When, back in August 2022, Media Watch blasted the ABC for ignoring the Tavistock dramas in the UK, senior ABC journo Julia Holman commented that she’d ‘rather hear about what’s happening here’:
So that means the ABC would be really into reporting on ‘what’s happening here’ re gender-identity issues, right? Wrong! Not on your nelly! At least, not as far as we can tell. Other mainstream media are reporting significant developments in this area – and we don’t mean just Sky News/Murdoch – but not the ABC. Especially not the news division under the directorship of Justin Stevens (that’s him in the pic). And super-especially not when the news in question reveals concerns about, and/or opposition to, the trans-extremist worldview, rather than its triumphs and successes. We’d be very willing to stand corrected on this, but has anybody seen or heard anything on the ABC on any of the following? We haven’t.
• The Sydney Morning Herald (ex-Fairfax, not Murdoch) published an article – two columns long in its print edition of 1 January – reporting on a letter to the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) signed by 120 researchers who are pushing back against moves to ‘desex’ medical language, saying the terms confuse health data and can lead to serious medical errors. Chickenshit, says Aunty, apparently.
• The Sydney Morning Herald has also been following the progress of bills before the NSW Parliament by independent and trans-extremist pollie Alex Greenwich, and related developments in the NSW govt’s own review of the state’s Anti-Discrimination Act and its delays in implementing its election promise to introduce new laws to outlaw gay and trans conversion practices. The ABC’s silence on these intertwined stories is particularly weird given that during the lead-up to the state election campaign back in February 2023, the ABC wouldn’t shut up about it, spruiking Greenwich’s proposed bills on the NSW TV News for three nights running. (Mind you, we have our own objections to the SMH’s coverage: opposition to the proposed changes isn’t coming just from ‘faith groups’, as the SMH would have it: women’s rights and LGB groups have also been vocal.)
• The West Australian and The Sunday Times (Kerry Stokes, not Murdoch) have published a number of articles this month about what the WA govt has in mind with its planned abolition of the state’s Gender Reassignment Board and implementation of recommendations of the WA Law Reform Commission re change of sex on birth certificates. The reports were prompted by a 20 December announcement by the state’s Attorney-General (also ignored by the ABC) that the govt will be introducing legislation to provide what he calls a ‘modern and streamlined administrative process’ (code, we assume, for sex self-ID). Again the ABC’s muteness is remarkable, because the Sunday Times coverage contained, at one point, a beat-up about ‘gender-free babies’:
Which surely ABC journos would’ve relished the opportunity to rip into them for – or, more soberly and responsibly, would have considered it their duty to correct with accurate and professional reportage in order to provide the public with reliable information and assuage any undue alarm.
A bit over four years ago, the law firm Dentons, in conjunction with trans-extremist lobby group IGLYO, published a now-notorious report – the authors described as a ‘tool for activists’ – which advised gender-identity campaigners to be secretive about the changes they were lobbying to put into law, and keep press coverage to a minimum. Dentons also gave advice on how to achieve media compliance with this approach, by using arguments such as that the issue’s too complex for your average punter to understand, and/or it’s a basic human rights issue, so it’s inappropriate to scrutinise it. The ABC’s conduct is totally in accordance with the Dentons tactics. It is, however, totally at variance with its obligations to the Australian public under the ABC Charter.
The Dentons tactics were exposed long ago, thanks to Roll On Friday and James Kirkup in The Spectator. Lots of the mainstream media have wised up and are no longer buying the trans lobby’s arguments for staying schtum. It’s time for the ABC to get with it. Train its journos up so they’re on top of the issues around gender identity, can recognise a newsworthy item when they see one, and can report the issues and developments accurately and impartially.
A good place for the ABC to start would be getting out of ACON.