Presenters clash at FIVEaa

It’s not unusual for a talk presenters to call someone a ‘stupid idiot weirdo’ or a ‘tin foil hat whack job.’  But it is unusual for one presenter to say it about another presenter at the same station.
 
It happened this week at Adelaide’s FIVEaa, the only AM station owned by Nova Entertainment, after Andrew Reimer (below left), long time Weekend Nights host, aired a sympathetic interview with controversial Senator Fraser Anning who stood by white supremist leaders at a rally in Melbourne over the weekend. 

Breakfast co-host David Penberthy lashed out Reimer saying that “there is no audience for Nazi apologists in Australia” and called for Reimer to be sacked.

Penberthy, a former editor of the conservative Daily Telegraph but is now married to Labor MP Kate Ellis, said Reimer was, “emblematic of those tin foil hat whack jobs who proliferate the dead air zones.

“I’m buggered if I am going to have the guy held up as some sort of spokesman for the station,” he said

On Twitter, Penberthy labelled Reimer an “idiot” and a “weirdo who’s too stupid to realise the swastika is a symbol of hatred.

“And before you play the free-speech card, there’s a commercial argument for sacking you, as your numbers prove there is no audience for Nazi apologists in Australia,”he posted.

For his part, Reimer doubled down on the interview tweeting, “The truth is of no interest for far too many. The issue was the rally. The focus of the media was beating up the story to make Fraser a scapegoat.” 

He went on to say that he was shocked and disappointed at the “pouring out of hatred”towards him and Senator Anning.

Hear Fraser Anning’s FIVEaa interview here.