American Express suspends advertising on Sky News in wake of Blair Cottrell controversy
American Express has suspended its advertising on Australian News Channel’s Sky News, saying the broadcaster’s content “does not reflect our brand values”.
The move follows consumer pressure in the wake of Sky News’ interview with far-right nationalist Blair Cottrell on Sunday evening.
In the interview Cottrell advocated for immigration based on race. He has also previously expressed admiration for Adolf Hitler – suggesting his image be hung in every Australian classroom – and admitted to using “violence and terror” to manipulate women.
Despite Cottrell pushing back and insisting Sky News’ backflip is hypocritical – given the broadcaster invited him on in the first place – the interview has been removed from Sky’s social channels and will not be repeated on air.
Sky News’ director of news Greg Byrnes said the decision to have Cottrell on air, was the wrong one.
“His views do not reflect ours. The interview has been removed from repeat timeslots and online platforms,” he said.
After mounting pressure online, American Express now announced it would suspend its advertising on Sky News as a result.
American Express has made the decision to suspend advertising from Sky News, as recent content on the channel does not reflect our brand values.
— Amex Australia (@AmexAU) August 7, 2018
It is not yet clear what it will take for American Express to resume its commercial relationship with Sky News.
CONFIRMED: @AmexAU will suspend advertising on Sky News.
THANK YOU we all really appreciate you taking this action show them some GIANT love everyone!!!#Auspol #AdShame #NotMyAustralia @slpng_giants https://t.co/HU9IPq7vPk
— Sleeping Giants Oz ? (@slpng_giants_oz) August 7, 2018
Luxury Escapes has also told the Twitterverse the brand is addressing the backlash immediately and will get its ads removed from Sky News.
American Express and Luxury Escapes’ announcements are the latest blow for Sky News this week following its interview with Cottrell.
Former Labor politician Craig Emerson quit as a Sky News commentator in the wake of the scandal, telling the public his father fought Nazis in World War II and was interred in a German prisoner of war camp.
“The decision to allow Neo-Nazi Blair Cotterell [sic] onto the channel was another step in a journey to normalising racism & bigotry in this country,” Emerson wrote on Twitter.
Sky News has now banned Cottrell from the channel and is investigating the editorial processes which enabled it to happen in the first place.
Soon-to-depart CEO Angelos Frangopoulos said Byrnes would be promoted to acting program director and Kaycie Bradford would become acting news director to bolster the broadcaster’s safety net.
Sky News’ political editor David Speers has also criticised the broadcaster’s decision to have Cottrell on air.
The Adam Giles Show – where the interview was broadcast – has been put “in recess” while its production format and structure is reviewed.
In response to the controversey, and the revelation he would not be allowed back on the News Corp-controlled channel, Cottrell sent out a tweet suggesting he “might as well have” raped Sky News political journalist Laura Jayes on air.
As if to prove my original character assessment…. Blair Cottrell posts (and later deletes) some weird suggestion about raping me on air.
He’s not just a fascist. He’s down right dangerous pic.twitter.com/OwEIy1UpYz
— Laura Jayes (@ljayes) August 6, 2018
Virgin Australia has indicated it is looking into complaints about Sky News being broadcast in its frequent flyer lounges.
American Express has been approached for comment on what it will take for it to reignite its commercial relationship with Sky News, and whether it was genuine brand values, or consumer pressure, which led to the advertising suspension.
Sky News has been approached for comment about the response from advertisers and any further steps it is taking to protect brands aligned with its programs.
Since when do advertisers or noisy social engineering groups dictate what gets reported as news. Sky no linger needs an editor, they can just refer to social media for direction. And American Express are guilty of using their financial clout to stifle freedom of the press.
North Korea would be proud to see Australia adopting their media policies.
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Perhaps these ethical companies could also pull out of sponsoring the king hit laden AFL.
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Why does Sky need a channel? Can’t we just cut straight to social media?
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Sky should now air some of the consumerism that these advertisers are settling out of court? Plenty of Corporations not shy of being blackmailed by the “so righteous left”!1
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1. They are not ‘dictating’ news. They are refusing to risk their brands being associated with actual Nazis like Blair Cotteral
2. Since when are Nazi attention-seekers ‘news’ anyway?
Sky News can publish whatever they want within Broadcasting Guidelines. We have the freedom not to watch it (and their dismal figures show that most Australians are taking this approach) and advertisers have the freedom to advertise somewhere else. That’s actual freedom.
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Nazis slightly higher on the offence scale than footy punches. To the average intelligent human, anyhow.
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I believe Amex and other US banks were responsible for lending money to people knowing that they could not pay it back resulting in the GFC. So much for ethics but don’t let that get in the way of virtue signalling.
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Refer you all to The New Yorker July 2nd “Fighting Words – the far right tests free speech on campus” for a good discussion on the ethics surrounding and the responses to the effect of allowing controversial free speech in public arenas.
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Would be Nazi’s who haven’t hit anyone… I suppose you would change your mind if the player had died. Then again you’re not the ‘average intelligent human’.
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Not punched anyone? Blair Cottrell has been convicted of stalking, aggravated burglary, property damage, arson, trafficking testosterone, possessing a controlled weapon and breaching court orders and has served prison time. All that is on record. Great guy. Plus he wants a poster of Hitler in every classroom. And he is receiving support on Mumbrella? Bizarre.
Andrew Gaff has been dealt with too, I don’t know that it’s the entire AFL’s fault for his actions.
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It’s good that Cottrell has been convicted of his offences. Must agree with the first reply though. The AFL should be harder on these players. If you hit someone in your workplace, you would be rightly marched to the door and charged with assault. Professional sportspeople are working on the field, no excuse.
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Where’s Ritson and the anti digital brigade?
If that’s right .. one rule for digital one rule for TV.
Can you imagine if this was Facebook or YouTube ?
Don’t want to anger your paymasters Mark?
Total hypocrite
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Wise move by AMEX
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Whilst Amex and other advertisers may pull out their ad dollars from Sky News, I would be willing to bet that the dollars will be pulled from the Murdoch owned Sky News and moved to another Murdoch owned Foxtel station.
If we were worried about the ethics of this tripe filled station, then maybe start by looking at the vulgar talent they have, Latham, Credlin, Murray, Jones to name a few.
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So it appears AMEX is against free speech! It seems they ignorantly believe the viewing public is too stupid to consider what is worthwhile opinion or not! There are many totalitarian regimes of the same mind I have to say! By way of exemplifying the importance of allowing the public to decide what to take on board or not I would like to offer a circumstance I experienced many years ago when I lived in North America and was fascinated to listen to a Jewish lawyer justify why he was appearing on behalf of a revolting neo-nazi group to be allowed to march in full regalia in Orange County (a highly populated Jewish area and therefore very sensitive place) – his explanation/defence was that democracy must allow all opinions, that driving unpleasant views underground just festered those views and made those who held those opinions more radical. Unpleasant viewpoints exposed to the light of day is a way better option. Just wonder what AMEXs agenda is?
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Hi Mumbrella people,
Where can I find a list of advertisers on Sky News? As i dont watch it I dont know what stupid companies think its ok to try and attract these viewers with hate figures.
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