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Leigh Sales has found an unlikely ally in radio host Ray Hadley.
The shock jock reached out to ABC presenter Sales after she was accused of being ‘a Liberal Party stooge,’ according to The Australian.
Hadley, 66, who himself had been accused by trolls of being ‘too woke,’ said he advised Sales to ‘Get away from Twitter’.
Strange bedfellows! Ray Hadley (left) reached out to ABC presenter Leigh Sales (right) after she was accused of being ‘a Liberal Party stooge,’ according to The Australian
He also told the ABC host, ‘I’m now accused of being too left and woke now that Channel Nine own me,’ in reference to Nine Radio’s buyout of his station 2GB.
‘It’s a strange world,’ Sales allegedly replied.
Hadley later ranted on-air that he’d had ‘a gutful’ of the online criticism, which has largely occurred in the wake of Hadley calling out his former colleague Alan Jones.
Hadley recently condemned Jones for his comments on Sydney’s anti-lockdown protests when he defended the behaviour of a man subsequently charged with animal cruelty for punching police horse, Tobruk.
‘On Sky News, every night Alan Jones is an apologist for these thugs,’ proclaimed Ray.
Woke bloke: Hadley, 66, who himself had been accused by trolls of being ‘too woke,’ said he advised Sales to ‘Get away from Twitter’. Hadley seen here in 2019
Leigh called out left-wing keyboard warriors who have lashed ABC journalists with vile sexual insults and online abuse.
In an essay for the ABC, the award-winning political reporter wrote that those in her field cop their fair share of criticism holding politicians to account.
But she said the abuse is now being dished out at a ‘furious pace’ on social media – particularly on Twitter where she found herself on the receiving end of insults almost hourly.
Her cry for an end to the bullying comes after her colleague ABC News Breakfast presenter Lisa Millar was forced off Twitter as a result of relentless trolls.
Earlier this month it was revealed the high-profile TV host shut down her social media account after the former foreign correspondent was bizarrely accused of showing a bias towards Scott Morrison’s government.
ABC journalist Leigh Sales has called out the trolls that she and many of her colleagues have been abused by online
Millar said the unrelenting attacks had peaked over the past two months, with critics incensed after she allegedly smiled before a segment about former PM John Howard.
‘It reached new heights of ridiculousness in the fortnight before I quit, when I came in for criticism for allegedly smiling while introducing a 20-second clip of John Howard speaking about Afghanistan,’ she told The Australian’s Media Diary.
‘Soon after, I quietly deactivated my account for 30 days. I wasn’t making a big deal of this. I wasn’t aggro against the trolls.
‘I decided to take control of a worsening situation, and minimise my exposure by removing myself from the platform altogether.’
ABC News Breakfast presenter Lisa Millar was recently forced off Twitter as a result of relentless trolls
Millar initially planned to take a 30 day break from the site, but has since said she will not return until it is ‘safe for women’.
In the wake of Millar’s Twitter boycott, Sales called out those who felt the need to repeatedly attack journalists, adding the online bullying is becoming ‘increasingly more challenging to bear’.
‘It is non-stop, personal, often vile, frequently unhinged and regularly based on fabrications,’ the 7.30 host wrote for the ABC.
‘It has the effect of an angry phone call from a politician magnified thousands of times over.’
She reported that Insiders host David Speers is also abused both before and after almost every program.
Hamish MacDonald who used to host Q+A before leaving the ABC said one of his reasons for changing networks was the amount of abuse he copped online.
The 7.30 host (pictured with Laura Tingle) said female journalists were sent sexual insults while those of colour were racially abused
Sales said women were no stranger to sexual insults in her field and there was a ‘corresponding pattern’ of racism for reporters of colour.
‘Anyone who can stomach wading into mentions of @leighsales will find that virtually hourly, I am abused for doing my job, with a stream of tweets goading me to quit, demanding the ABC sack me, telling me I’m useless, stupid, biased and incompetent,’ she wrote.
She said the majority came from left-wing trolls who couldn’t handle journalists asking questions of Labor ministers especially Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews.
This was ‘unusual’ for ABC reporters who are usually targeted by even Prime Minister Scott Morrison as having a ‘Labor/Green bias’, Sales said.
‘In the Australian corner of Twitter, the space is dominated by views that are militantly pro-lockdown, pro-Covid zero and pro-Labor premiers, and even the tamest of questions in those directions prompts an onslaught.’
She said while journalists expected their reporting to be discussed and occasionally criticised, the ‘Twitterati’ wanted to scare them from asking questions about Labor altogether.
Sales who has won three Walkley Awards and an Order of Australia for services to broadcast journalism said she would not be ‘bullied’ into reporting on one side of a story
Touching on Millar’s recent choice to abandon Twitter, Sales said throughout her extensive career she’d been tasking with reporting on violent and tragic events around the globe.
‘For her to be so bothered by abuse on Twitter that she has de-activated her account should tell you something about the relentless and disgusting nature of the attacks,’ she said.
Sales – who has won three Walkley Awards and an Order of Australia for services to broadcast journalism – said she was sure once her article was published she’d be horrifically accused of ‘performing sexual acts on Liberal men’.
But she stressed she would never ‘be bullied’ into reporting just one side of a story and neither would her colleagues.
It was earlier revealed Sales, Millar and Speers were the three most trolled ABC employees over the past 12 months.
For Millar the attacks became personal and she was left with no other choice but to pull the plug on Twitter.
One Twitter account, @lefty_human, posted a pic of Hollywood actor Joaquin Phoenix as The Joker, with the caption: ‘Lisa Miller’s make-up.’
‘Have been watching the ABC for a few years, Lisa Millar is the most biased and unintelligent announcer they have had,’ tweeted another.
‘The way she has behaved in the past 3 months is atrocious. Literally nobody can stand her sorry. She is the female Barnaby Joyce.’
Left-wing trolls piled on abuse at every opportunity, claiming Lisa Millar (pictured here with co-host Michael Rowland) gives an easy ride to Liberal MPs at the expense of Labor politicians
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