• 27th November 2023
• Media

Tony Thomas

It’s a good thing that 165 Australian journalists, led by the tribes at The Guardian, ABC and Nine, have outed themselves as supporters of Israel’s destruction. As many have noted, now we know who they are.

They’ve endorsed an Open Letter from their MEAA union to media outlets. It describes Israel’s retaliatory war to wipe out the Hamas murderers in Gaza as “atrocities” probably involving “war crimes, genocide, ethnic cleansing and apartheid” along with torturing of prisoners during Israel’s long history of alleged oppression of Arabs.

The letter makes no reference to Hamas having taken 240 innocent hostages, ranging from babies to grandmothers. As for Hamas’ slaughter of October 7, with babies beheaded, mothers shot while being raped and other babies baked in kitchen ovens, the MEAA merely refers to an “attack that killed 1200 Israelis.” The journalists demand that media outlets treat statements by democratic Israel in its struggle for survival with the same scepticism as those from the Hamas barbarians. Lying is part of the Hamas DNA and perhaps the least of their genocidal criminality.

Australian journalism has never suffered such disgrace as this Open Letter. The MEAA represents more than 5000 journalists and media people and is a member of the allegedly ethics-upholding Australian Press Council. Its federal media section comprises Karen Percy (President), Leigh Tonkin (Vice-President), Erin Delahunty (Vice-President), Caleb Cluff (Vic Board Member) and Martin Saxon (WA Board Member).

The Australian finished its editorial on Saturday: “In joining the anti-Semitic cheer squads, a section of Australia’s free media is letting down the nation. Were Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels alive, he would applaud their world views and warped journalistic values.”

Among 1500 commenters to the Australian was “Steve”:

It is interesting to see how much overlap there is between this group of rogue journalists and those that were most vocal for the Yes vote in the Voice referendum. They are all part of the vanguard for the identity politics that is tearing the West apart, and should be resisted with every fibre of our being.

Added commenter “Leigh”, “Any self-respecting journalists should quit the union.”

The editors in the Nine stable (SMH, Age and AFR) have reacted responsibly and taken staff signatories off any coverage of the conflict.[1] The ABC’s news director, Justin Stevens, in contrast, issued a ‘tut-tut’ email to the ABC’s Hamas supporters, but announced no bans against them covering Gaza affairs. This gives added credence to the meme, “Is that true or did you hear it on the ABC?” The Australian reports this morning (Monday):

“Any pressure or intimidation from managers to prevent workers from doing this, including removing them from relevant stories, is an overreach and an attack on both journalists’ rights and the public’s right to know,” says a union letter addressed to members in Nine newsrooms and titled “MEAA supports your right to stand for ethical reporting”.

It pledges support for those who signed, citing its code of ethics and Nine’s Charter of Editorial ­Independence…

While the ABCand Guardian Australia house committees signed the letter, The Australian understands the vote to support the petition failed at both the house committee levels inside The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald last week. 

It was then passed at a meeting of the MEAA national media section committee after being tabled by two journalists from the ABCand The Age on Thursday.

In this essay I’ll do an arbitrary sampling to put a human (should that be ‘inhuman’) face to the signatories. Even at first pass, one notices how they’re a cohort “educated” at our terminally-leftist universities. Many display a warped idealism as self-appointed do-gooders for society It often pops up that they are also net-zero activists. Step forward the Age’s senior writer Miki Perkins, a signatory who recently won editorial plaudits for an absurd Greenpeace-aided feature illustrated with Fiji’s purported 1.5m of recent sea rise. The letter includes:

We – journalists from across the Australian media landscape – call on Australian newsrooms to undertake these steps to improve coverage:

1/ Adhere to truth over ‘both-sidesism’. Both-sidesism is not balanced or impartial reporting; it acts as a constraint on truth by shrouding the enormous scale of the human suffering currently being perpetrated by Israeli forces. The immense and disproportionate human suffering of the Palestinian civilian population in Gaza should not be minimised.

2/ Centre the human tragedy in the coverage of the conflict. Human-focused coverage can include, as examples, daily updates on the civilian death tolls, sharing the profiles and stories of the lives lost and highlighting the humanitarian catastrophe.

3/ Apply as much professional scepticism when prioritising or relying on uncorroborated Israeli government and military sources to shape coverage as is applied to Hamas. The Israeli government is also an actor in this conflict, with mounting evidenceit is committing war crimes and a documented historyof sharing misinformation. The Israeli government’s version of events should never be reported verbatim without context or fact-checking. This is our basic responsibility as journalists.

It says, “The conflict did not start on October 7”. In this hateful excusing of the massacre of 1200 it echoes the UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres’ appalling claim that October 7 “did not happen in a vacuum.”

Let’s start with the MEAA heavy Karen Percy. She’s a First Nations advocate and lifelong feminist. A veteran ABC staffer and now a free-lancer, she describes herself as a “Trusted journalist and media advocate” and “with a passion for ethics and societal good … Since 2017 I have been a director of the Walkley Foundation which celebrates excellence in Australian journalism, serving as Deputy Chair since 2021.”[2] Percy continues:

I am keen to see a strong media sector in Australia underpinned by ethical, public interest journalism. A sustainable, accountable media – that Australians trust – is crucial to our democracy. In this age of misinformation and disinformation, it’s important that we have high levels of media literacy – that media consumers understand how the media works, hold it accountable, and feel comfortable playing their part.[3]

Signatory Pat Abboud won the Walkley “Freelance journalist of the year” title for 2023 for his TV/radio work via his production company. The judges described him as

a rare journalistic package – tenaciously seeking out complex, left-of-field stories that sit outside the daily news cycle, securing the trust of those involved, then telling their stories with rigour, humanity and a dash of good humour.

Abboud lists on his website no less than 24 awards including a two-times LGBTQIA+ finalist for Presenter/Journalist of the Year. World Pride 2023 honoured Pat as one of 45 Rainbow Champions for his ongoing commitment to the queer community.

He has posted on his website his portfolio of “bold, untold award-winning programs” such as an eight-minute feature called “Pup Play” about men “who live as dogs”. This cult gained notoriety in the US last year when the Biden administration appointed an overt dog fetishist, Sam Brinton, to its top job in nuclear waste disposal. He (actually “they”) lost his/their job after being caught purloining women’s luggage at airports to get fashionable clothes for his/their cross-dressing.

Abboud’s take on the pup-play people is respectful. The “dog” handler, ring in his nose, explains, “I am really proud of the pups for coming out and revealing who they are as people and human pups. It is an enormously brave act but it helps educate people and that is worth doing.” (at 7.30mins). Enjoy or at least, view, MEAA signatory Abboud’s movie here (not safe for work).

Some signatories are surprising, such as a veteran Asia-Pacific journalist Nick Chesterfield whose decades of reporting in PNG and the Asia Pacific region crippled his health and has forced him into crowd-funding to cover medical costs. One wonders why he signed.

The first signatory by alphabet is Lachlan Abbott. “Lachie”, as he is known, was picked up by the Age as one of five “highly qualified and eager” trainees from 200-plus applicants 18 months ago. Another of those five, Carla Jaeger, is also a signatory. Welcoming them to Docklands, Age deputy editor Michael Bachelard enthused, “This diverse group is made up of smart, curious, hard-working people from a variety of perspectives and experiences. They want to work at The Age because it embodies the best values of journalism.”

Disclaimer: As a Perth cadet journalist myself in the 1960s, I was naïve and stupid but my mother said I improved with age.

Two AAP “fact checkers”, Kate Atkinson and Lachlan Coady signed the petition. Atkinson has fact-checked at AAP for two years, after research and communication roles with parties including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. In 2019 she interned with the ABC “researching misinformation and disinformation during the 2019 federal election.” Coady majored in media studies at Macquarie, “and he is passionate about applying his research skills to his journalism.”

In contrast to the Age kiddies, signatory Drew Ambrose is a veteran TV reporter in Asian and investigative work, producing more than 100 documentaries in 40 nations for Al Jazeera English. He earned a Masters in International Development from RMIT. Drew has also lectured, conducted workshops and created curriculums for tertiary institutions, high schools and journalism organizations. He has mentored young reporters for the Walkley Foundation and Melbourne Press Club and contributed chapters to four Australian books on journalism. He’s won or been nominated for more than 80 media prizes, winning three Walkley Awards and three Human Rights Press Awards.

A curiosity is that signatories include four cartoonists, Cathy Wilcox (Nine stable, responsible for the anti-Catholic slur at right and others at the foot of this page. The humour-challenged Ms Wilcox evidently knows which creed not to insult), Jon Kudelka (career work for Mercury, The Australian and The Saturday Paper), David Rowe (illustrator for AFR and subject of one of the most curious passive-aggressive ‘apologies’ ever published)  and First-dog-on-the-moon (Andrew Marlton, Guardian, who mourned Bill Leak but changed his tune when leftoid Twitter users piled on).

Tahlea Aualiitia, with Samoan-Italian background, is a presenter and reporter with ABC Radio Australia. She speaks of her upbringing in lutruwita (Tasmania, I think), where she graduated first-class honours in journalism and media studies at the University of Tasmania in nipaluna (Hobart, I gather), before moving to ABC Naarm (Melbourne, I know that one) to host Pacific Mornings on Radio Australia. “I’ve learnt so much about the world doing this job,” she says. “I’m really looking forward to exploring the different ways I can use my experience and skills to help uplift others.”

Kelly Bergsma has been an audio-video producer with the Age for 13 years. “I create motion graphic explainer videos, simplifying complex concepts and enhancing audience understanding,” she writes. “Striving for excellence, I approach each project intending to take it to the next level.”

Jarni Blakkarly is an investigative journalist with Choice, after four years reporting with SBS and earlier freelancing with the ABC, BBC and others. He has a journalism degree from RMIT. “I am a proud member of the journalist’s union the MEAA,” he writes. He was a highly commended finalist in the Civil Liberties Journalism Awards last year, and highly commended in this year’s Quill awards.

Signatory Tony Armstrong moved from AFL career to footie calling. From 2021 he’s done sports presenting on the ABC, winning several awards.

Signatory Cheyne Anderson works for the Guardian, Monthly and Saturday Paper and has claimed “a keen interest in reporting on world politics and the environment.” A Sydney University graduate, she’s also studied post-graduate journalism at UTS.

Jordyn Beazley is a reporter at the Guardian. Prior roles include with Save the Children and Triple R radio. She earned a Master’s degree in journalism at Melbourne University, after a BA in international relations at Monash.

Imogen Dewey has been with the Guardian several years after work including Nine TV. Her fields include literature and publishing. She has a Melbourne University BA in politics, international studies and literature.

Dr. Natalia Maystorovich Chulio  has been working at Sydney University for a decade, now lecturing in criminology and socio-legal studies. Her research interests include humanitarian and human rights law; transitional justice; the archaeological recovery of mass graves; and the capacity of social movements to elicit social, political and legal change as they seek justice for victims.

Obviously space precludes listing many anti-Western fanatics, do-gooders and woke dopes signing the MEAA letter. I did notice the ABC’s Jan Fran, whose whimsical ABC profile reads:

Jan Fran is a Walkley Award journalist, TV presenter and maker of viral internet videos. She’s shot documentaries all over the world and speaks three languages … most of them terribly. Jan has one son. Who is a cat.

Tony Thomas’s new book from Connor Court is Anthem of the Unwoke – Yep! The other lot’s gone bonkers. $34.95 from Connor Court here

[1] Nine: “It is a strongly held tenet that our journalists’ personal agendas do not influence our reporting of news events. This applies across the board, including to our coverage of the current war in Israel and Gaza. Any newsroom staff who signed this latest industry open letter will be unable to participate in any reporting or production relating to the war.”

[2] Signatory Patrick ­Abboud, co-host of the Walkley Awards last week, used the ceremony to call on journalists in attendance to push for a Gaza ceasefire. 

[3] Her website adds that during a reporting spell in Moscow 2010-13, “I also co-directed and performed in the first English-language version of The VagIna MonoLogues.”

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