June 29, 2015. 09:10
CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | Contact
As debates continue to rage over the Australian Broadcasting Corporations’ inclusion of a terror suspect in the audience of their Monday night program, Q&A – One man has found himself arguing in defence of the national broadcaster, to the point of him actually sounding like someone who sympathises with terrorists.
Brendan Suffern, an online campaign strategist and champion of free speech, had argued the subject with his peers for roughly two hours in the beer garden of Sydney’s Chippendale hotel yesterday afternoon.
“He went too far, his whole free-speech tirade ended up with him looking like a full-blown IS sympathiser” said one shocked onlooker.
The ABC has been heavily criticised this week for allowing Zaky Mallah, a terror suspect who admitted to threatening to kill Australian security officials but was acquitted of the charges, to appear on Q&A.
However Mr Suffern believes his shock-factor style of arguing is justified when debated one of “the most important freedoms of them all”.
“I wasn’t nearly as out-of-line as the Newscorp headlines. I was just saying that Zaky Mallah has just as much right as being on QandA as Josh Thomas, 360 or any other fucked up member of Generation Y”
“The guys are just back page, telegraph bogans. They would prefer to read a column by Buzz Rothfield than watch the news,”
“I never said I support terrorism, but how do you define terrorism? I think a lot of the terrorists in this country wear blue ties,”
However, Mr Suffern’s close mates who also claim to share similar “progressive” political view, have lambasted his behaviour. One has come out saying “Brendan has lost the fucking plot”
“I find it pretty easy to define terrorism. I guess anyone who threatens to decapitate our commonwealth official is a terrorist” says close mate, Jesse Dunn.
“He’s off his fucken head. I mean, sure we all love a bit of ABC comedy – we all grew up with the shit… but he’s taking his loyalty to this bizarre media organisation to a whole new level,”
“Essentially, he’s just spent two hours telling us that terrorists have rights in this country,”
“We begged him to condemn the actions of Zaky Mallah… He wouldn’t give us an inch. It’s as though he thinks free speech means do whatever you want, whenever you want and not face consequences”
“He’s a champagne socialist, mate. I can guarantee you his parents voted for Tony Abbott,”
