News Corp columnist Andrew Bolt — who has previously been found guilty of breaching the Racial Discrimination Act — has defended his former Sky News colleague Ross Cameron’s racist comments about Chinese people visiting Disneyland.
Cameron was sacked three days after he made the comments on Outsiders, following a boycott campaign from advertising activist group Sleeping Giants Oz. In announcing it, new Sky News boss Paul “Boris” Whittaker apologised for the comments and said:
Sky News is committed to robust discussion and debate however this language is totally unacceptable and has no place on any of our platforms, nor in modern Australian society.
Bolt, however, has been clear that he disagrees. In a column published in the newspaper and online Monday, he argued that calling Chinese people “slanty-eyed” was not racist but a “badly chosen comment” by “an apologist for China”. He also posted a video to the full segment on his blog — which Sky News has removed from all its own platforms because it was offensive — to prove his point, before expanding further:
Did any of Cameron’s critics even bother to check that context? Or did all lazily rely on the one quote supplied by the anti-Sky activists? Cameron’s ‘slanty-eyed’ comments were meant to contrast the populist image of the Chinese hordes with the fact that many Chinese were just queuing to get into Disneyland, a symbol of US culture.
That column followed a post on his blog, hosted by the Herald Sun‘s website, defending Cameron’s columns. “I am heart-sick that such a malicious spin of Ross’ words could be so effective in panicking advertisers, ending Ross’ career, and damaging Sky,” Bolt wrote.
Crikey asked Herald Sun editor Damon Johnston if he agreed with Whittaker — his former counterpart at Sydney’s Daily Telegraph — but he did not respond to our questions before deadline. Bolt, who also hosts The Bolt Report on Sky, indicated his time at the network may be coming to an end just weeks after Whittaker took the helm. Bolt’s column is syndicated across the News Corp tabloid newspapers, including at the Tele when Whittaker was in the top job.
Cameron’s sacking leaves just one of the three original hosts of Outsiders in place — Rowan Dean. The original line-up included Mark Latham, who was officially sacked from the network last year (but still appears as a guest) after a series of offensive comments. The tipping point for Latham’s sacking was calling a schoolboy “gay” for participating in a video about gender equality.
Bolt was found in 2011 to have breached the Racial Discrimination Act over a series of articles he wrote that suggested light-skinned Aboriginal people identified as Aboriginal for personal gain. And in August, Bolt was the subject of multiple complaints to the Australian Press Council over an article that argued a “tidal wave” of migrants was “changing our culture”. That case is still being investigated.
The only thing at which Bolt is expert is sophistry. His Cameron defence may represent the zenith of Bolt’s single intellectual trick. Apart from that he is deeply intellectually dishonest and nasty. I am ashamed of myself for having mentioned his name and adding in a minuscule way to his infamy.
Don’t really know Cameron but I know the term ‘slanty eyed’ is basically racist. Should be sacked for being dumb enough to say it. So, on dumbness alone, deserves to be sacked and on racism, deserves to be sacked. But seriously, how dumb a thing to say!
How do you feel about “big nose” – not in the Life of Brian sense?
I watched the offending clip and astonish myself by saying that firing Cameron for this is absurd. It would be the least offensive thing ever to raise a stink. Bolt is right. I’ve never agreed with Bolt before and I loath the right wing extremist views mostly espoused by Sky and News, but this is nuts.
What is it about this ‘racist’ business? Is everything that describes a characteristic of another race racist? No it isn’t, and it certainly doesn’t have to be. Just because people have historically taken “slanty-eyed” to be demeaning does not make it so. In particular when Cameron was using it in this broadcast he was not putting Chinese people down, he was talking them up. He was as Bolt states, using it as part of a slightly colourful differentiating description.
Everyone knows the Chinese call Caucasians “white ghosts” and “big noses”. Big deal. These may or not be racist depending on the context, and may even be insulting without being racist. Something is “racist” only if the meaning is to imply or state that the other race is inferior or less worthy. Things are out of control when any word that *distinguishes* another race or group or races or ethnic group is “racist”. You have to look at the context and meaning.
Cameron may or not be a total idiot, I wouldn’t know, but he should never have been fired just for this. We are becoming parodies of ourselves.
Gweilo.
Yep, that’s me.
No idea what circles you move in Julian but I’ve never heard “slanty-eyed” used in anything other than a pejorative sense.
Are you suggesting that words only have literal meaning?
Watch the video! And such terms, depending on the way you view life, doesn’t imply inferiority necessarily, just difference that we might want to joke about. We need to get back to a sense of proportion, where Asians can talk about us (I’m Caucasian) as big noses and we can say slanty-eyed without it meaning we never want to talk to each other or respect each others’ opinions. I can assure you that there is not the slightest pressure on Chinese to limit use of their popular terms for whites as being ‘racist’, they just accept it as part of life and a bit of fun, occasionally vindictive or truly perjorative, but not most of the time. The idea that every single mention of a difference is racist is just wrong, and damaging. People looking for insult everywhere, and calling it racist if there happens to be a race difference involved is polarising and divisive.
Agree.
I yield to none in my loathing of Blot but, stopped clock, galling as it is.
Mate, you’re over thinking it. Sky sacked hime because they wanted to sack him and this was just the stated reason – a window open and he was defenestrated. Good riddance but it wan’t for racy racism. It was because he was generally being the wrong sort of buffoon.
Unfortunately I cannot imagine how the very dull Dean is the right sort of buffoon. He isn’t even amusing (proving just how hard sarcasm is to do well – he has a 100% record of miss).
Its hard to figure who is the biggest morons and idiots, the idiots that actually watch and listen to Reich fuhrer bolt, or the biggest moron idiot himself, Reich fuhrer bolt,
Sky were probably looking for an excuse to get rid of Ross Cameron who at best is a goose and a waste of space.
Now that Sky is going free to air on WIN they really have to lift their game as they are exposing themselves to a far more discerning audience.
That’s probably right re letting him go. We can hope the FTA audience is more discerning…