brigade on social media.

[joztamps]

A Pauline Hanson apologist complaining about her mistreatment by "the professional hate brigade"!

The irony is palpable.

[countessalmirena]

I'm uncomfortable with hate campaigns, though. This is actually something of a moral dilemma - the whole question of allowing and hearing that which is marked as "not to be validated". Even if one disagrees with a person, I don't like the concept of gags and I think that Grace Tame's spoken perspective about this has a touch of doublethink about it. She is anti-oppression - but that ought to hold true for views of those whose view she does not share. If it doesn't, the very cornerstone of her point is nullified (in my view).

(This is why I have a view that complete and perfect tolerance in human beings cannot, as a logical base, exist. Tolerance in my experience always has limits, and the limits and tolerance itself are defined uniquely in each individual viewpoint.)

If I believe something, or have a view, and others disagree, I hope I'm strong enough to maintain my view in the face of opposition. I hope I don't seek to silence other voices. I may test my argument against those who disagree, and in that way I would both see any flaws in my argument (or in my base definitions) and establish whether my argument can withstand the argument of an opponent. I am deeply worried when I see public figures try to silence a different note in the chord. And... I definitely hope I don't need everyone to agree with me.

I certainly appreciate the inherent irony. I wonder, though, whether it's better to encompass that irony than to create a counter-irony of suppression of view.

[icyfroth]

It's not about Pauline Hanson. 

It's about certain parties using social ( anti-social, would be a more apt term) media to destroy those whose views don't concur with their own.

The "palpable" irony here is, that while these entities enjoy their freedom of speech while denying others the same right. 

[icyfroth]

Here's another example:

"A Melbourne real estate agent has been given the sack after a 'racist' comment he posted online sparked public outcry. 

Matthew Scafidi has been permanently stood down from his position as franchisee director of real estate agency Jellis Craig in the inner-city suburb Mitcham. 

The self-confessed 'home gym enthusiast' questioned the origins of a piece of workout equipment in a post to his personal Facebook page on Monday. 

'No Australia Made logo on this one, can I assume on this and price that it's a Chinese import? Wanting to avoid Chinese imports if I can,' he asked. 

Mr Scafidi's profile no longer exists on the Jellis Craig website despite the link still existing in the real estate agent's Instagram biography. 

His profile on Realestate.com.au has likewise been deleted.  

A source with intimate knowledge of the real estate industry in Melbourne's eastern suburbs questioned the motivation behind the decision to sack Mr Scafidi.  

'Would there be an outcry if you took out the word Chinese and inserted American? It appears to me that all he's saying is he'd rather buy Australian.'

https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/australia/high-profile-real-estate-agent-sacked-for-posting-racist-co... 

And there you have it...a man's life and work deleted simply because he preferred to buy Australian-made over Chinese import.

Aren't we continually being encouraged to "buy Australian"?

[countessalmirena]

Is there more behind that sacking? It sounds ridiculous… but without knowing the full story I suppose we are left confused and full of questions.

If that real estate agent was sacked based upon that post, it seems like a case requiring action.

If he was sacked based upon more than that post, it might not be so straightforward.

When it comes to social media, there is so much potential for things to be taken the wrong way, or for powerful groups to exert pressure, or for outrage to be turned into a movement. It really is a bit like the Wild West out there… “This heah Facebook ain’t big enough for the two of us, so I’m telling you to get out of town or we’ll be stringing you up from the nearest tree.”

[domino-710]

If this is all there is to it - he has them - legally - no question.

Dig a bit deeper.

[k1ooo-slr-sales]

it may be a case of real estate businesses being more careful not to offend Chinese people as the Australian real estate market has had a lot of activity from cashed up Chinese people and/or people with Chinese origins.

I clicked the link.  One of the comments on the Facebook post was:

’It is disturbing to see this comment from an individual like Matthew who runs business in Mitcham where the three largest ancestries in 2016 were English, Australian and Chinese.'

His sacking may have been, rightly or wrongly, a business decision.

[icyfroth]

The Prime Minister has called online trolls "cowards" and indicated the government will look at ways to ensure people are held responsible for their actions.

Scott Morrison today described social media as a "coward's palace" that allowed people to write foul and offensive comments with no repercussions.

"Cowards who go anonymously onto social media and vilify people and harass them and bully them, and engage in defamatory statements, they need to be responsible for what they're saying," he said.

https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/australia/social-media-a-cowards-palace-says-prime-minister-as-he-pro... 

What does he think he can do about it, I wonder?

[icyfroth]

another media troll:

Kyle Sandilands revealed on the Kyle and Jackie O Show on Wednesday morning that NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet, who was voted into the job on Tuesday, would not be welcome on the show.

The KIIS FM host decided to make the call after learning of Perrottet's conservative religious views.

"How can someone run a state like New South Wales and be anti-abortion and anti-gay rights," Kyle questioned.

https://au.lifestyle.yahoo.com/kyle-sandilands-bans-nsw-premier-dominic-perrottet-from-kyle-jackie-o...