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Insiders drops conservative Gerard Henderson

Insiders to explore new conservative voices for 2020, but the smooth is as

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Insiders producers have dropped conservative commentator Gerard Henderson but the decision was taken before his comments on The Bolt Report around a former St. Kevin’s teacher.

Last week SKY News came under fire for comments made by Andrew Bolt & Henderson.

Clarifying in The Australian he wrote, “In response to my email of February 4 about possible appearance dates in early 2020, Insiders’ executive producer Sam Clark phoned me the next day and advised that he had not made up his mind as to whether I would be asked on the program this year.

“In a subsequent conversation on February 7, Sam Clark declined to guarantee me any appearances in the future. I understood the message and sent Insiders an ‘au revoir’ response on February 11.

“All this had nothing to do with what I may or may not have said on The Bolt Report many days later.”

Guardian Australia reports executive producer Sam Clark, host David Speers and the ABC’s news executive saw no role for Henderson on the couch this year and are trying new conservative voices instead.

Sources suggested Henderson did not sufficiently engage with the issues during the journalists’ discussions.

22 Responses

  1. We are in some dangerous territory here, they get rid of basically the only conservative in the show but who’s going to replace him? It’s fine to make “noises” about finding someone else, but how do you do that when you have a twitter mob ready to tear down anyone right of Richard Di Natalie, ABC can rabbit on about Sky all they like, but I’m glad there is an alternative out there.

  2. ‘Did not sufficiently engage with the issues’ is a curious comment as Gerard Henderson does have a lot of experience dealing with political personalities when they appear on the Sydney Institute, run by him. Gerard’s ideology does sometimes appear to follow a similar path to Andrew Bolt but he is his own man and is pedantic about political subjects, which is why he gets so grumpy especially with David Marr.
    I would describe David Speers as a political agnostic, he certainly worked hard becoming one, acting as moderator on Sky News.

  4. It is interesting how the ABC is getting rid of conservative voices from its airwaves, but fringe voices from the Guardian Australia never fail to get a guernsey!

          1. “Why? The Drum and Q&A have others… media types like media.”

            Dr Baird the host of the Drum was recently saying Conservatives will not appear with her on the Drum …… In her own words, “Some examples: in recent months, Kenny and (Ross)Cameron, we’ve asked Janet Albrechtsen – who politely declined – Rita Panahi – who said The Drum was a “terrible show” – and Gemma Tognini- who has a contract with Sky – to come on the show. ….. It’s incredibly frustrating to witness silos of ideas calcify in Australia. But when conservative advocates, thinkers, pundits and policy analysts like those from the IPA do appear on the show, Twitter automatically erupts with abuse – irrespective of what they actually say.”

          1. “Gerard Henderson is a lot of things but a ‘punching bag’ he ain’t ever been.”

            Any conservative who appears on the ABC is the “punching bag”. In the words of Dr Julia Baird….”The diversity we seek to reach on the show is wide-ranging and includes expertise, gender, culture, geographic location, religion, age, ethnicity, view, sexuality and politics. And one recurring problem is finding strong conservative voices to come on the show…….But when conservative advocates, thinkers, pundits and policy analysts like those from the IPA do appear on the show (The Drum), Twitter automatically erupts with abuse – irrespective of what they actually say.”

            But yeah, Gerard Henderson, blah blah

          2. Tony… Gerard was constantly rude to other guests, especially women, yet I have never witnessed others on the show being disrespectful to Gerard. Bias is really in the eyes of the beholder.

          3. “Tony… Gerard was constantly rude to other guests, especially women, yet I have never witnessed others on the show being disrespectful to Gerard. Bias is really in the eyes of the beholder.”

            It is, there are a lot of people who hold the same opinion of David Marr, doesn’t mean they are right.

        3. The Drum is really just a political soap box for political moderates, most of Julia Baird’s guests usually compliment the politically emotive theme of the day.

    3. David’s story actually “ABC’s news executive saw no role for Henderson on the couch this year and are trying new conservative voices instead.”

      But sure, roll out the ABC is biased trope as per usual

      1. I look forward for the ABC to finding a conservative voice for insiders……. and wish them good luck! On the plus side they have no trouble a couch full of Progressive/Leftie voies. In fact there are three from the Far Left Guardian Australia on high rotation, plus the Gent who hosts the Photo segment near the end of the show.

        1. Perhaps you shouldn’t watch Insiders of other ABC shows seeing you find them so unbalanced. The Government of the day always cops it on these shows, whether it is LNP or Labor.

        2. And there are also people from the far right Murdoch rags on high rotation. Guardian is not ‘far left’ it is independent. They have a go at Labor as much as the Libs. Holding the Govt to account does not make them ‘left’ it’s called journalism.

  5. I have wondered if Henderson would be part of David Speers’ Insiders. I’ve noticed one new panellist each week so far which is refreshing. As I commented in another post it was very hypocritical for Henderson to appear on the ABC then mercilessly bag it every week on SKY. I will miss his wonderful stoushes with David Marr.

  6. Good riddance to him. It wasn’t so much his conservative opinions I disliked, because it’s only fair to have a conservative point of view for balance, but he was so grumpy, unlikeable, and downright rude. Not what you want to see while you’re having an otherwise pleasant Sunday morning breakfast in front of the tele.

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