After airing some of the most transphobic TV in Australia, the spotlight's now on Channel 7's horrendous workplace culture

The Four Corner's expose on the network shows us that journalism in this country needs protecting.

Last year, Channel 7’s flagship current affairs program Spotlight entered our spotlight after running a particularly virulent piece of anti-trans propaganda featuring notorious far-right campaigner Chloe Cole. I wrote about this episode at the time, noting the willingness of a mainstream broadcaster in Australia to parrot disinformation about the transgender community, and particularly transgender healthcare for minors, which had been lifted direct from far-right hate groups in Australia and beyond.

This episode aired just a short time after Spotlight aired a similarly controversial interview with Bruce Lehrmann, the man at the center of the Parliament House sexual harassment scandal. Despite Spotlight giving him a platform to plead his innocence, Mr Lehrmann was determined to be a sex offender in a recent civil finding. A retrial on Mr Lehrmann’s offences did not end up proceeding due to concerns about the welfare of his victim.

Both Spotlight episodes were remarked upon, even across the world, as low points in Australian journalism, with Channel 7 demonstrating its willingness to platform dangerous misinformation, potentially affecting the lives of sex abuse victims and transgender children, in pursuit of clickbait. The outrage at Channel 7 was so great that it sparked numerous litigation and protests outside Channel 7’s offices in the capital cities. The outrage being centred on, of course, the maliciousness of mainstream journalism and its constant upholding of racist and misogynistic values in Australian rhetoric.

As a journalist myself, this framing of the journalism industry as a self-interested, destructive force has always been hard to swallow. The outrage directed at Spotlight, and its personalities are more than justified. The heartbreaking side of the story comes when you think of the scores of people working behind the scenes at Channel 7 who we don’t see. Behind the scenes of every newsroom are the scores of younger journalists, editors, camera operators and many more employees, being exploited by the industry and it’s repugnant workplace culture.

This reality was the subject of the most recent episode of ABC’s investigative journalism show Four Corners. The show exposed a workplace culture described as “degrading and soul-crushing”, and has a lot to offer in terms of exposing the destructive human cost of Australia’s toxic journalistic landscape. This cost perpetuates not just against young journalistic talent, but the regular vulnerable targets of the mainstream media as well.

Channel 7: “The Second Chance Club”

The Four Corners episode, “Don’t Speak”, aired on Monday and involved the testimonies of numerous former Channel 7 employees. Hosted by Louise Milligan, who also delivered the famous “Inside the Canberra Bubble” report on the aforementioned sexual harassment within Parliament House, some of the anecdotes went into particularly vivid detail of the mental toll inflicted upon these journalists by their toxic workplace. They included ten-to-twelve hour working days, seven days a week, and salaries barely above entry-level wages. One woman described needing to spend her own money to finish her story on time, leaving her unable to afford her rent, while another detailed a self-harm attempt and being rushed to hospital while at work.

Stories of sexual harassment, bullying, racism and other forms of discrimination were commonplace in the investigation, despite many of the apparent victims being forced into silence through non-disclosure agreements (NDAs). It’s a particularly chilling and poignant episode of Four Corners, and a reminder of what the investigative journalistic show is capable of when it’s not also interviewing members of a hate group.

These stories of workers being underpaid, overworked and harassed came amidst revelations that in order to secure the interview with Bruce Lehrmann, Channel 7 paid him over hundreds of thousands of dollars. This included the network covering his rent, and supplying him with cocaine, massages, and sex workers. This is also far from an isolated incident. The Four Corners investigation also detailed numerous occasions when male employees of Channel 7 were spending thousands of dollars on luxurious restaurant dinners, alcohol and other pleasures, while female employees were expected to hand over their laboriously-won stories. The network has also been notorious for protecting the reputations and careers of disgraced figures such as war criminal Ben Roberts-Smith and 7News sports reporter Ben Cousins, who was imprisoned for multiple offences including breaching a restraining order. Solicitor Josh Bornstein, who appeared on the program, referred to Channel 7 as “the second chance club”, filled to the brim with figures known for receiving countless complaints.

There are many reasons why someone would want to work in journalism. It may be due to a love of writing, it may be a desire to see your name in print or your face on the TV, it may be because you post too much on Twitter and somehow ended up on the radio. For many people however, it’s due to becoming inspired by breaking news and its power to tell stories, often from deeply marginalised and disadvantaged people.

To quote Olivia Babb, one of the former Channel 7 employees who appeared on the program, “I want do something that I thought would give voices to people, but I didn’t know it would take away my voice”.

Channel 7 is far from the only media company to have this perverse, misogynistic culture. As mentioned by Louise Milligan, Channel 9 and the ABC also have their own scandals of toxic workplace culture. Across the world, the British Broadcasting Corporation has been a long-time subject of sexual harassment scandals, particularly after the lifetime of child sexual abuse by BBC presenter Jimmy Savile went public. In America, Roger Ailes and Les Moonves, the former CEOs of Fox and CBS respectively, have both resigned in the wake of sexual abuse allegations. The #MeToo movement was always founded in the media industry, but as Mr Bornstein says: “This is an industry that #MeToo forgot”.

The sheer irony of media brands that pride themselves on exclusive scoops and exposing matters of public interest, then turning around and gagging their own ex-employees with NDAs was not lost on Louise Milligan either. Amy Taeuber, another former Channel 7 employee interviewed for Four Corners, spoke about her NDA and said: “It is a little bit odd, isn't it? That, you know, the media is about exposing injustices and telling people's stories and not shying away from it. But I suppose if you look at it in that respect, NDAs are there to silence people and to stop them from exposing injustices.”

Toxic journalism harms society

Corporatised journalism, which runs on clicks, ratings and newspaper sales rather than running on ethics and integrity, is so commonplace in today’s society that media companies are expected, or even encouraged, to advocate for a particular political agenda. If you look at Australian elections on Wikipedia, there will be a section devoted to “newspaper endorsements” which shows the distribution of outlets across the political spectrum; The Guardian represents the left-wing in endorsing the Greens and Labor, whilst News Corp papers such as The Daily Telegraph and The Australian support the Coalition.

When a company literally devoted to the distribution of truth and information has vested business and political interests, this inevitability leads to them deciding which stories they view as the “public interest”. This is a common discussion, particularly since its been revealed the lengths Channel 7 are willing to go to secure their news. I’ve written before about what motivates outlets to air such blatant disinformation about transgender healthcare, and while the interview with Mr Lehrmann may have cost well above an average journalist’s yearly salary, it also proved a ratings win for Channel 7. 600,000 viewers watched Spotlight’s interview, beating their competition from Channel 9’s 60 Minutes, a result any media executive would consider money well spent… even at the mental cost of the sex abuse victims.

It is no exaggeration to say that journalism is a very powerful tool for anyone, but particularly the marginalised. When it works in the public interest, it can expose corrupt governments, uproot fraudulent businesses, save the lives of vulnerable people, and, most importantly, change society for the better. Breaking news stories and they way they are told has empowered marginalised people to fight for their rights, and has unfortunately also empowered those with the power to fight back. This is why the revelations of Channel 7, one of the most powerful media companies in Australia, are so disturbing.

One of the most disturbing questions that came out of Spotlight’s anti-trans propaganda last year was - “is this just the start?” The British and American media have been distributing anti-trans disinformation for years, so was it a sign that Spotlight will follow suit? When this anti-trans propaganda airs, transgender people have a fraction of the platforms and ability to combat these hateful myths. There are extremely few transgender people working in journalism today, and more progressive publications such as Pedestrian and Crikey are also slashing their workforces creating even fewer opportunities for young progressive journalists.

Toxic workplace cultures such as that at Channel 7 preserve and reinforce the worst kinds of dynamics in journalism. Well-meaning young journalists, who want to use their platform to empower marginalised people, get burnt out and thrown away, whilst those who embrace this culture of clickbait and chequebook journalism help perpetuate it. The more this is reinforced, the more we will have to expect easy targets, such as transgender kids, being exploited for ratings and a dangerous agenda.

Young writers, particularly those from marginalised backgrounds, should never feel discouraged in following their dreams and using their talents to empower their communities. I love the work that I do, as taxing and discouraging as it can be at times. I’m so proud of the people I’ve been able to platform and the readers I’ve been able to inspire. This is why I’ve always encouraged other young writers to keep writing, and particularly there is a new breed of transgender journalists rising in their fields despite the adversity, empowered by a desire to bring a fresh voice to their community.

The media industry has rarely been in a more tenuous situation, and time will only tell where the fallout of these scandals at Channel 7 will lead. Whatever the case, journalism is an industry that is more than just itself. Journalism is a representation of our society, our values, and our reality. We need to protect it. We need to take it seriously.

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Natalie Feliks is a writer and activist originally from Adelaide, now living in Melbourne. She's written for the likes of Junkee, Crikey, and Overland, and spends her time listening to pop music and eating chocolate.

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