Culture

The ABC Has Apologised For Red Symons’ Terrible Interview

It's not clear if Red Symons will face any disciplinary action.

by Osman Faruqi  16 June 2017

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The ABC has issued an apology after an interview between Melbourne radio host Red Symons and Beverley Wang, the host of the It’s Not A Race podcast, was ridiculed and condemned on social media.

In the interview Symons asked Wang “What’s the deal with Asians?” and “Are you yellow?”. He also defended blackface, forgot Wang’s name and made a series of intensely awkward and terrible remarks about her cultural background.

An edited segment of the interview first went to air on Monday morning, but it wasn’t until Wang released the audio yesterday that people started laying into Symons.

In response to the criticism the ABC has apologised “for the content going to air” and announced “a review of the editorial processes around this content and its use is in progress.”

Both the full interview and the edited segment have been deleted from the ABC’s websites, but you can listen to the ‘highlights’ here:

The decision to delete the audio of the interview is confusing, especially since it was first aired four days ago and remained on the website prior to Wang publishing the full interview. Some of the most objectionable elements of the interview were from the edited segment, including the “What’s the deal with Asians?” and “Are you yellow?”.

Today’s apology and decision to remove the interview suggests the ABC was either unaware of Symons’ comments or didn’t feel the need to act until Wang pointedly suggested something was very, very wrong about the situation.

It’s not yet clear what, if any, disciplinary action Symons will face.