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Leigh Sales reveals abusive tweets

"I just spent a few minutes collecting a fraction of the sexualised abuse I get every time I interview a PM"

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Warning: Language.

7:30‘s Leigh Sales has republished a sample of abusive tweets she received following her interview with PM Scott Morrison this week.

“As I sometimes do to keep a spotlight on this, I just spent a few minutes collecting a fraction of the sexualised abuse I get every time I interview a Prime Minister – female politicians, journalists, public figures get this non-stop,” she wrote.

The tweet itself drew further divisions online.

In 2015, she also drew attention to similar feedback.

17 Responses

  1. I rather like how she interviews politicians – she doesn’t tolerate spin or them trying to answer a question with something completely irrelevant (in most cases). Shaun Micallef takes the piss out of this quite often – “you’re not asking the right question for the answer I want to give” etc. Regardless of whether you like it or not, there’s no excuse for these disgusting responses – and I give her full credit for exposing people to the crap she and others have to put up with for just doing their jobs.

  3. Certainly doesn’t justify the tweets, but she was definitely rude in the interview. There was too many questions set up to create “gotcha” moments for the best days headlines. ScoMo was smart enough to not fall for it

    1. The ABC have lacked some journalistic clout since Kerry O”Brien left the job and Leigh Sales had a tough job replacing him, which to date she has done reasonably well.
      Leigh’s interview style does include interjections but as most political observers will know, you wont get many headlines allowing politicians to have all the say, she generally tolerates the occasional patronizing retorts from her political guests quite well.

  4. … this is another good example of why people who call themselves journalists should get their heads out of Twitter and re-connect with real people in the real world … back in 2011 I was instructed by ABC management to sign-up for a Twitter account and “tweet something every day” and ABC job ads for reporter positions require “Experience in use of social media as a newsgathering and research tool and to connect to audiences” … intelligent people ignore things like Twitter so it ceases to be a problem … time for journos (and politicians) to do the same …

    1. That wasn’t an interview that was a friendly chat. I expect way better from a seasoned journalist like Grimshaw. We expect him to be asked the tough questions.

    1. What you might receive as rude, i receive as rigorous. Kerry O’Brien was formidable too and would push the pollies of the day as hard if not harder, Somehow when a woman does it, as Leigh does, it is generally criticized much more. Trisha Goddard copped it seriously when she was the first black woman to front a current affairs show (7.30 Report) in Australia. So too Monica Attard and the late great Liz Jackson on Media Watch. I worked with all 3 and the abuse they suffered was unacceptable.

    3. The whole point of journalism is to keep the government accountable, not to be their best friend. It’s in the national interest that she’s so-called “rude”.

    4. I’ve never perceived Leigh as rude, rather I find her assertive and firm, but always polite and respectful. Her interview subjects are quite often rude to her 8 feel.

  7. This is so disturbing. I thankfully live in a non Twitter sphere and only am ‘educated’ by these sorts of realities from stories such as this one. It astounds me just how much discourse has degenerated in the last decade or so. Sure there’s always been sexism, racism and homophobia etc in the public commentary, but this stuff is just so toxic. I wonder if Tracey Grimshaw, Peta Credlin and Jenny Brockie receive this sort of effluent. Female presenters are always targeted for how they look and what they wear, but this is beyond the pale.

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