Ben Fordham has defended Karl Stefanovic against the ongoing claim that his more outspoken conservative turn is an act aimed at boosting his podcast audience.
Speaking on Wednesday, before reports emerged that Stefanovic’s interview with controversial far-right figure Tommy Robinson on The Karl Stefanovic Show could lead to Nine and Stefanovic parting ways permanently, Fordham spoke openly about his longtime friend. The pair worked together for years on Today before Fordham moved into radio.
“This is the real Karl and anyone who thinks there’s been a dramatic transformation in Karl Stefanovic hasn’t known him as long as I have,” he said.
“He has always had conservative political views, and maybe he just hasn’t had the opportunity to display them on the Today Show.”
Fordham said Stefanovic had not aired those views as freely in the past because he understood the limits of the breakfast television program and respected that it was not a place for him to simply voice whatever he wanted.
“If you put your name on your show and your podcast and call it The Karl Stefanovic Show, that is an opportunity for him to say what he thinks,” he said.
“I’m not at all surprised by the angle he has taken with the podcast because he has always had conservative views.”
Even so, Fordham stopped short of calling Stefanovic “right wing”, saying he does not like reducing people to political labels.
“I don’t describe anyone, really, as right wing or left wing,” he said.
“I’m conservative on some issues, and I’m progressive on other issues, and there are some lefties who would argue that I’m too far right, and there are some conservatives who think I’m not far enough right, you know?
“So, I tend not to think too much about labels that people put on me or that I put on anyone else.”
The 49-year-old also said on Wednesday that he had no interest in replacing Stefanovic on Today, at a time when it was still believed Stefanovic would remain there until at least December.
“No no, no, look, there are a lot of jobs I’ve wanted over the years, but not really because Karl was always there, so I left,” he explained.
“I did four years of doing the Today Show in the morning and a 2GB drive in the afternoon, four years of working both ends of the day.”
Fordham said that when he was eventually persuaded to take over the 2GB breakfast program in 2020, Stefanovic tried to convince him to stay.
“When I told Karl I was going, he begged me not to leave, and he said to me, ‘I’m out of here in a year, and then you can take over’,” he revealed.
“And I said to Karl, ‘Hey, bro, as powerful as you are, you are not the executive producer of this show. You don’t decide who the next host is gonna be’.”
He said he has no second thoughts about choosing radio, especially as he was entering a different stage of life and building a family.
“I really love doing the radio,” he said.
“But I was starting a brand new little family with children and babies in the belly and all that kind of stuff, and … I wanted to make a life decision that was going to be a bit more enjoyable for Jody and the future family,” he explained.
“So, I’ve got no regrets about the call I made to focus on radio as opposed to TV.”
Fordham repeated his support for Stefanovic on 2GB the following morning as scrutiny intensified over the Tommy Robinson interview.
“It has been quite a week for Karl, on Tuesday he uploaded his interview with Tommy, by Wednesday, he’d deleted it from YouTube and Spotify, and here we are Thursday morning, and he is reportedly facing the sack from Channel 9,” he said.
“Why are they sacking him?”
Fordham noted that “plenty of people” have interviewed Robinson before and challenged Nine’s reported move to sever ties with Stefanovic.
“Is it because activists threatened an advertising boycott of the Today Show? Is it because the bosses at Nine believe Karl didn’t ask Tommy Robinson any tough questions? Or are they sick of seeing Karl’s podcast doing well while their Today Show is routinely thrashed in the ratings?” he asked.
