{"id":819318,"date":"2026-07-23T19:44:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T19:44:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/819318\/"},"modified":"2026-07-23T19:44:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T19:44:11","slug":"pauline-hanson-blames-fake-news-media-for-her-bad-press-but-serious-leaders-have-to-own-their-actions-pauline-hanson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/819318\/","title":{"rendered":"Pauline Hanson blames \u2018fake news\u2019 media for her bad press. But serious leaders have to own their actions | Pauline Hanson"},"content":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s apparently only one thing to blame for Pauline Hanson\u2019s 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<\/a> on Wednesday as a \u201ctwo-way street\u201d.<\/p>\n

According to the One Nation<\/a> leader, it\u2019s of course not Hanson herself who is to blame.<\/p>\n

No \u2013 it is the media\u2019s fault.<\/p>\n

On Thursday she posted audio of the domestic violence exchange and claimed \u201cthere is a concerted effort by some in the media to constantly take my comments out of context\u201d.<\/p>\n

The One Nation leader criticised \u201cjournalistic integrity\u201d and drew links to job cuts at the Nine newspapers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m growing less tolerant of many journalists within the MSM [mainstream media] and so too are the public,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n

Not content with aping Donald Trump\u2019s policies and slogan<\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n

This is hardly new; Hanson herself has \u201cbanned\u201d 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\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

It works for Hanson politically to pick fights with the \u201cmainstream media\u201d, positioning her as an anti-establishment outsider fighting against the system.<\/p>\n

But Hanson, on current figures, could be the official opposition leader after the next election; that, undeniably, demands the same level of scrutiny that media give to the leaders of Labor or Liberal.<\/p>\n

This predictable cycle, of controversy followed by blame-shifting, has come into sharp focus in the last fortnight amid the rolling blunders emanating from Hanson\u2019s European holiday.<\/p>\n

Hanson raising the end of the White Australia policy<\/a> when Robinson asked \u201chow have you ended up with Pakistanis, Somalis, all of these African problems?\u201d That was simply \u201cfake news\u201d, Hanson said<\/a>, the fault of the \u201cleftwing media and their false, clickbait stories\u201d.<\/p>\n

Backlash over her decision to give Robinson a cosy interview, then accompany him on a UK road trip? Seven\u2019s 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\u2019t forced to do anything).<\/p>\n

For good measure, as scrutiny grew on the Spotlight special \u2013 including her gushing \u201cI love it\u201d when asked about the concept of mass deportation \u2013 Hanson published what she said was the \u201cpitch\u201d document from Seven<\/a> proposing the documentary, insinuating she was the victim of a media stitch-up.<\/p>\n

In between, Hanson\u2019s loyal deputy Malcolm Roberts accused media of \u201cselective cherry picking and dishonest distortions<\/a>\u201d and seeking to \u201cdrag up nothing stories<\/a>\u201d when his own past comments \u2013 about any manner of conspiracy theories<\/a>, from Covid to chemtrails, and his support of Vladimir Putin \u2013 resurfaced.<\/p>\n

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But at each point, it is unclear exactly what One Nation\u2019s complaints were \u2013 other than that they didn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

At various stages, Hanson has accused journalists of taking her out of context, reposting her own comments \u201cso you don\u2019t get it twisted by the media or the Labor Party\u201d. But in the media articles she complained about, those comments had already been reproduced at length and in context.<\/p>\n

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 \u201cdecided to use only a few quotes\u201d.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Hanson claimed it was \u201cuntrue\u201d that she had downplayed domestic violence. Ashby on Sky accused media of taking a \u201cfive second clip\u201d rather than a \u201c30 second clip\u201d.<\/p>\n

But it is a fact that experts including the Women\u2019s and Girls\u2019 Emergency Centre have called out Hanson\u2019s rhetoric, with its CEO Nicole Yade branding the comments \u201cvile and shameful\u201d.<\/p>\n

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 \u2013 including being responsible for your actions and the words that come out of your own mouth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There\u2019s apparently only one thing to blame for Pauline Hanson\u2019s string of bad headlines in recent weeks, from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":685507,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-819318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=819318"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819318\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/685507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=819318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=819318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=819318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}