Latest news with #proIsraelLobby
ABC News
a day ago
- Politics
- ABC News
Antoinette Lattouf's unlawful sacking exposed the power of lobbying on the Australian media
Last weekend, I wrote a piece about the news-gathering model and media literacy. It mentioned how governments, militaries, and lobby groups try to stop the media telling stories, and it wondered if news audiences would like major media outlets to talk about it more: "They might be shocked to learn about the orchestrated bullying that goes on, which is designed to discourage editors and journalists from reporting on certain topics and framing stories in certain ways, even speaking to certain people," the piece said. "Would it improve media literacy if the media wrote about these issues openly and regularly?" Then, three days later, we heard relevant news. On Wednesday, the Federal Cout ruled that the ABC had unlawfully sacked journalist Antoinette Lattouf, in December 2023, for reasons including that she held political opinions opposing the Israeli military campaign in Gaza. Justice Darryl Rangiah found external pressure from "pro-Israel lobbyists" had played a role in the ABC's decision. Ms Lattouf had been employed by the ABC on a small five-day contract, as a fill-in summer radio host. But Justice Rangiah found that soon after Ms Lattouf presented her first program that summer, the ABC began to receive complaints from members of the public. "The complaints asserted she had expressed antisemitic views, lacked impartiality and was unsuitable to present any program for the ABC," he wrote. "It became clear that the complaints were an orchestrated campaign by pro-Israel lobbyists to have Ms Lattouf taken off air." For journalism students, it's an important case study. Many of you would have discussed it in class last week. But everyone should read Justice Rangiah's judgement. It details what went on behind the scenes at the ABC when the email campaign against Ms Lattouf began, and how it contributed to a "state of panic" among some senior ABC managers (many of whom have since left the organisation). It also showed how such pressure campaigns work. Not only had pro-Israel lobbyists sent dozens of emails to the ABC calling for Ms Lattouf to be taken off air, but their complaints found their way to News Corp's The Australian newspaper, which then told the ABC it was planning to report on the fact that the ABC had received complaints (which fed the growing panic inside the ABC). That's how the game is played. After the Federal Court's ruling was published on Wednesday, the ABC's new managing director, Hugh Marks, said the ABC had let down its staff and audiences. "Any undue influence or pressure on ABC management or any of its employees must always be guarded against," he said. A large number of articles were also written about the court's ruling. Alan Sunderland, a former editorial director of the ABC, said the public broadcaster had lessons to learn from the saga. "The world these days is filled with those who seek to control, bully and pressure public interest journalism in all its forms," he wrote. "The role of senior managers is to stoutly resist that pressure, and protect journalists from it as much as possible." Paula Kruger, the chief executive of Media Diversity Australia (and a former ABC radio host), made other points. She said news audiences had to trust that news outlets were capable of telling truthful stories, but the impact that that orchestrated pressure campaign had on the ABC had "shaken trust internally and externally". "You break trust with the broader community when an interest group can go to the top of an organisation and get its way. Lobbyists skip the process that everyone else must follow," she wrote. She also raised the topic of media literacy and trust. She said we often talk about ways to improve the public's media literacy, but the decline in trust in the media should not be a problem for audiences to fix; it was the responsibility of news organisations. "Silencing one side of the story isn't success. Shutting down voices isn't 'social cohesion,'" she wrote. "But silencing and shutting down were the preferred responses of senior ABC management under pressure from pro-Israel lobbyists. We need a different approach to our most difficult conversations." That last point is worth thinking about. In last weekend's article, I made a reference to Hannah Arendt's famous 1971 essay on the Pentagon Papers. But she wrote another essay, in 1967, that deserves a reference today. In that earlier essay, Truth and Politics, Arendt famously argued that "objectivity" and "impartiality" were revolutionary concepts that helped to usher in the modern world. In fact, she left her readers with the impression that those concepts were pillars of so-called "western civilisation": "The disinterested pursuit of truth has a long history," she wrote. "I think it can be traced to the moment when Homer chose to sing the deeds of the Trojans no less than those of the Achaeans, and to praise the glory of Hector, the foe and the defeated man, no less than the glory of Achilles, the hero of his kinfolk [...] "Homeric impartiality echoes throughout Greek history, and it inspired the first great teller of factual truth, who became the father of history: Herodotus tells us in the very first sentences of his stories that he set out to prevent 'the great and wondrous deeds of the Greeks and the barbarians from losing their due meed of glory'. "This is the root of all so-called objectivity ... without it no science would ever have come into being." So, according to Arendt's logic, if we allow ourselves to be intimidated into privileging certain voices when reporting on major global conflicts, and silencing other voices, we'll be abandoning a pillar of "western civilisation". And that was the same essay in which Arendt wrote her famous line about the disorienting affect that relentless propaganda can have on the human brain. "It has frequently been noticed that the surest long-term result of brainwashing is a peculiar kind of cynicism — an absolute refusal to believe in the truth of anything, no matter how well this truth may be established," she wrote. "In other words, the result of a consistent and total substitution of lies for factual truth is not that the lies will now be accepted as truth, and the truth be defamed as lies, but that the sense by which we take our bearings in the real world – and the category of truth vs. falsehood is among the mental means to this end – is being destroyed," she said. Arendt said we could try to keep our bearings in the world — and combat such propaganda — by building and protecting "certain public institutions" that revered truth above politics. And she said an independent judiciary, the historical sciences and the humanities, and journalism were among them. But let's wrap things up. It's naive to think "the media" is always and everywhere obsessed with "the truth." There are plenty of players in the media that are motivated by other things. But consider the editors and journalists that really do try to tell the truth. As we discussed last week, there's a global multi-billion-dollar industry dedicated to capturing, controlling, and confusing the "trusted stories" the media tells every day: Different governments, militaries, multi-nationals, and lobby groups are always trying it on. The ABC was involved in a different controversy six years ago when concerns were raised internally about Adani's apparent ability to squash an ABC radio story about the economics of Adani's Carmichael mine. Readers say once they start noticing things like that about the media, it can damage their trust in the media's stories. If you spend any time on social media these days, you may have also noticed how millions of people are now teaching each other about the subtle ways in which media outlets use language and imagery to privilege certain perspectives and diminish others in their daily news reports. The type of critical media analyses you'll get in every journalism and communications degree at university has jumped out of the academy and onto peoples' phones. For example, consider the headlines below and see if you can spot the differences in language: Why is the language in the first headline so passive and vague? Why is the language in the second headline active and precise? Modern audiences are regularly engaging in that kind of media "decoding" in private now, while they're doom-scrolling, so it presents an opportunity for media outlets to start having deeper conversations with their audiences about the way things work, if they choose to. Those conversations could be uncomfortable for some. But they may lead to more truthful storytelling.
The Guardian
5 days ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
The ABC squandered trust with its multicultural audience when it sent Antoinette Lattouf packing
The media industry is facing challenges on multiple fronts. Still, whether it involves working with broken business models or the disruption of AI in creating content, there is always hope in the face of an uncertain future if you have the trust of your audience. In the chaos of media distraction and twisted truth, trust is everything. So it is of great concern if the country's most trusted news outlet squanders this valuable attribute. The federal court ruled that the ABC unlawfully terminated the journalist and Media Diversity Australia co-founder Antoinette Lattouf in December 2023. The evidence gave an unflattering insight into the broadcaster's multilayered management and found that Lattouf had been unfairly fired for her political opinions. But what has shaken trust internally and externally is the impact of an orchestrated campaign by pro-Israel lobbyists. Sign up to get Guardian Australia's weekly media diary as a free newsletter You break trust with the broader community when an interest group can go to the top of an organisation and get its way. Lobbyists skip the process that everyone else must follow. And it hits particularly hard among people who struggle to have their voice heard. For culturally diverse staff, offering a different perspective based on your insights and experience carries a risk. What should be a healthy process of testing the adequacy of a position can instead be a belittling experience, or you are labelled a threat to impartiality. For many journalists, Lattouf's experience at the ABC is a familiar one of shutting down the person instead of discussing the position. If that wasn't enough, the public broadcaster then pursued a legal argument that Lattouf had to prove the existence of a Lebanese race – a daring journey deeper into the territory of mistrust for a leadership team not following the compass of its company principles. The ABC withdrew the contentious race argument and apologised. Still, staff need to know it was withdrawn because senior leadership knows it is wrong and not just because of the angry response to it. We are weary of the cycle of corporate concern, review and apology, particularly when those involved continue to break new ground of mistrust with employees. Even more significant for the ABC is the break in trust with a multicultural audience. These communities already feel silenced by a media industry that neither understands nor represents them. Building trust with our communities means nurturing inclusion and calm reasoning around our most contested and controversial news stories. Silencing one side of the story isn't success. Shutting down voices is not 'social cohesion'. But silencing and shutting down were the preferred responses of senior ABC management under pressure from pro-Israel lobbyists. We need a different approach to our most difficult conversations. When I attended a multicultural community consultation event in Sydney I was surprised by the importance our culturally diverse leaders place on media representation in creating a sense of belonging. Of all the challenges the communities face, the issue of media representation and trust is persistent. They are also concerned about how misinformation and disinformation will affect them, particularly their brilliant and bright young people. They value trusted sources of truth but it is hard to trust Australian media when the reporting of your community doesn't match what you know to be true. There is now considerable constructive discussion about media literacy and educating multicultural communities about news and credible news sources. But the decline in trust in the media should not be a problem for the marginalised audience to fix. It is the responsibility of news organisations to improve their cultural literacy and be open to adapting their position so both sides are better equipped to lift public discourse, not shut it down. Sign up to Weekly Beast Amanda Meade's weekly diary on the latest in Australian media, free every Friday after newsletter promotion Paula Kruger is the chief executive of Media Diversity Australia
ABC News
5 days ago
- Politics
- ABC News
The ABC's own goal on Antoinette Lattouf should be a moment of reflection
The ABC fired radio presenter Antoinette Lattouf. They failed to give Lattouf the opportunity to respond to misconduct allegations. The executives involved were motivated in response to her political opinions about the Israeli military campaign in Gaza, and bowed to pressure from pro-Israel lobbyists. In executing this action, the ABC breached the Enterprise Agreement and the Fair Work Act. The actions were unlawful. These statements may be up for discussion, but they are no longer up for debate. They have been determined as fact by Justice Darryl Rangiah in the Federal Court of Australia. Throughout the proceedings, the ABC consistently denied it had acted unlawfully. It said it was not motivated by Lattouf's race, national extraction or political opinion. Lattouf was on a casual contract, to present Mornings on ABC Radio Sydney from Monday, December 18 to Friday, December 23, 2023. Her employment was terminated on Wednesday after she reposted a Human Rights Watch video to her Instagram story with the caption "HRW reporting starvation as a tool of war." Complaints from pro-Israel lobbyists, however, had already started rolling in prior to her social media post. Justice Rangiah noted: "The complaints caused great consternation amongst the senior management of the ABC… The consternation of senior managers of the ABC turned into what can be described as a state of panic." The ABC argued its contract with Lattouf enabled it to effectively reduce her hours to zero. It was under no obligation to provide her with work to do or the hours in which to do it, the ABC's lawyers contended. Justice Rangiah disagreed with the ABC on most points in his ruling on Wednesday morning. The only hollow victory for the ABC is that the ruling found none of the executives involved had fired Lattouf due to her national extraction or race. So technically, it didn't act in a racist manner, or discriminate against Lattouf because of her Lebanese heritage. I say hollow victory because the damage has been done. Damage was done when the ABC's lawyers tried to argue that Lattouf's claim of racial discrimination should fail, because she had not proven that "a Lebanese, Arab or Middle Eastern race" existed. This caused ripples and upset in the ABC ranks, in the Lebanese community, and those simply observing who felt a woman shouldn't have to prove the existence of her own racial category and community. The ABC may have subsequently withdrawn the argument, but the damage was done. The damage was also done earlier in the process when the ABC allowed this matter to escalate all the way to the Federal Court. Before the case went to trial, Lattouf sought compensation of $85,000, a public apology and reinstatement as a fill-in radio presenter. Now, in addition to the $70,000 the ABC has been ordered to pay Lattouf for her non-economic losses, there could be pecuniary penalties. Plus, there's the legal costs, which exceed $1 million. In this week's special MediaLand episode about the ruling, Marque Lawyers' Michael Bradley told me that the ABC should never have allowed the matter to go to court. "The fact that it's lost in court is devastating [for the ABC], but even if it hadn't, it had done enormous damage to itself both through its actions that led to the case and then in its conduct and defence of the litigation. It should never have allowed it to go to court. It should have resolved it. It should have accepted that it completely stuffed up the handling of Antoinette's situation, and it should have stood up and just dealt with that sensibly," he said. "Taking that all the way through a trial, exposing the inner workings of its management and board to public scrutiny and ridicule, all did enormous harm to the reputation and standing of the institution — which for those of us who love the ABC, which is most of us, is really disappointing and unsettling." So, as well as the financial cost, the ABC has damaged its reputation, and public perceptions around its ideals, integrity and independence. Justice Rangiah's quote in the ruling would certainly give rise to concerns about interference and independence. "The decision was made to appease the pro-Israel lobbyists who would inevitably escalate their complaints about the ABC employing a presenter they perceived to have anti-Semitic and anti-Israel opinions in such a public position," he said. These concerns were reiterated by Lattouf's lawyer Josh Bornstein, who said outside the court: "This unlawful decision goes right to the top of the ABC." Indeed the ABC's former chair, Ita Buttrose, its former managing director, David Anderson, and its former chief content officer Chris Oliver-Taylor all had different versions of events about who made the decision to fire Lattouf, and who was ultimately responsible for its mishandling. The escalating pressure and panic facing the trio is perhaps best summed up by the now infamous late-night email from Buttrose. "Has Antoinette been replaced. I am over getting emails about her." Buttrose denied this was a direct instruction to fire Lattouf. Throughout the trial, it was unclear who would take responsibility for Lattouf's poor treatment. Now though, it's clear that the ABC acted unlawfully. It's clear that its previous management was willing to cave to pressure from lobbyists. It's clear audiences and taxpayers feel let down by the ABC once again becoming the story, the amount of money spent defending the action, and the dark truths it has exposed about the ABC's operations. The ABC's new managing director, Hugh Marks, admitted on ABC TV that "many millions of dollars have been spent that shouldn't have been" in defending these actions, and that it "would have been ideal if this did not go to court". He rejected the idea, however, that processes needed to change. "I don't know that we need to change our processes. They already exist. The facts are in this case the judge found they weren't followed," he said. Despite this assertion, in an official statement Marks did concede the ABC's social media rules will get a shake-up. "Due to confusion expressed about the Personal Use of Social Media Guidelines, which was canvassed during the case, these have been reviewed and will be replaced with new Public Comment Guidelines. We will talk more about this in coming weeks." He also noted: "We regret how the decision to remove Ms Lattouf from air was handled and the distress occasioned her. We extend our sincere apologies to Ms Lattouf and wish her well in her future endeavours." That's 18 months between when the ABC unlawfully fired Lattouf in a state of panic to avoid further scrutiny and pressure and when she received an apology. Eighteen months of increased attention and criticism in a failed attempt to quash attention and criticism. How long it takes for the ABC to recover the respect and reputation it has lost in that time, remains to be seen.
The Guardian
5 days ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
Lattouf wins case against ABC; $500,000 reward to find Falconio's remains; and does ‘adult tummy time' work?
Welcome, readers, to Afternoon Update. The ABC breached the Fair Work Act when it terminated casual broadcaster Antoinette Lattouf for reasons including that she held a political opinion opposing the Israeli military campaign in Gaza, the federal court has found. The court ordered that the ABC pay Lattouf compensation of $70,000 for non-economic loss and set down a date for a hearing on whether a pecuniary penalty ought to be imposed on the ABC. In his judgment, Justice Darryl Rangiah said senior ABC managers were in a 'a state of panic' after an 'orchestrated campaign by pro-Israel lobbyists to have Ms Lattouf taken off air'. The ABC managing director, Hugh Marks, apologised for the broadcaster's handling of Lattouf's employment and for the distress it caused her. Marks said the ABC had reviewed its personal use of social media guidelines for employees, which will be replaced with new public comment guidelines. Zohran Mamdani leads NYC mayoral primary as Cuomo concedes: 'He won' NSW political staffers to appear at caravan plot inquiry after being threatened with arrest for failing to attend Australian police offer $500,000 reward in bid to find murdered British backpacker Peter Falconio's remains Doge employee 'Big Balls' has resigned, says White House official Latest Choice survey reveals Australia's grocery price divide at major supermarkets Gout Gout breaks his own 200m national record in latest stunning run On the Nullarbor plain, the world's largest hydrogen export hub is being developed. Beneath it lies an internationally significant limestone cave system, a fragile home to globally unique creatures and a time capsule of life since the Pliocene including rare cave animals and a record of ancient life forms. Scientists warn the development threatens the treasures below. 'We didn't just lose. We got smashed.' In her first appearance at the National Press Club as opposition leader, Sussan Ley addressed the Liberal party's heavy defeat at the federal election. Ley said she plans to work with every division to better represent voters as the party lays the groundwork for the next election, including preselecting more women. Australia's inflation rate has eased again, down sharply on the previous month's figure of 2.4%, bolstering expectations the Reserve Bank of Australia will lower the cash rate next month and bring further reprieve for mortgage holders. Sign up to Afternoon Update Our Australian afternoon update breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion Among the overwhelming quantity of information new parents must digest is the instruction to ensure their child gets adequate 'tummy time' each day. Not content with letting infants have all the fun, adults have now co-opted the practice as a means of postural correction. But does it work, and can adult tummy time undo the dreaded 'tech neck'? Today's starter word is: THEM. You have five goes to get the longest word including the starter word. Play Wordiply. Enjoying the Afternoon Update? Then you'll love our Morning Mail newsletter. Sign up here to start the day with a curated breakdown of the key stories you need to know, and complete your daily news roundup. And follow the latest in US politics by signing up for This Week in Trumpland. If you have a story tip or technical issue viewing this newsletter, please reply to this email. If you are a Guardian supporter and need assistance with regards to contributions and/or digital subscriptions, please email
