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On Australia Day, Rodney Hogg, the former Australian test cricketer, delivered a beamer to our Muslim community.
Just like those glory days at the MCG with “Hoggy” ringing in his ears, Hogg ambled back to his mark as he polished the shine on his virulent epithet. He turned around to commence his run.
At the batting crease, a proud unsuspecting community was too busy celebrating living in one of the luckiest and culturally diverse countries on the planet.
Rodney Hogg’s beamer was not delivered at 140 kilometres per hour, it was delivered in 140 characters via Twitter.
“Just put out my aussie flag for Australia Day but I wasn’t sure if it would offend Muslims…So I wrote “Allah is a shit” on it to make sure”.
This is not the first time you have seen a remark like this and it certainly won’t be the last. But, try making this type of comment publicly in a normal workplace or, even, the playing field.
But, Rodney Hogg’s workplace isn’t normal.
His is the world of living off past glories via speaking engagements and media appearances where you spin a yarn, crack some bad jokes and offer some punditry.
Its good coin not only for Rodney Hogg but also for his the people that represent him, Croc Media. They produce many of the programs for SEN Radio and where Rodney Hogg appears as regularly as the change to the new ball.
Their attempt at damage control says a lot about the bubble this industry lives in.
Rodney Hogg first tried to brush it off on Twitter as nothing but “bad attempted Australian humour, sorry if I offended you.” No surprise there, an insincere apology from the creator of a deeply insensitive remark who is bewildered by the backlash.
The Musilm community fulminated until a few more hours later and probably after some advice from his minders came a more measured “My sincere apologies to the Muslim community. A stupid tweet by me in very bad taste.”
For Croc Media CEO, Craig Hutchison, it was the end of the affair. Yesterday he tweeted, “For those asking, spoke at length last night to @RMHogg about his insensitive tweet yesterday, expressed disappointment and accepted apology.”
Remarkable.
Who cares what our Muslim community and civil society think. It’s on with the show.
Craig Hutchison made his name as an AFL journalist. He covered the game’s battles with racism and vilification and their eventual success in becoming leaders in tackling this scourge both on the field and in the community.
Two years ago, when AFL ambassador, Robert Dipierdomico, made a racist gaffe at a sportman’s night an outraged Andrew Demetriou suspended him indefinitely without pay and made him attend racial sensitivity meetings.
The AFL boss went on to say “It is time to wake up to all those people who think that sportsmen’s nights are a forum or excuse to be chauvinistic or racist or are days of a bygone era where it provides a platform to deride people,” he said.
“Start getting into the 21st century (and) conduct yourselves as normal human beings in a country that prides itself in welcoming people.”
And that was him talking about private sportmen’s nights. Imagine what he would have to say about a public forum such as Twitter.
Unlike Demetriou, what Hutchison does not understand is that Hogg’s vile tweet was seen as humorous barb by a significant section of our community and tacit endorsement of their bigoted views.
Seen in this light, the refusal by Croc Media and SEN Radio to distance itself from Hogg is disappointing.
Representing Australia on the sporting field should offer no protections and sorry episodes like this should result in the calling of stumps.
Athas Zafiris is on Twitter @ArtSapphire
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