Sky News Tried To Drag Jacinda Ardern And It Backfired Spectacularly
Congrats to Sky News or discovering Twitter's search function.
In the annals of journalism history, we sometimes talk about legends like Woodward & Bernstein or Walter Cronkite, or perhaps you think of Australia’s own Laurie Oakes and Kate McClymont. Well, step forward Unidentified Sky News Reporter, because today is your day.
This morning, Sky News “exclusively” reported that it had “unearthed” a tweet from 2012, in which New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern called controversial broadcaster Alan Jones a “git” (true) and said he wasn’t very well liked (also true).
Here is the heinous tweet in question:
I know an Alan Jones. Unlike the Aussie version, he isn't a git or intensely disliked by the general population.
— Jacinda Ardern (@jacindaardern) September 30, 2012
The Sky News tweet linked to 125-word story, which breathlessly reported the tweet as though it was news, quoting New Zealand Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters saying that the tweet was “very unlike Jacinda”. Ardern declined to comment.
Here are some other things that happened in 2012: Christian Bale played Batman for the third time, Gangnam Style was the biggest song in the world, a tribunal found that Alan Jones incited the Cronulla race riots, and Jones said Julia Gillard’s father died of shame, and
In fact, that story was reported a day before Ardern sent her tweet. That might explain things
— Reed Fleming (@reedfleming) October 22, 2019
Presumably, this is Sky’s attempt to drag Ardern down to the same level Jones spends most of his life at. The broadcaster came under fire in August for saying he wanted to “shove a sock” down Ardern’s throat. I think we can all agree there’s a difference between calling someone a git and suggesting they be assaulted.
Jones, who has a history of attacking powerful women and using offensive racial slurs live on air, lost several of his sponsors and was forced to apologise for the comments, saying they were never meant to be taken literally.
The Sky News story is currently given the dragging it deserved on Twitter.
breaking sky news exclusive: someone called the broadcaster that incited the cronulla riots a "git" around the time the Dark Knight Rises came out
— thomas violence (@thomas_violence) October 22, 2019
Sky News trawling Jacinda's old tweets. pic.twitter.com/BaBVYUeQHB
— Matt Burke (@matttburke) October 22, 2019
That’s funny, 2012 was when a tribunal decided that Alan Jones was guilty of racial vilification for calling Lebanese Muslims “rapists” and “vermin”. That tweet must’ve really stung though
— Joshuaaaaaaaaah! 💀🎃 (@joshuabadge) October 22, 2019
So what hours of painstaking investigative dirt digging , masquerading as journalism has given you is the EXCLUSIVE that jones is , was , and always will be a GIT ✅👏👏
— totallystoked (@stokesville63) October 22, 2019
Those are some mighty thin straws you’re clutching at. There’s a substantive difference in the language used by Ardern and Jones. She certainly doesn’t imply violence against him, merely notes his irrelevance
— Brimful_Of (@asha_on_45) October 22, 2019
she said WHAT about your employee that said the N-word live on radio!? https://t.co/A1emKgGPpQ
— oh no (@takethetwoo) October 22, 2019
I'd like to point out in 2019 that he is still a git and nobody likes him still. https://t.co/akzTRV10bT
— Uniqlo Dad (@GordyPls) October 22, 2019
snowflakes https://t.co/sgvBy2g0gj
— nick wray (@nickwray) October 22, 2019
Anyway, congrats to everyone at Sky News who was involved in the production of this story, and our thoughts and prayers go out to Jones, who must be suffering form third degree burns because a woman called him a git seven years ago.