A few weeks ago, hundreds of journalists in Australia signed an open letter to mainstream media outlets, calling for ethical reporting during the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
Lately, however, it seems ethics has been put on the backburner for many outlets – and it’s women journalists who are bearing the brunt of it all.
On Tuesday, The Herald Sun, part of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp empire, claimed social media influencers are using accounts “dedicated to everything from makeup to parenting” to spread anti-Israel and pro-Palestine messages.
Speaking with Women’s Agenda this week, a handful of high profile women in Australia’s media industry shared their personal experiences of being targeted.
Broadcaster, columnist and author Antoinette Lattouf told Women’s Agenda she is seeking advice from defamation lawyers following The Herald Sun‘s article, which suggested she is a “useful idiot for jihadists”.
She said she will resist their efforts to silence her and her colleagues.
“It seems like an orchestrated attempt to bully critical thinking and fact checking out of the craft of journalism,” she told Women’s Agenda.
“No where is this more obvious than around reporting of and discussion of Gaza. I will continue to report and comment without fear or favour, especially when so many innocent lives are at stake and there’s so much hate and division in Australia.”
Content warning: References to Islamophobia and anti-Semitism
‘Being a journalist in 2023’
ABC journalist Patricia Karvelas is the latest target of mainstream media claims. Over the weekend, The Australian claimed the ABC Radio National Breakfast presenter “appears to support the Albanese government’s ceasefire position”, after engaging in a discussion on the call for ceasefire with news.com.au’s Samantha Maiden.
The article said Karvelas, host of ABC’s Q+A, had also joined “the chorus of leftists” about the viral video – which is yet to be verified, according to an article in Crikey by journalist Antoinette Lattouf – that allegedly shows protestors chanting “Gas the Jews” outside the Sydney Opera House on October 9.
On Monday, Karvelas spoke out against the claims in The Australian, as well as accusations on Instagram that she “supports the murder of babies”.
“This is what being a journalist in 2023 is,” Karvelas wrote in an Instagram story.
“Another Murdoch hit piece against me today. It’s now so common I can set an alarm to it. There are so many important stories in this country, but that’s not their business model.”
Karvelas said she has witnessed many of her friends and colleagues in the industry go through similar targeting by mainstream media. Although she once thought ignoring false claims was the most effective strategy, she now believes “calling it out is the only option”.
Karvelas also said it was relevant to note that she had once been a journalist with News Corp.
“I was raised with strong values of integrity and the fact that they so easily target even those who worked their guts out for them demonstrates that their ideological obsession with the ABC is not about me or anyone else – it’s a world view,” she said.
“Journalism really matters. Being curious really matters. Journalism is under existential threat. Public broadcasting has never been more important.
“Women who don’t play by the rules will continue to be targeted but I for one will not allow myself to be intimidated by people who have such a clear agenda.”
Antoinette Lattouf
Speaking with Women’s Agenda this week, broadcaster, columnist and author Antoinette Lattouf said targeted attacks on journalists from mainstream media seems like “an orchestrated attempt to bully critical thinking and fact checking out of the craft of journalism”.
“It is the worst humanitarian crisis and violence against children in modern times,” Lattouf said, “and yet sections of our media would rather invest time and energy in targeting female journalists and commentators who dare to deviate from reciting IDF (Israeli Defence Force) talking points, rather than interrogating those responsible for fractures in social cohesion locally and the ongoing slaughter of children in Gaza.”
Lattouf has also experienced first hand misleading claims from mainstream media and knows how harmful it can be on a journalist’s work.
Last week, Lattouf and Cam Wilson from Crikey investigated the viral video of the pro-Palestine rally outside of the Sydney Opera House on October 9, two days after Hamas attacked Israel.
The video that was quickly circulated online shows protestors chanting “Gas the Jews”. Crucially, the journalists’ investigation found police and fact-checkers are still yet to verify whether the chants actually occurred.
In her article, as well as an Instagram reel on her own account, Lattouf notes that a small group of teenagers who started chanting “F*ck the Jews” were removed from the protest.
While Crikey’s investigation was extensive, and Lattouf also dived deeper into the viral video and the protests in the Instagram reel, News Corp’s Sky News host Sharri Markson claimed Lattouf and “many on the left” deny that “anything anti-Semitic was chanted at all”.
Lattouf posted a video on Instagram responding to Sky News’ claims over the weekend.
In the video, Lattouf said that Sky News and Markson did not reach out to her for comment before “creating a segment on half truths and hysteria”.
Despite the silencing intentions of mainstream media, Lattouf told Women’s Agenda that it will not stop her work.
“The intention of tabloid media campaigns which target individuals with a platform is to get us to shut up,” Lattouf said. “To look away, to stop investigating and stop revealing harm. Essentially to stop doing our job.
“And if we don’t try to shut up they discredit us in a bid for us to lose our jobs. No tactic is off the table from reporting blatant lies about us, mischaracterisations, and pressuring employers.
“I will continue to report and comment without fear or favour, especially when so many innocent lives are at stake and there’s so much hate and division in Australia.”
‘Undeterred’
Author, speaker, activist, and feminist Clementine Ford has also been vocal throughout the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, as well as the way mainstream media reports on the crisis.
But as she tells Women’s Agenda, her livelihood has suffered as a result of targeting not only from media outlets, but also from severe online trolling and disturbing attacks on her work.
“A small but concentrated group of people are trying to force my publisher to sever ties with me. I’ve lost one major contract and had it explicitly outlined to me that it’s because my focus on Palestine is ‘risky’ for their business,” Ford told Women’s Agenda.
“There’s a highly defamatory petition being circulated that outright labels me an antisemite. People are tearing the covers off my books in department stores. It’s insanity.
“Because what are any of us doing really, except refusing to stay silent on a genocide that has slaughtered almost 20,000 people so far and half of them children?”
Ford said the attacks on journalists and women in the media industry, including herself, is a clear example of the Murdoch media’s intentions to uphold “the establishment and structural power”.
Lauren Dubois, a former political journalist, has a large following on social media for her commentary and activism and is never immune from criticism for her work.
“I’ve been dismissed as a ‘mummy blogger’, as if mothers are ignorant and useless, and should just stick to sharing recipes and home decor tips. Don’t forget to smile pleasantly while you do it!” Dubois told Women’s Agenda.
“It must really infuriate them to know that this mother is capable of raising children AND holding the powerful to account with facts, insight, and evidence. Which is what the media is supposed to be doing.”
Dubois has noticed significant impacts on her career and her life as a result of speaking out against mainstream media.
“Job opportunities have dried up and my income has been more than halved in the last couple of months,” she said.
“I’ve had people approaching my publisher as well as stockists of my book asking them to cut ties with me. I’ve had people contacting brands I’ve worked with to get them to cancel contracts.
“I am undeterred.”
Jan Fran
Journalist Jan Fran has been a strong leader in calling for ethical reporting during the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
Last month, she wrote a 600-word essay on the issue and was a key driver in the open letter signed by journalists in Australia to media outlets weeks later.
On November 5, The Daily Mail reported on Fran’s essay, saying she “lashed out” at the media industry.
“The Daily Mail loves the term ‘lashes out’… when really, they wrote a 600-word essay. It’s not really lashing out, is it?” Fran said in a video on Instagram.
Fran accused The Daily Mail of “stealing” her work and “misquoting” her, which often triggers severe online trolling for journalists who are victims of misleading claims by mainstream media.
“There’s a bit in the body of the piece where they say ‘Fran took aim at the journalism industry, labelling it a malevolent, biased, agenda-driven institution controlled by lobby groups’,” she said in her Instagram video.
“No I fucking didn’t. What I said was I don’t blame the people who think that of the media industry.
“The whole point of my piece was the opposite – that often, it is not that, that journalists act righteously. They believe that they’re doing a good thing.
“See this is what The Daily Mail does – they steal people’s work, they misquote it, they put it out to their following, and then those people get trolled for things they didn’t say.
“Not cool, man.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Instagram