Kennett to set record straight on JOY
JOY 94.9 president David McCarthy will speak with beyondblue chair Jeff Kennett on air to discuss fractured relations between the LGBTI community and the depression initiative.
The interview has been pre-recorded and will be played on the LGBTI radio station at noon tomorrow.
This week JOY has distanced itself from claims it will run a charity event to rival men’s mental health fundraiser Movember.
JOY met with Movember chief operating officer Jason Hincks and beyondblue deputy CEO Dr Nicole Highet on Monday following newspaper reports the station would back a rival Homovember campaign in protest at Kennett’s comments on same-sex parenting.
The Homovember campaign has been pushed by JOY presenter Doug Pollard and LGBTI mental health advocate Rob Mitchell.
McCarthy said the station had not officially endorsed Homovember and that JOY, beyondblue and Movember would work together to improve mental health campaigns for gay men.
“Feedback from our members has been they wanted to see greater initiatives from Movember and beyondblue to address gay men’s health and GLBTI health,” McCarthy told the Star Observer.
“So we wanted to meet with them … because at the end of the day,actions speak louder than words.
“We need to look at the bigger picture, and while I understand those people are serious and committed to those campaigns they are running, we’re not going to run Homovember. We believe engaging with these organisations is going to get the best outcome.”
McCarthy said the station would work with Kennett, who has repeatedly made negative comments about the gay community.
“I can tell you that Nicole [Highet] indicated to us that Jeff is very supportive of this initiative, in terms of three organisations working together, and I only see that as a positive,” he said.
“The reality is [beyondblue] is committing to us now. If we have any discussions we need to have with Jeff, I can assure you we’re going to be having them,” he said.
“I expect, as president of JOY, to be having a number of discussions with Jeff over the coming weeks and I look forward to that and I’m sure they’ll be interesting discussions but at the end of the day … I’m focused on getting some good outcomes.”
Mitchell has vowed the Homovember campaign will go ahead without JOY’s support because beyondblue was not doing enough to help combat depression in the LGBTI community.
“It will go ahead one way or another. We want to use this opportunity to show the high level of mental health issues in the GLBTI community,” he said.
Pollard said he had handed Homovember over to Mitchell.
“Homovember began as a joke … My idea was to raise funds which we would then give direct to the same causes Movember supports — prostate cancer and male depression — but cut beyondblue out of the loop,” he said.
“I thought it would be a neat way to demonstrate the value of the LGBTI contribution to Movember and beyondblue compared to the meagre return our community receives.”
The Star Observer understands moves by Pollard and Mitchell to push Homovember have angered the JOY board. A JOY board member, who asked not to be named, said the station would review its social media policy in light of the controversy.
Pollard said his comments about Homovember were made as an individual and not on behalf of the station.
INFO: Tune in to JOY94.9 at noon, Thursday October 6.
I should like to correct a few misapprehensions in this article and set the record even straighter.
When I first mentioned – jokingly and in passing while relaxing after a show – that perhaps Joy ought to do a Homovember, that’s all it was. A joke
It was Joy management and staff who subsequently came back to me and told me they thought it was a good idea, and who later still came back and asked my permission to use the idea “and we’ll make sure we credit you”.
When I spoke to David McCarthy, before he spoke to Jill Starck, he also said he was aware of and liked the idea. And that was as far as it had gone.
I have no idea how much of this was communicated to other board members at this stage, but any lack of communication with them cannot be laid at my door, and any anger they may feel on the issue should be directed to the proper quarter.
It was only after the article appeared in the Sunday Age that the proverbial ordure encountered the rotary air movement device.
Both David McCarthy and Acting GM Tas Mouferiades and I have had several conversations since Sunday and at no stage has anyone expressed anger or displeasure at my actions, nor have I been told of any ‘anger’ on the board, which you would expect to be the case if there was any. I have received nothing but warmth and support from the station.
Far from being angry with me, I have received, privately, messages of praise and support from board members.
However ,one board member has been consistently and viciously critical in online forums: I have dealt with those misrepresentations and distortions and what I will politely call factual innaccuracies in the appropriate places.
Finally, my views are my own, whether I express them on Joy, or, as I used to, in this paper, in any online forum, and in pieces I write for the mainstream outlets such as the ABC Drum and Crikey. The fact that I use the same brand, The Rainbow Reporter, everywhere, does not imply that I speak for Joy, any more than I speak for Crikey, the Star Observer, the ABC, or the Age.
I have owned that brand for ten years and will use it as I see fit, and I reject the suggestion that I should be subject to any censorship. Joy is a radio station, not a Labor Party branch requiring public adherence to the party line, however much some people might wish it were.
“I expect, as president of JOY, to be having a number of discussions with Jeff over the coming weeks and I look forward to that and I’m sure they’ll be interesting discussions but at the end of the day … I’m focused on getting some good outcomes.”
Indeed. Just to highlight the timeline here : The Sunday Age ran the article, and you had a meeting, formulated a position and issued a press release all within 24 hours. Why the rush? Who was desperate? The Joy board didn’t want to back homovember, but if it achieves nothing else then we have succeeded in spades. Which just leaves us with the conflicted Joy board members who are receiving money already from Beyondblue. But we can deal with that later. Looks like Thursday is going to be a BIG day!
“A JOY board member, who asked not to be named, said the station would review its social media policy in light of the controversy.”
So many things are alarming about this comment. Community stations are not suppose to censor the views of the community.
I dread a gay community where only JOY get’s to express a view – god knows they don’t represent me as far as what I hear on air goes. Give me 3CR any day.
What a difference Homovember makes!