Red Symons: Indigenous MP wants presenter pulled into line by ABC over ‘racist’ interview – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
The ABC is called on to give veteran broadcaster Red Symons a very severe disciplining after he asked a colleague if she was yellow in an interview.
Andrew Bolt applied the Colbert Defense when defending Red Symons " The Colbert Defense is what happens when a criminal, bigot, racist, jerk or otherwise horrible person tries to back out of offensive behavior by calling it just an act, just a joke, or an example of satire. The goal of the Colbert Defense is to suggest that what was said or done wasn’t to be taken seriously or literally, thereby allowing the offensive person to avoid taking responsibility for their actions." Salon
"From criminals to politicians to pundits, the Colbert Defense is on the rise and it shows no signs of waning. I predict that idiots, racists, gasbags, megalomaniacs and just plain jerks will be increasingly trying to weasel out of their bad behavior by crying that they weren’t serious."Salon
Symons may or may not be racist however he reflected just how racism seeps into our culture and psyche when a history of systemic prejudice has existed and it was clearly reflected in the White Australia Policy when there was no difficulty for Immigration in this country to single out who was colored or not. We saw the prejudice on the ABC's program with Ray Martin's First Contact. Just how good Australian's were shocked by their own prjudice with regard indigenous Australians. We were and still are a country with an undeniably racist system that culturaly impacts on the national psyche. None of these people were born racists.
Bolt heard saw a joke in Bill Leak's cartoon and was amused by Milo and defended Red Symons all bigots in their own way intended or not. Bolt admits it's diffucult for him to be funny because he truly is a serious jerk,bigot and racist.
"That means that we are going to need a clear way to distinguish between the various forms of obnoxious speech out there, like hate speech, and satire." Salon
An attempt to provide one can be found in the article below
Enough with “the Colbert Defense”: Why criminals, bigots and jerks cry “satire!” when exposed - Salon.com
The cry of “it was just satire” is more and more common. Why it’s on the rise and why it's not a real defense
A Test
- Is the person using irony to get at the truth or invective to hide it?
- Do the comments punch up or down? That is, do they attack those more powerful or those weaker than the speaker?
- Do the comments poke fun at abuses of power or do they justify them?
- Is the goal of the speech to point out folly or to create hysteria?
- Is the speech designed to protect sanity or foster insanity?
- Is it a champion of reason or fear?
- Is the speaker exaggerating to expose the truth or to freak everyone out?
- Does the speaker use humor to make us smarter or do they use humor to belittle others?
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