Karl Stefanovic is free! To delete the podcast he made in the name of free speech

June 28, 2026 — 5:00am

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It is surely one of the greatest hustles of our time – the way that podcast bros declare themselves freedom of speech warriors. Karl Stefanovic attempted this swindle on Friday, when, having been sacked from the Today show, he declared himself “free”.

When Stefanovic accepted the Logie for most popular television personality in 2011, he paid tribute to legendary political journalist Laurie Oakes.

“He’s the reason why I’m in this business and why I want to be in this business of journalists for the rest of my life,” Stefanovic said.

But Woodward or Bernstein he ain’t. On the contrary, he has undermined the sort of excellent journalism of which he is incapable – notably exposés, in this newspaper, of neurosurgeon Charlie Teo, and accused war criminal Ben-Roberts Smith.

This week, Stefanovic was liberated from his employment after he interviewed, on his side-hustle podcast, a far-right, Islamophobic nasty who struggles to get any airplay in his home country of England. Tommy Robinson (real name Stephen Christopher Yaxley-Lennon) is a violent criminal whose rhetoric about Muslims is hate speech, pure and simple.

Probably the most egregious thing about the freshly reinvented Stefanovic’s interview with Robinson was not the fact that he did it. It was its matey tone.

Stefanovic praised Robinson for his “tenacity” and “courage” and signed........

© The Age