By Laura Banks
Pauline Hanson has turned attacks on journalists into a reliable political weapon, creating headlines while casting the media as the enemy. But as One Nation keeps picking fights, Australian journalists need to ask what it will take to show solidarity with their peers under attack, instead of helping manufacture the news cycle Hanson wants.
A familiar ritual now plays out in Australian politics.
Pauline Hanson attacks a journalist, and the media reports the attack. Politicians condemn the attack, and then other journalists write about the response. The news cycle fills up with the attack all while Pauline Hanson’s supporters cheer her on for supposedly being “anti-establishment”.
In its latest strategic stunt this week, One Nation barred Guardian Australia and ABC journalists from a press conference.
