Dear Fiona,
Thank you for your reply and I now have found the time to submit another complaint to you.
My complaint concerns several matters.
Firstly:
Regarding ABC Radio Breakfast host Ryk Goddard’s Breakfast show on Tuesday 14th February at approx. 7.48am with regard to a Motion being put forward by Cr Louise Elliott and to go before Hobart City Council on 20 Feb concerning single sex toilets and change rooms:
* Ryk Goddard, without inviting Cr Louise Elliott on his program to talk about her Motion, invited his friend who shares his personal views on this issue, Deputy Lord Mayor Helen Burnett , onto his program to express her opposition to the Motion.
* His interview misrepresented Cr Elliott’s motion and included the leading question: “Is there fear and confusion about inclusive spaces?”
* You will hear from the recording of the session that Cr Elliott had to ring in on talkback to speak to Ryk about her own Motion.
* You will hear that she was very displeased that Ryk had failed to contact her first and that the only reason she got on air was because she had to ring in.
* It is notable that before Ryk spoke to Louise he made the announcement that he would “…aim is to address this without causing any harm to the community”.
* Ryk also claimed that he was covering “ideas as they were put to me in terms of the motion” without naming who put these ideas to him but which he responded to by interviewing Helen Burnett not Louise Elliott.
* Ryk spent 3 minutes interviewing Helen Burnett and one minute with Louise Elliott.
* Ryk, after hearing Cr Elliott’s response, Ryk has made no attempt to invite her on his program to actually conduct a proper interview with her and give her the opportunity to actually tell listeners about her motion.
* Ryk needs to make a public apology to Cr Elliott and in good grace have her on his program to let her explain this issue to listeners.
* The topic is still relevant today as the Motion is to be debated in Council tonight and will be covered by ABC later tonight or tomorrow or soon after.
Secondly:
This morning 20 Feb, Ryk Goddard on Breakfast, covered two more issues that are increasingly being seen as an attempt, not at ‘cultural leadership’ as Ryk might and some others in the ABC might perceive, but as social engineering and using his privileged position at the ABC to disseminate his personal views.The issues he raised were:
* Whether the words in the bible had to be changed
* Whether the name of Macquarie Street in central Hobart needs to be changed – following on no doubt from the campaign in Sydney to remove the statue of Governor Macquarie.
I have been informed by many former Hobart ABC listeners that since Ryk Goddard took over the Breakfast show that they have stopped listening and they want a new presenter.
Thirdly:
Patricia Karvelas interviewed a journalist in the early morning last week on RN who mentioned the case of the trans rapist in Scotland, but went on to downplay its influence.
A later interview at peak time was with a political colleague of Sturgeon’s who only talked about how good she was and how much she was trolled by misogynists.
There was a follow-up story on The World Today in which only the independence issue was discussed; the transgender issue was not even mentioned.
I would like to point out that the media in Scotland and the UK, in the last few weeks has had massive coverage on the problems plaguing Nicola Sturgeon over her position on the proposed sex self ID laws which was the main driver in her decision to resign as leader of the SNP. This coverage has increased since her resignation yet the ABC persists in not reporting this.
Why?
I should like to conclude that the coverage you mention Josh Scheps on ABC Radio Sydney. gave to Dr Phillip Morris is not an adequate response from you on the failure of the ABC to give proper coverage to these important issues.
You will be aware that the front page of The Australian this weekend had a story about findings from a paper just released by physicians working at the Westmead Children’s Hospital Gender Clinic, an Editorial and two other lengthy articles about this medical scandal.
Yet not a peep out of the ABC.
Why?
Yet again, responding to this, I have had no response from Hobart ABC to my Media release below, likely as Ryk Goddard puts it from his ideological position that any coverage by the ABC on this medical scandal needs ‘to address this without causing any harm to the community’. I have provided repeated opportunities to ABC in Hobart to interview medical experts in the treatment of gender dysphoria as I recognise that it is preferable for a medical expert to speak to these issues – to no avail. It is more likely to cause harm to the community if the ABC continues to promote the views of a political lobby group, ignore international developments, ignore expert opinions and sanitize and censor these issues.
The ABCs continued compliance with ACON’s directives through the ABC Queer Department and influence over editorial policy and reportage on these issues, will very soon come back to bite the ABC.
Likely, in due course, the ABC will be found to be culpable of withholding vital information regarding child safeguarding and child health and medical malpractice.
Culpable of allowing the national broadcaster to become the tool of a political lobby group to the detriment of the children’s health and the public good.
I look forward to your reply.
Regards,
Isla MacGregor
Women Speak Tasmania