Pauline Hanson's media blame game: a predictable cycle of controversy

There’s apparently only one thing to blame for Pauline Hanson’s string of bad headlines in recent weeks, from her decision to pal around with the far-right convicted criminal Tommy Robinson to her description of domestic violence on Wednesday as a “two-way street”.

According to the One Nation leader, it’s of course not Hanson herself who is to blame.

No – it is the media’s fault.

On Thursday she posted audio of the domestic violence exchange and claimed “there is a concerted effort by some in the media to constantly take my comments out of context”.

The One Nation leader criticised “journalistic integrity” and drew links to job cuts at the Nine newspapers.

“I’m growing less tolerant of many journalists within the MSM [mainstream media] and so too are the public,” she wrote.

Not content with aping Donald Trump’s policies and slogan, this week shows Hanson and One Nation are now leaning further than ever into his fallback method of blaming journalists when the consequences of their own remarks or actions spawn an entirely predictable controversy.

This is hardly new; Hanson herself has “banned” Guardian Australia, along with our fellow travellers at the ABC and others, from her public appearances. Media alerts, press releases and even returned phone calls used to come our way, but don’t any more. In a trend evident since Hanson first burst on to the national political scene in 1996, One Nation has blamed the media for reporting on its slip-ups, instead of turning that gaze inward.

It works for Hanson politically to pick fights with the “mainstream media”, positioning her as an anti-establishment outsider fighting against the system.

But Hanson, on current figures, could be the official opposition leader after the next election; that, undeniably, demands the same level of scrutiny that the media gives to Labor or Liberal leaders.

This predictable cycle, of controversy followed by blame-shifting, has come into sharp focus in the past fortnight amid the rolling blunders emanating from Hanson’s European holiday.

Hanson raising the end of the White Australia policy when Robinson asked “how have you ended up with Pakistanis, Somalis, all of these African problems?” That was simply “fake news”, Hanson said, the fault of the “leftwing media and their false, clickbait stories”.

Backlash over her decision to give Robinson a cosy interview, then accompany him on a UK road trip? Seven’s Spotlight was the one who pushed for it in the first place, according to Hanson, Barnaby Joyce and One Nation chief of staff James Ashby (Seven sources said the podcast was instigated by One Nation and that Hanson wasn’t forced to do anything).

For good measure, as scrutiny grew on the Spotlight special – including her gushing “I love it” when asked about the concept of mass deportation – Hanson published what she said was the “pitch” document from Seven proposing the documentary, insinuating she was the victim of a media stitch-up.

In between, Malcolm Roberts accused media of “selective cherry picking and dishonest distortions” and seeking to “drag up nothing stories” when his own past comments – about any manner of conspiracy theories, from Covid to chemtrails, and his support of Vladimir Putin – resurfaced.

But at each point it is unclear exactly what One Nation’s complaints were – other than that they didn’t like the headlines. Few specific rebuttals were given, other than tone. The list of controversies are hardly confected outrages; they are obvious questions about things Hanson or her colleagues have said and done in public.

At various stages, Hanson has accused journalists of taking her out of context, reposting her own comments “so you don’t get it twisted by the media or the Labor Party”. But in the media articles she complained about, those comments had already been reproduced at length and in context.

On Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning, as criticism grew over her domestic violence comments, she posted first a written excerpt and then a full audio clip of the interview, claiming media had “decided to use only a few quotes”.

But, in fact, the quotes she sought to highlight had already been published at length by the Guardian, the ABC, the Nine newspapers, News.com.au and more.

Hanson claimed it was “untrue” that she had downplayed domestic violence. Ashby on Sky accused media of taking a “five-second clip” rather than a “30-second clip”.

But it is a fact that experts including the Women’s and Girls’ Emergency Centre have called out Hanson’s rhetoric, with its chief executive, Nicole Yade, branding the comments “vile and shameful”.

Hanson has spoken of being the prime minister one day and of dragging One Nation from the fringes to become a mainstream party. But the perks of popularity also come with responsibilities – including being responsible for your actions and the words that come out of your own mouth.