A week after winning her landmark unlawful termination case against the ABC, Antoinette Lattouf has teamed up with fellow journalist and friend Jan Fran to launch a new podcast that aims to scrutinise the media landscape in Australia.
The weekly podcast, We Used To Be Journos, coincides with the launch of the pair’s new enterprise, Ette Media, an independent media company that spotlights media literacy and critique.
“We used to write the news, then we became the news and now we critique the news,” Lattouf said in a statement.
Reflecting on her landmark legal victory against the ABC last week, the author of How to Lose Friends and Influence White People and the 2021 Women’s Agenda Leadership Awards winner said she had “front row seats to the ABC’s slow, editorial independence car crash.”
“It was heartbreaking and excruciating to experience but I’m stepping away from the debris to remind people what journalism looks like when it’s not strapped to a lobbying bullbar,” she said.
The pair brings decades of sharp, editorial expertise to untangle dubious headlines, unpack biased articles and unearth hidden agendas.
For Fran, whose career spans time at SBS, ABC and Network Ten’s The Project, the task of debunking institutional bias and calling out misinformation is now more important than ever.
“With trust in the mainstream media at an all-time low and misinformation running amok, media literacy has never been more important,” she said.
“We hope to give audiences the tools they need to navigate this increasingly fractured and volatile media landscape to get to the truth.”
We Used to be Journos is the flagship show from Ette Media and launches exclusively with Acast on Wednesday July 2nd. In a teaser, Lattouf is heard on the episode processing the ordeal of her unlawful termination case against the ABC.
“How am I feeling? Still shell shocked by it all, but I’m here to unpack it all with you,” she tells her co-host. “I had read all of these emails and text messages and handwritten notes and diary notes and voice memos about me. My lawyer called me and warned me. He said, ‘Look, I think you should be sitting down.’”
“I think there still needs to be accountability and I think Kim William needs to be held accountable. I’ve always believed in a robust and well funded ABC. It is so important for our democracy.”
Become a Women’s Agenda Foundation member and support our work! We are 100% independent and women-owned. Every day, we cover the news from a women’s perspective, advocating for women’s safety, economic security, health and opportunities. Foundation memberships are currently just $5 a month. Bonus: you’ll receive our weekly editor’s wrap of the key stories to know every Saturday. Become a member here.