We’re not Liberal Party people here at Cooee2ABC. And we’re not anti-ABC. We rely on the ABC for quality journalism. We support the ABC’s continued existence as a national broadcaster, with adequate funding and resources.
All the more reason for us to be appalled and alarmed at the lies the ABC’s telling about Katherine Deves, co-founder of Save Women’s Sport Australasia and now the Liberal Party candidate for the seat of Warringah in Sydney. Yes, she’s standing for the Liberal Party but that doesn’t mean the ABC is entitled to tell lies about her. Especially when the lies they’ve been telling about her are all because of her very reasonable opposition to men in women’s sport and the awful practice of kid-transing. Here’s some we gathered over just a few days.
Lie 1
One of the biggest lies is the claim that Kath Deves said half of men who transition are sex offenders (Website article by Tracey Holmes 15/4/22; website article by Heath Parkes-Hupton 19/4/22; RN Breakfast 18 and 19/4/22 – Patricia Karvelas, serial offender; Mad as Hell 20/4/22 – shame on you Shaun Micallef).
In context, Deves was talking about prisoners: ‘Half of all males with trans identities are sex offenders, compared with less than 20% for the rest of the male estate’. The ‘male estate’ is the male prison population.
Here are the UK statistics that back that up:
Official figures released by the MOJ [Ministry of Justice] in 2018 show that half of all known transgender prisoners counted in April 2017 had at least one previous conviction for sex offences … Close to 1 in every 5 male prisoners have been convicted of a sexual offence. That’s about 14,000 male sex offenders; almost 20% of the male prison population). (Fair Play For Women)
And making these stats public isn’t a gratuitous attack on transgender people – it’s an important point that has to be made when putting forward the need for women-only prisons.
Lie 2
Another lie is the claim that Kath Deves likened transactivists to Nazis (Website article by Tracey Holmes, 15/4/22, RN Breakfast 19/4/22). Here is what Deves actually said, in a webcast with Graham Linehan on 21/4/21 – it’s clear what she’s talking about is taking a decision to oppose injustice when that might bring adverse personal consequences:
Linehan and Sall Grover hold a very insightful discussion about Kath’s words here (starting 13 minutes in):
Lie 3
Then there’s the claim that Kath has ‘vilified’ young trans people by saying that they’ve been surgically mutilated and sterilised (RN Breakfast 18/4/2022). This isn’t vilification – it is the plain unvarnished truth, as Stassja Frei points out:
And it’s no attack on trans kids, it’s a valid critique of current medical practices.
Lie 4
Then we’ve got Samantha Maiden on Insiders (17/4/22):
Katherine Deves is a very articulate, very photogenic, very passionate person arguing that essentially Australian netball teams are going to be overrun by a rampaging army of six foot hairy men in dresses, right? This is the idea, right?
Maiden was a guest on the show. The host, David Speers, did bugger all to challenge the concocted scenario, made up out of thin air, that Maiden attributed to Kath. Instead he confirmed it: ‘This is her thing, right? This is her issue.’
Maiden’s twitter feed has been awash with anti-Deves commentary.
Current affairs journalism at its worst.
Lie 5
Well, we could go on, but let’s just end with Julia Baird, presenter on The Drum, and her Sydney Morning Herald article on 16/4/22, in which she paints Kath as a homophobe.
Totally wrong! Kath has consistently advocated for lesbians and gays to maintain rights to the dignity of their own sex, sexuality, and spaces. Baird can’t point to anything Kath has said that could be described as being even remotely homophobic – aside from a perfectly reasonable personal remark she made about the increasing (mis)use of the rainbow flag to promote the most excessive demands of trans-extremists.
We call on ABC to withdraw from ACON’s biased Pride in Diversity scheme.
Cooee ABC journos! Hone your research skills, renew your commitment to accuracy and fairness, stop paying attention to ACON and other sex-change industry agents, and tell the truth!!
12 thoughts on “ABC: Stop lying about Kath Deves”
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Excellent article. ‘Our ABC’ has been totally captured. We need a whistle-blowing investigative piece on how ACON is influencing the ABC’s reporting, the way Stephen Nolan investigated Stonewall and BBC. Following this, we need a purge of ‘activists’ reporters, and a return to the fundamental tenants of balance, impartiality and transparency. Until and unless this happens, the ABC is not fit for purpose, nor should it continue to receive public funding.
By all means, pass this material on to any independent journalists you might meet. There is a lot more material available showing that the ABC is under the influence of ACON.
Excellent article!
Thank you for defending this brave woman who is willing to speak out and say what needs to be said
This here is real journalism
Well said. It is so saddening to see and hear this distortion of Deves’s comments by ABC journalists. It seems lazy and incurious on their parts. If just one of them would ask themselves, as an intellectual exercise, : “What if these people are right?”, or, “What is the basis of their views?”. There seems be no rigour or curiosity. How is that good journalism?
It can be upsetting when others take a different view, but it is understandable. What is frustrating is that it is so easy to investigate the claims and find out that what Kath said has merit. It only takes 10 minutes on Google to find out that there are many highly qualified people who agree with Kath. The ABC journos appear to be actively committed to bias.
Thank you doing such a great job monitoring the ABC and publishing your work. And again today 24/04/2022, an “analysis ” piece by Stan Grant (married to Tracey Holmes) on ABC news website, where among other things, he tries to argue it is not really about women’s sport and the debate obscures reason and erodes democracy.
They cannot bear the thought that Katherine spoke the truth. Well they won’t stop the tsunami of opposition coming down, women will retain our rights for future children and that is the end of it. We will be assisted by the fathers of the world.
Actually the figures from UK prisons are worse than she said. It is 58% of trans identifying males in UK prisons have been convicted of one or more sex crimes.
Excellent article. Thanks for compiling all these examples and demonstrating clearly how biased ABC reporting has been about Kath Deves and sex-based rights of women. I have turned off the ABC lately because their blinkers are so frustrating.
Great to see a media outlet & a relative, calling out the ABC & it’s lousy factless news readers. Incapable of research or fact-check & tax payers fund their agenda!.. Unfortunately what difference does it make, ABC never apologise or retract w/transparency.
If we chose where our taxes went just as we do a party to govern, I doubt ABC city elite (not regional) would get enough to keep the lights on. It’s a disgrace none are unaccountable when funded purely by taxpayers, they are a dis-service to their profession & to all Australians.
Thankyou CooeeABC2 for posting the facts.
I am no Liberal party voter but I support Katherine and I support sex based rights for women. As a mother I am horrified and sickened by the proliferation of gender clinics that exist solely to make money from harming our children bodies irreparably. Money that comes from medicare. How can reporters be so blind as to support the gender cult? I have to suspect them of financial interests in the clinics and companies driving this madness.