Andrew Bolt was very excited to promote his interview with right-wing columnist for Breitbart.com Milo Yiannopoulos on his Sky News TV show The Bolt Report. “Don’t watch if you’re easily offended,” Bolt warned.
Yiannopoulos is a crusader for the right in the United States, and frequently faces protests during his “Dangerous Faggot” (Yiannopoulos is gay) tour of college campuses. Earlier this year he went to a White House briefing to ask for a comment about freedom of speech on social media after his Twitter verification was removed by the company.
Ultimately, the interview was fairly tame. Bolt asked a series of questions basically seeking to get Yiannopoulos to agree with his position (as is Bolt’s interviewing style) and let Yiannopoulos go off at length about the gender pay gap (he says it doesn’t exist), how Islam is a better target for gays to make fun of than Christianity (although he likes the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence), and how gay people can be conservative. Bolt, for perhaps the first time ever, let an interviewee speak at length.
It is the last point Bolt seemed most fascinated about. Bolt said that there existed “gay caricature” of gay men as being “of the left” and Yiannopoulos smashed it:
“You must be for gay rights … and for all sorts of victim groups … You’re not the gay victim they want you to be, you’re breaking the image.”
It was reminiscent of when Bolt spoke in glowing terms about Qantas’ gay CEO Alan Joyce, because he was not “effete, flighty and soft“. It’s also the sort of praise he heaps on Tom McFeely, the owner of what Bolt frequently calls Melbourne’s best gay bar, The Peel. McFeely was called upon to condemn Islam on Bolt’s show after the Orlando massacre, and Bolt last night complained that the “top gay lobby” had not condemned Islam for it, yet. Not sure which organisation he is referring to, in that unintentionally punny title.
One awkward moment for Bolt was when he tried to get agreement against same-sex marriage. Yiannopoulos is pro-same-sex marriage (although thinks that gay men are better off embracing what is different about them).
In the end, Bolt seemed besotted:
“You’re fabulous, if I can use a term like that.”
He’s now promising to bring the conservative out to Australia for a tour. We wait with bated breath.
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