Honestly, how confused are these kiddies?
A few days after ABC presenter Josh Szeps abruptly departed his Sydney radio afternoons show in December 2023 – following disagreements with management over the direction of his program – the same station sacked mornings fill-in presenter Antoinette Lattouf after sharing a Human Rights Watch post on Instagram.
On Saturday, the pair will be joined by American journalist Andy Mills and chair Louise Adler at a Festival of Dangerous Ideas event, “Speaking Bluntly: Identity Politics in Journalism”. The discussion will focus on two important questions: does it matter who journalists are – and what they think?
“There’s a generational divide I’ve witnessed, most pronounced among Gen Y and Gen Z journos who are sceptical of so-called gatekeepers of ‘truth’ and ‘impartiality’,” says Lattouf, a broadcaster, columnist, co-host of The Antoinettes podcast and co-founder of Media Diversity Australia.
“There’s a massive trust deficit and audiences are increasingly hostile towards the media, so perhaps we need to stop lying to ourselves about objectivity and impartiality. Diversity of thought, age, geography, class and cultural background [are vital]; I’m in favour of seeking ‘moral clarity’, where news outlets subscribe to a set of beliefs [such as the threat of climate change, abuse of power and gendered violence] and are transparent about it.”
These arguments are as old as the hills. From Plato’s cave and the shadowy “forms” to the immaterialism of George Berkeley to the deconstructionism of Jaques Derrida.
No human can claim access to absolute truth. Any journalist not deeply sceptical of the truth should not be in the job.
But that should also extend to personal truths as much as it does speaking truth to power: moral relativism and the absence of truth are throwing the baby out with the bath water.
Especially when that scepticism is substituted with narcissism and all community expression becomes personal propaganda.
Lattouf’s absurd frame of reference means her “diversity” has no more objective force than Adolf Hitler’s anti-semitism.
In short, the diversity of the journalist is not only not vital, it is misleading and dangerous to the raison detre of journalism.
What matters is the journalist’s integrity and commitment to the truth, not identity.
