NZ journalist David Farrier gets blocked by chef Pete Evans after Covid comments

Controversial Australian chef Pete Evans has blocked NZ journalist David Farrier on social media. Photo / Supplied

Pete Evans blocked a New Zealand journalist who published an article responding to the controversial chef's appearance on Art and Matilda's podcast, Well & Good.

Freelance investigative journalist David Farrier shared on Instagram that the conspiracy-touting chef had blocked him on social media after he wrote about the dangers of influencer culture and misinformation.

Farrier wrote the article after Art Green and Matilda Rice hosted conspiracy theorist and celebrity chef Pete Evans on an episode of their podcast.

In the podcast, since deleted, Evans said of Covid-19: "This whole f***ing thing is a hoax."

Farrier's article criticised the reality stars for hosting Evans, who claimed Covid-19 was a "hoax" invented by the government.

He also wrote that influencers are "unaware" of their ability to have an impact on their audiences, especially when spreading misinformation.

View this post on Instagram

chef pete just blocked me. i wrote some words about why influencer culture should be burnt to the ground: www.webworm.co or link in bio. tl;dr - influencers need to tread carefully if they’re going to weigh into topics like covid-19 denial, because they’re not just pushing a product or a brand or posting a sexy photo of some abdominal muscles - they’re influencing people’s ideas #influencer #burnitalldown

A post shared by David Farrier (@davidfarrier) on Jul 2, 2020 at 2:15pm PDT

Green and Rice quickly took down the podcast after backlash on social media. The pair made a statement that they understood the information Evans has released on their platform had the potential to "cause harm".

But many of their followers saw it as a cheap cop-out.

One wrote: "A shame you feel pressured to remove the podcast because the media disapproves of the ideas and questions that Pete Evans raises. And even if people disagree with some of the things he says doesn't mean you guys shouldn't feel you are not able to discuss it openly on your own platform."

Farrier wrote in his Instagram caption that influencers should "tread carefully" when discussing topics like Covid-19 denial.

"They're not just pushing a product or a brand or posting a sexy photo of some abdominal muscles - they're influencing people's ideas," he wrote.