Culture

Karl Stefanovic Has Dragged ‘The Daily Mail’ For Sexist Reporting

"This site specialises in shaming women."

by Matilda Dixon-Smith  2 June 2017

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Today presenter and Lad About Town Karl Stefanovic is becoming increasingly well known for his #hottakes against various high-profile targets on Channel Nine’s popular morning breakfast show. This morning he’s at it again, this time going after The Daily Mail.

In a three-minute long aria, Karlos slammed the news tabloid for its sexist reporting, after the website published a story suggesting Stefanovic was stepping out with a young Channel Nine reporter.

“What would you say if I judged you for what you’re wearing this morning?” Stefanovic asked before declaring, “I want to take a couple of minutes this morning to call out an organisation which trades in these kinds of insults.”

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“This site specialises in shaming women,” he continued. “[The publications has a] long, despicable track record for denigrating women.” While he acknowledges that he and his colleagues are often fair game for scrutiny, as they are public figures, Stefanovic argues that “what I can’t abide by is lies about others, slurs on friends, on colleagues”.

Stefanovic keeps his cool through most of the rant, ending in a frustrated stammer, “I’m over it — I don’t know — about what you think, but I hope Australia is over it as well”.

He describes how his female colleague implicated in The Daily Mail article has been “in tears” over the accusations, and defends her as a “committed, talented, hard-working and totally professional young woman” who is “not deserving of this cheap, lazy, sexist online slur”.

He also lists a series of other attacks by The Daily Mail on his female colleagues at work, including a report on how Lisa Wilkinson wore the same blouse “four months apart” and how it was reported that Wilkinson “couldn’t work together” with colleague (and Stefanovic’s sister-in-law) Silvia Jeffreys, “presumably because they’re both women”. He also pointed out that “the idea that colleagues of the opposite sex can’t work together” because of sexual tension “surely belongs in the 1950s”.

Stefanovic’s comments are bang-on and he’s getting a fair amount of well-deserved praise online for his efforts to stand up for his female colleagues.

Others are a bit less convinced, finding Stefanovic’s increasingly woke takedowns a touch hypocritical. Today frequently engages in moments of gutter journalism, and Stefanovic is well-known for his childish and sometimes sexist antics on-air.

The criticisms are valid. For my part, I remember the days when Karlos was our country’s most revered Garbage Larrikin Man, and we all mainlined his latest and greatest moments of foolishness on the goldmine that is the I Wake Up With TODAY YouTube channel. However, recently Karlos has belted up and settled down at least a little bit, trying to learn and grow and basically be less of a knobbly nugget. (Also, props to my favourite woman on Australian TV, Lisa Wilkinson, who I’m certain influences Karlos to be a better dude just by existing.)

Karlos has doubled down on these kind of to-camera rants on issues about which he is passionate (including Schapelle Corby) — a kind of poor man’s Waleed Aly. And, look, it might seem “too little, too late” to some, and I understand that, but you gotta give the guy props for giving this adult professional thing a go.