Karl Stefanovic, one of Australia’s most famous television hosts, is reportedly being considered for termination by his employer after he hosted British anti-immigration activist Tommy Robinson on his podcast.
The Today host brought on Robinson, a British activist whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, as a guest for his YouTube side project, The Karl Stefanovic Show. Stefanovic characterized Robinson as “one of Britain’s most controversial figures” who is “loved by supporters and condemned by critics.”
Stefanovic did not endorse Robinson’s views and maintained that he was trying to understand different perspectives on the issue of immigration. The tone of the interview was friendly, with Stefanovic telling his guest, “I admire your tenacity and the courage you’re showing in trying to stand up in what you believe is right.”
Reports immediately emerged of “crisis meetings” at Stefanovic’s employer, Channel Nine, which wrote in a statement that “the network has no involvement, including in the guest selection and other editorial processes” of the YouTube show — but is “taking this matter seriously.”
Eddie McGuire, his co-host on a separate radio show called The Long Weekend, announced that Stefanovic will not be appearing this week.
Robinson, a preeminent anti-immigration advocate, has become a household name in his home country through a long career of political organization that has frequently strayed into hooliganism. He has galvanized factions of the British voter base that are outraged at the continued mass importation of foreign nationals and perceived inaction from the mainstream parties to fix the United Kingdom’s collapsing social cohesion and fraught economy.
He has made enormous gains through hammering on taboo social ills plaguing the U.K., such as well-documented grooming gangs operated by immigrants, harsh crackdowns on free speech, and slap-on-the-wrist sentences handed down by British judges.
However, the activist’s long history of arrests and controversies, such as earlier this year when he characterized a video of a black grandfather playing with his white grandchildren as predatory, has convinced many right-wing activists seeking an alternative to the mainstream Conservative Party that his brand is politically poisonous.
It was this outsider status that Stefanovic, who has likened himself to an Australian Joe Rogan, said compelled him to speak with Robinson to learn more about his activities in the U.K.
“This is why you’re so fascinating — because you sit outside the establishment parties,” Stefanovic told Robinson in the interview. “There’s no one actually driving working-class agendas.”
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Robinson was not the first anti-immigration activist to appear on the YouTube show. He previously spoke with Holly Valance, an Australian actress and singer turned right-wing commentator, as well as former British Special Forces soldier turned political personality, Ant Middleton. All three anti-immigration-themed episodes aired within the same week.
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The Robinson episode has disappeared from the Karl Stefanovic Show channel on YouTube, though Robinson has uploaded the interview in full on his own channel, titling the video “CANCELLED! The Tommy Robinson and Karl Stefanovic Podcast They Don’t Want You to See!!”
Pauline Hanson, the leader of the right-wing One Nation party in Australia, voiced support for Stefanovic on social media amid the debacle.
“It looks like they’re trying to sack my good friend Karl Stefanovic for this video with Tommy Robinson!” Hanson said. “Tommy Robinson has a lesson for Australians.”
Hanson added that Stefanovic was “trying to bring to Australia’s attention” that if they don’t “learn from the UK’s mistakes on immigration and radical Islam,” the country will face the “same destruction.”