Sky News sacks Mark Latham and refuses to say whether Outsiders will remain on air
Sky News has sacked presenter Mark Latham.
The News Corp owned station announced the ending of Latham’s contract on-air this afternoon.
The sacking came after the outspoken commentator picked several on-air fights, including attacking fellow Sky News contributor Kristina Keneally and broadcaster Wendy Harmer. But the issue reached boiling point this week when footage emerged from a show of a few weeks ago in which Latham labelled a schoolboy speaking up for feminism as “gay”
The guy is a dick. I get pleasure know the guy is so narcissistic that he’ll be reading this comment and know that I think he is a complete dick. I don’t care he doesn’t know who I am.
He’s destructive foolish and mean. Good riddance to this dick. Two to go.
You are a dick Dick.
Once again free speech silenced. Such a great sense of humour too. We will miss you Mark and good bye Sky!
Mark Latham’s free speech rights are still intact. Sky are under no obligation to provide a megaphone.
It may surprise some to learn that free speech is not enshrined as a right either here or in the much lauded USA. One may hold an opinion, and one may voice it, but there are laws to prevent slander, racism, sexism, lies, and a host of other offensive things.
As for Mr Latham, well in my honest and unqualified opinion, he has proven problematic since he was once much regarded as the next PM of Australia one week, and not so the next. Bit of a stray cannon I think.
Well here we go. The left will not tolerate any criticism of any sort of free speech or healthy debate, your thoughts and expressions are out the window and Fox, unbelievably Fox, has wilted, shame on you, shame. I was never a Latham fan but he grew on me but now he is another hero of free speech scorned by the gutless.
There is a big difference between free speech and the tripe that comes out of Latham’s narcissistic mouth. Personal attacks on Wendy Harmer for having a cleft lip and working for rival ABC and calling her horrid names, Kitistina Keneally for speaking her mind and being born in the USA, and a school student expressing free speech and being branded as gay. You have a very different concept of what free speech really is. The rants of the morons on the outsiders are merely Murdock’s muppets preaching their own hate and loathing of anything that goes against their own megalomania and Liberal Party propaganda.
I probably agree about the comments directed towards Wendy Harmer but I think Keneally’s complaints are a little childish and trivial especially coming from someone with a political background.
At the end of the day I think these complaints were being used to shutdown someone with a different view to the Left of politics and there was probably tension there with Marks personality anyway. But for me the real victim is Australia’s freedom of speech and where this is heading into the future with some in the Labor party already wanting to extend 18c into Religion and Political opinion.
Come on….he said Keneally was corrupt and she isn’t. Good on her. He should find a nice place in Broken Hill to see out his days. (Apologies to Broken Hill). He is such a creep.
Mr Angelo Frangopoulos,
I’m afraid you have fallen directly into the well laid Orwellian “doublethink” traps of INGSOC and the ‘Ministry of Truth’ aka the ABC. Firstly use newspeak to put everyone in their identity pidgeon holes, such that their labels become socially acceptable and then off to room 101 for any Proles or outer party types who dare to use the label.
In short Angelo IT IS neither “offensive, an insult, humiliating nor intimidating” to call someone GAY anymore!
Well written Mark
Sky should be ashamed to have sacked Mark Latham, whether you like him or not, he is a no bullshit commentator who called it the way it was, and promoted free speech. Sky is the loser here not Mark Latham.
I loved watching Jones and Co every Tuesday night and I was always looking forward to see what Mark had on the menu for tea,very sad but everyone should have a second chance,I would say he had a good following,hope he can be re enstated sadly missed
This may be the funniest media story in history. A TV celebrity gets fired and no one noticed. A bit like the SMH having to survey people to discover that most folk are not the slightest bit interested in s18C of the RDA. Surely they noticed that even Barnaby Joyce had made that point?
What a weak lot you people at Sky News are!!
Everybody gets called a dickhead or gay, today!
It’s harmless for gods sake! Your too thin skinned!
The kid must be a sook & Mummy’s boy. Still sleeps with his teddy bear.
What about all the crap Mark has to put up with, from the jealous jurnos out there.
Outsiders is the best show on pay TV. Truthfull, entertaining, & loved by their huge numbers of supporters!
Mark, Rowen & Ross are fantastic!
Insiders must be putting the pressure on you!
You want to get rid of someone- get rid of that useless, one eyed left jerk – Spears. Also that Peter Van Olsen & his side kick. Both sickening!
Someone needs to drain the Sky management swamp!
Pathetic mob!
If Sky News allows this sort of thing under their name, they are effectively endorsing it and normalising this sort of behaviour. Mark Latham can say what he likes, but Sky don’t have to be the carrier of his messages. If he wants to rant and make stupid comments (which he so often does), then he can do so freely on Twitter, or on a soapbox on the street corner.
Personal attacks on people don’t equal free speech, they are lazy and a sign of a lack of thought and perspective.
Saying ‘names don’t hurt’ is simply not true; I’m sure the parents of all of those young people who have suffered at the hands of a bully would agree with me.
I totally agree I never watch David Spears as I tend to fall asleep he is so boring Peter Van Olsen was very good til he teamed up with Kristina Kenneally now all they do is giggle and flirt with each other its absolute twaddle!! Mark Latham is very honest perhaps that was his downfall I will miss him.
I agree with you 100%.
Good Bye Sky particularly if the outsiders is dropped
Well said Jan. Too many lefties on Sky. Gutless.
Dear Sky News
I am disappointed you have terminated Mark Latham’s contract.
In contrast to the ABC style Skye WAS offering viewers a variety of alternative opinion which until this week demonstrated freedom of speech & thought and which seemed to be ‘fair dinkum’.
Although I didn’t agree with Mark politically he spoke his mind which was both refreshing and interesting especially when compared to the average lefty politically correct, boringly processed spiel by the average TV commentator covering fully their backside in the oh so droll David Speers.
Not only will others now become muzzled by a very small percentage of agitators, but I believe Skye ratings will certainly suffer too. I for one viewer will be flicking around again in 2017 for something more down to earth, balanced and politically honest to watch
Angelo …. since mid 2016 your Skye News programing has become increasingly more and more left of centre like the ABC mate. I hope you’re happy with that outcome ?
A weak effort by Sky. We need more commentators that say what they think instead of following the far loony left Labor/Green ideals. Latham is just a little too blunt and to close to the truth for a lot of people.
Obviously people who watch Sky News want to hear the sort of crap that Latham talks. It is made for these bigoted halfwits. These idiots immediately blame the left for his sacking, like they blame it for everything. But Latham is just a horrible sick fool who can’t get on with anybody. Even his fellow morons can’t get on with him.
I must be one of those bigoted halfwits then. Why is it okay for you to insult me?
Claire, TA didn’t insult you.
But your ingrained sense of self-righteousness and that society’s mores impinge on your freedom of speech means that you have outed yourself as a bigoted halfwit. (And half is probably an over-estimation).
if you can’t even see the insult in TA’s comment then i would suggest it is you that is the halfwit
Mark is the Donald Trump of Australian politics. Let’s all thank John Howard for keeping this man out of The Lodge. That was a very close call.
It was a shame that John Howard did not keep Kevin Rudd out of office.
So, they’ll provide a platform for Andrew Bolt’s homophobic political agenda – however when Mark Latham says someone “looks gay” he gets the axe?
Spin can be an art form. How many comments on this thread are associated with a Murdoch owned IP address? Fox News Australia is a big bag of cow dung. It’s the only shadowy area where Bolt can rant away. Out of interest, I am guessing that KIA and Holden will be pulling their ads from Fox News Australia because they are diversity friendly and do not want to be seen funding hate.
Can’t understand the fuss, no actual humans involved.
Mark Latham, so sorry to see you got rolled by the left,your straight talking and analysis of the asinine utterances of the ” untouchables ”
was so good, shame on Sky, but as the old adage goes Truth hurts
When people start talking ‘left’ and ‘right’, surrounding a subject like this, it is usually an indication of their total ignorance. A lot of very suspicious trolls on this thread. It’s as if somebody at HQ has asked their subordinates, or contractors to: ‘go murky the waters of that Mumbrella thread’. Bleeding obvious I reckon… Sigh.
About time. I have never understood why the media has given Latham so much air time. His lack of insight, judgement and intellect both as a politican and an individual make him ill equipped to be a thought provoking, respected commentator
There’s a big difference between providing robust debate and alternative views and simply hurling out insults and hatred. Glad Kristina Keneally, Wendy Harmer et al finally forced Sky News’s hand.
‘nice take on Twitter:
The Right: Mark Latham is unfit to be PM
The Left: Sorry, turns out he’s an unhinged, hateful bigot
The Right: Yes he’s really growing on us
Turd flushed, IMHO
ho ho ho i will never forget Latho’s speech on the eve of the 2004 election when he talked about growing up in Green Valley or wherever he is from and saying how he was proud to stand up for hard working decent fair Labour values, what a useless dolt he was then, and still is….Sad! Pathetic! Loser!
A perfect example of why this country no longer has freedom of speech in fact it lost this right many years ago.
I am or should I say was a regular watcher of Sky News but I have turned off permanently, they are as weak as Coopers brewery when it comes to standing up to bully boy tactics from the violent and dangerous left wing ratbags.
The boss of Sky News is slowly but surely placing as many left wing news programs as he can hopefully Sky wake up soon and sack him.
I enjoyed Lathams all too brief flight by the sun
he was unpredictable which is more than one can
say about the many lefty lightweights around,
I hope you are called back Mark
even if they put you on a delay system.
Someone rounded up the brownshirts pretty quickly.
Love all the banter. Loved Wendy Harmer when she worked with Mooney and Holmsey in Sydney……gave it to anyone in sight, very funny though, probably back in the day when we could take a joke and get on with it,( not like fellow lightweights Kyle and Jackie O)
and then what a success Premier Keneally was, indeed that beautiful period where Premier Carr presided over. Never liked M. Latham when associated with Labour Party, but have done a 180. Come from a staunch Labour Military family. Stop pushing agendas that are so out of touch with what real died in the wool working Australians (all inclusive) are concerned with. Get the country united and back on track…. no green shit, no Muslim shit, no LBGTI ??? Shit…..just Australian shit….work hard work smart get ahead…don’t get caught up in the BS.
SkyNews has unbelievably declared war on its own customers. A petition has been erected for the defence of Mark Latham and already 5,000 SkyNews customers have signed up demanding the return of Mark Latham. When the number gets to 10,000 and if the sacking of Mark Latham has not been reversed a public forum will be held outside the Sky Head Office and the 10,000 will consider their right to terminate their Foxtel Contract. Also, public meetings will be held in Australian capital cities to decry the vile stand-over tactics of the Australian Foxtel Management.
I have now turned off FoxtelGo. haven’t watched for two days now. I even had my better half watching as he usually only likes football and soccer. And documentaries. Please bring back Mark Latham and the outsiders. They were not offensive. It’s the left snowflakes who are the problem. Now I have nothing. No ABC, 7 9 10 Where to for me now.?
The thing I would like to know is, didn’t anyone from sky news approach Mark and ask if he thought he may have gone a bit too far? Then if Mark agreed then to give him the opportunity to correct anything he said.
It seems to me that we as a nation are too easily offended and quick to go down the legal path.
“SKY” or is it now “ABC”
I turned on Sky News this morning eagerly wanting to watch The Outsiders. Of course it got axed. I expected it. Sky News has joined the gutless wonders who feed us watered down politically correct news . The beige news programs across all channels are presented by well-paid self-serving wankers who are utterly boring. Fox News is peppered with old pale worn out blank faces in dark suits and the mandatory almost black ties. It is utterly painful to watch. I believe the Outsiders told us the truth and dug around and scratched away at the Underbelly of the b******* that gets served up to us. I thought pay TV would prevent more liveier and truthful news programs. Fox is as bad as a commercial TV stations who serve up the daily dose of propaganda, political correctness and news censorship. Looks like Latham and Coopers Brewery have something in common. Both screwed and will take a long time to recover.
We were very sorry to learn that The Outsiders has been axed.We really looked forward to watching it on Sunday mornings. We found it to be a refreshing program. The presenters told it as it was.
I am very disappointed that the Outsiders seem to have been axed. I thought more of Skynews than this shows. FREE speech is fake news. Three men who had the guts to say it as it is, or how it was to them. Please give us the benefit of being able to judge for ourselves whether we find things offensive. I am offended that I am not being given the chance to decide whether I turn the knob off on the TV or leave it on. Brings back memories of the good old days when women were not able to drink in a public bar because they might hear something offensive. Pleaseee.
If News Corp axe the Outsiders by burying Mark Latham without counselling or back-up and silence Rowan Dean and Ross Cameron with their cumulative, delightfully compelling and entertaining commentaries, whats left ?. The playschool like presentations of other male and female commentators regurgitating trivia (with exception of Peta Credlin), should do nothing but remind viewers that ‘look at me’ playschool pretentions are simply that and mental health is best served by switching off.
So very disappointing the axing of this program – SHAME on you Sky News! Didn’t think you were afraid of the falling of snowflakes upon your heads but guess you are no different than your ABCbrotherhood . Whatever happened to our right to an open discourse? What are you afraid of? A simple apology would have been acceptable if you deemed it necessary but really sacking the whole show???? Seems very fishy to me! So disappointed in you Sky News! Nothing left to watch that provides a,balanced view for us silent majority now!
Isn’t the concept of being an ‘outsider’ that you present views away from the status quo and thus we get progress. You can always ignore views that are either outrageous or just plane incorrect. Mark Latham was born to be an outsider and we need him much more than we need a meek Sky administration.