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ABC management delays Hack Live amid fears of hate speech

No wonder ABC delayed a Live debate by 30 minutes -as it descended into aggression and disrespect.

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“Welcome to Hack Live. Well, almost Live,” ABC2 host Tom Tilley told viewers last night.

“Tonight’s topic is so divisive that ABC management have asked us to bring you this show on a slight delay,”

It was easy to see why management were nervous about the no-holds-barred debate on the recent resurgence in Aussie patriotism. What followed across the one hour broadcast were heated opinions, shouting, aggression and a truckload of disrespect.

ABC management were nervous about the show’s original plan to air Live to Air because of the risk of hate speech. Instead it screened delayed by 30 minutes.

At times Tom Tilley (pictured right) struggled to keep control of the conversation. As one tweet flashed across the screen suggested, this was “Q&A on steroids.”

But as Q&A knows well, in order to have a cohesive debate, its participants need to show mutual respect for the exchange of ideas. Hack Live was witness to monologues largely from its inclusion of Blair Cottrell, Leader of the United Patriots Front (pictured centre).

Cottrell dominated the conversation, often serving insults to Islamic Lawyer Lydia Shelley (pictured left). It took Indigenous writer Nayuka Gorrie suggesting that “I love that your passionate…. but personally I think you’ve got to chill out a little bit. You’re still in charge. White people are still in charge of the country.”

Much of the hour was hijacked by Cottrell who at one point hectored Tom Tilley about the show not being Live. It raises questions about why he was cast on the show if he was not open to intelligent debate and equal time.

Despite the delay Hack Live still broadcast Cottrell’s reprehensible answer to the historic massacre of Australian Aborigines: “So what?”

But the show also fell down on other points, including posting social media comments on screen that were disrespectful to its panelists (including some directed at Cottrell: “Yeah go Blair.. back to prison.”)

Other guests had to wait some 30 minutes before they got to speak.

It took a lot of bluster and airtime to get to considered opinions surrounding patriotism, fear and diversity. And let’s not get started on that boot-scootin’ shirt….

By the end it was a relief to hear Prof Andrew Markus from Monash Institute for the Study of Global Movements say, “The good thing is we’re able to sit around, even though there are some tensions here to discuss issues. Problems occur when you don’t have that. You have people in silos.

“What we’re having is a conversation. I hope that you’ve understood from this conversation that Islam is diverse. It’s not unified.”

ABC2 having conversations with youth (and certainly not all of these were youth) is valuable -just as it was when Steve Cannane hosted the excellent forerunner Hack Half Hour back in 2008.

But as Q&A has demonstrated, it takes a lot of preparation and mutual respect to avoid digressing into a hot mess.

13 Responses

  1. It was a difficult watch, it was so heated, cutting each other off all the time, I don’t envy Tom having to be a moderator.
    That being said, I am not sure that ABC 2 putting it on a delay was the right move, I think having it live would add total sincerity to it.

  2. Q&A isn’t exactly all about cohesive debate. Indeed, it often tries to avoid that by stacking the panel, and occasionally goes so far as to set up games of stacks on.

    1. Yes it would appear to be true mc. I think this panel was not too badly ballanced. My frustration is the inability to put sound questions across. I could have picked holes all over it. There were very shallow mindsets and blindness of the big picture. The whole context of Cottrell’s concerns; being that we need to take notice of what is happening in Enlgand, France, Germany and other western nations. This is a topic that can not be fiddled with by the weak kneed, lilly livered & spinlessness. A attitude of belligerance by the people is the only thing government will respond to; stop immigration to islamic nations. The “So what” response was taken out of context conveniently. I dissagee the decision making should be left to the authorities as Lydia suggests, it will not be dealt with. I dont trust those she refers to as authorities. I served almost 20years under so called authorities.

  3. I watched for about 20 mins, it was all I could stand. If this is the quality of the debate on race and immigration, well I just hope the gay marriage debate is a bit more respectful

  4. This appears to have been worse than I feared it would be. I didn’t watch because I didn’t want to kill my television. We do need to have open communication but I’m not sure that this really achieved anything.

    1. TV is excellent tool for (((media masters))) mind control programming. The entire world news entertainment network is under total control by just six media conglomerates viz, GE, Newscorp, Disney, Viacom, Time Warner, CBS unified to give you a false illusion of truth, objectivity and choice. Once you realize you have been fed lies, deceptions and disinformation all your life by that tell-lie-vision, unleash your fury with a sledgehammer whack to kill it. Hurry, while your brain still works.

  5. I didn’t see this show, and I think it would have upset me to watch it. I am not frightened of Islam or any other culture, but I am afraid of this so called “patriotism”.

  6. Caught the tail end of this after Gogglebox finished and it was excruciating. No respectful debate and not much logic in the arguments on stopping Muslim immigration. It boggles me that people are so narrow minded about things, reaching conclusions without knowing facts and spinning things to push their own agenda. I’m all for productive debate but this was just one person trying to speak over another, trying to speak over another.

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