Australian media powerhouse Abbie Chatfield has reflected on the drama she encountered during the recent federal election, admitting that the hullaballo made her feel like a “scapegoat” for conservative media consumers.
ICYMI, media juggernaut Abbie Chatfield made headlines during the federal election after she was accused of breaching laws for her posts regarding It’s A Lot interviews with Labor leader Anthony Albanese and Greens leader Adam Bandt.
However, in a statement to PEDESTRIAN.TV, an Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) spokesperson confirmed that Chatfield’s posts did not breach the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918.
And for folks who need a quickie brush up, the act details for online content to require an authorisation, it must contain electoral matter that is “communicated for the dominant purpose of influencing how someone votes” or “be paid advertising and/or be communicated by or on behalf of a political entity”.
“While the podcasts in question could be viewed as being made for the purpose of influencing how someone casts their vote, there is no evidence that there was a monetary benefit for the podcaster as a result of either Mr Albanese or Mr Bandt being invited onto the show,” the AEC spokesperson said.
“It appears that the invitations to Mr Albanese or Mr Bandt to participate were voluntary. In addition, questions put to both interviewees were sourced from the podcast’s audience. There is no evidence that either Mr Albanese or Mr Bandt had creative control in relation to the questions that were asked.”
Reflecting on the “frustrating” uproar — which in some parts, got more press than the election — Chatfield said it made her feel “targeted” or a “scapegoat” for conservative audiences.
“The AEC stuff was a whole other level of, I believe, discrediting smaller voices, but also discrediting outspoken young women,” she told Stellar‘s Something To Talk About podcast.
“It seems that when women do more than one thing, they’re deemed as inept at all the things they do.
“But when men do more than one thing, it’s like, wow, he’s a footy player and he can read an autocue.
“The AEC thing made me feel really targeted. I feel I’m often a scapegoat because of how the media portrays me as being the spokesperson on things, and they go, ‘Oh, she’s talking again…’”
Reflecting on another major talking point of the federal election, Hannah Ferguson, co-founder and CEO of Cheek Media, also made waves after expressing that the word “influencer” had been weaponised in a “deeply misogynistic” way throughout the political event.
When asked about this on the Stellar podcast, Chatfield backed what Ferguson said at the National Press Club and dished that she believed the term “influencer” was a “gendered insult”.
“As time’s gone, personally, if someone wants to call me ‘influencer’, I don’t personally care. But I do care about the impact on other women and the industry as a whole,” she continued on the podcast.
“It seems to be throughout time, whenever women dominate industries, it’s then discredited and undermined. Even things like teaching and nursing.”
Abbie Chatfield reflects on fiery feud with Clementine Ford
Alongside the AEC election drama, Chatfield was embroiled in a heated online spat with fellow Aussie feminist and advocate Clementine Ford.
To give you a quick run-down of what happened, in an article from Ford’s substack, Dear Clementine: Issue #2, Ford accused Chatfield of performative activism.
In response, Chatfield shared a series of IG Stories, accusing Ford of spreading incorrect information about her.
When asked about what it’s like to be “in the middle” of such heated incidents like her public spat with Ford, Chatfield admitted that it’s “unfortunately, [her] norm”.
“But it’s never enjoyable or pleasant,” the FBoy Island host expressed, before revealing the reason why she spoke out against Ford was because she was sick of people calling her performative.
“What Clementine was doing — it’s ironic that she’s assuming malicious intent from an outspoken woman in media. I find it very ironic that she’s also believing these headlines that I’m making myself a feminist voice. I’m just speaking about my opinions, my true opinions.”
Chatfield went on to say she was mostly “frustrated” with how Ford went on about her personally, and claimed that the author had lied about her across her platforms.
“Her lying about me, that’s when I was really frustrated because I hadn’t realised what she’d been saying,” Chatfield dished.
“And it wasn’t just her own newsletter. It was her substack, her newsletter, Instagram Stories… She’d called me an idiotic narcissist, she said I don’t prep my own podcast, she said that I parrot uncredited sound bites or something similar. Essentially, saying that I’m a complete fraud, I don’t have any thoughts, I’m a deeply basic thinker and very smart self-promoter. They were attacking my character, which I am not OK with,” Chatfield claimed on the podcast.
“It’s very ironic. This whole thing. There are things Clementine has done that I don’t agree with at all, but I haven’t said anything about it, and I won’t say anything about it in depth because I don’t have any interest in discrediting a woman who most likely experiences and has experienced longer than me the same trolling I get, from right wing weirdos because all your doing is giving them more fuel to troll me.
“It was really hurtful because then after that, the right-wing comments came in saying, ‘Nothing better than a cat fight. Two feminists fighting. You can’t even agree with each other!’”
While navigating some of the tumultuous moments of this year, Chatfield also reflected on her loving relationship with Peking Duk frontman Adam Hyde, and it’s safe to say that yes… I’m feeling even more single than I was five minutes ago!
But of course, alongside the lovey dovey stuff, Chatfield does issue a warning to the girlies, stating that we shouldn’t date Trump supporters… Ain’t gotta tell me twice!!!
