Professionalism in the Field2 min read

After his Golden Globe win, the past week saw comedian Aziz Ansari come under fire from the media as an article published on babe.net allegedly revealed a sexual assault encounter one night with a young woman.

The woman called Grace (now identified as photographer Abby Nierman) told article writer Katie Way that Aziz invited her to his house and started making out a little too forcefully.

After giving several ‘verbal and non-verbal cues’, Ansari stopped and apologised to the 23-year-old; though many are calling Aziz out for claiming to be a feminist but at the same time, supposedly shoving his fingers down Nierman’s throat during the encounter.

In contrast, many have come out to say that this simply was a bad date that was all consensual and Nierman is trying to exploit the progress of the Me Too movement that has shot up in recent months.

Veteran journalist Ashleigh Banfield went on air to criticise Katie Way’s article for trying to sabotage Ansari’s career in the name of the Me Too movement.

In response, Way wrote an email to Banfield picking on her age, hair and shade of lipstick; a very petty way of responding to a fellow Journalist.

Banfield fought back on her News show by reading the sections where Way criticised her physical appearance and called the young journalist a hypocrite.

Though I do believe the Aziz Ansari situation was definitely out of line, the manner in which Katie Way decided to respond to Ashleigh Banfield is unacceptable.

Way and I are in the same age group, we’ve still got a lot to learn as journalists and if you go attack a professional with more than 30 years of experience under her belt, you’re going to get backlash.

Banfield called Way hypocritical for claiming to be a feminist yet making sexist as well as ageist remarks to a fellow journalist in her response.

I like many others look up to News anchors like Banfield who have been some of the best War correspondents in recent times.

She was actually brave enough to oppose the US going into Iraq and took so much heat from other people in the media.

To Katie Way, I say she needs more experience in the field and give valid responses instead of commenting on a professional’s physicality to justify an article that most disagree with.