stan grant is ‘stepping away from ABC’ after he was criticized for using live coverage of King Charles’ coronation to focus on Aboriginal dispossession.
He now steps down as a Q&A host just 10 months after taking over, and the Monday night show lost its second full-time host in just two years following the departure of Hamish Macdonald in 2021.
ABC reportedly received more than 1,000 complaints over its “disrespectful” coverage of the May 6 coronation, which linked the British monarchy to the dispossession of Aboriginal people dating back to 1788.
Grant said he has been subjected to “relentless racial filth” with viewers attacking him because he is indigenous.
“ABC has filed an official Twitter complaint this year about the unrelenting racial filth I am subjected to,” he said.
I am not free from criticism. I occupy a privileged and prominent place in the media, I should be criticized. And I’m not thin-skinned. The aborigines learn to resist. That is the price of survival.
“For years I have been targeted by the media for racism and I have paid a heavy price. For now, I don’t want to be a part of it, I’m leaving,” Grant said.
‘For how long? I don’t know. I don’t take a break for racism, I won’t give racists the satisfaction. I am not taking a break because I think the ABC was wrong to discuss the legacy of colonization and empire on the day of the the coronation. We did it, I think, with maturity and respect.
Grant also called top ABC bosses, not to mention the national network’s news chief, Justin Stevens.
“No one at ABC, whose producers invited me to their coronation coverage as a guest, has uttered a word of public support,” he said.
‘No ABC executive has publicly refuted the lies written or told about me. I do not hold any individual responsible; this is an institutional failure.
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ABC host Stan Grant has decided to ‘step away from ABC’ after receiving criticism for his coverage of King Charles’ coronation.
‘I value the friendship of ABC News Director Justin Stevens. He has been a support and a comfort. He is trying to change an organization that has its own legacy of racism. But he knows I’m disappointed. I am discouraged.
“Sadly, there seems to be no place in the media for love, kindness, goodness, or God. There is no place in the media for respect,’ Grant said.
“I am sorry that some royalists were offended by our coverage. That was never my intention. I thought I used words of love. Clearly, I failed. I have to accept that I am part of the problem. I am part of the media that fails the Australian people every day.
‘I don’t take a break from racism, I won’t give racists the satisfaction. I’m not taking a break because I think ABC got it wrong to discuss the legacy of colonization and empire on coronation day. We did it, I think, with maturity and respect.
I am taking a break because we have shown once again that our story, our hard truth, is too big, too fragile, too valuable for the media. The media only see battle lines, not bridges. He only sees politics.
I do not want to know anything about that. I want to find a place of grace away from the stench of the media. I want to go where the sewer of social media doesn’t remind me.
‘My parents have been proud of the career I have built. I owe them everything I’ve done to them. I have tried to represent my people and do some good in the world.
Now I don’t know if it meant anything. I thought I had come a long way from that scared little Aboriginal boy in the school picture. Now I wonder if I have traveled very far.
In the photo, Stan Grant with his partner Tracey Holmes