Call to boycott Channel 7 over Campbell intrusion
Sydney Star Observer readers have called for a boycott of Channel 7 following its outing of former transport minister David Campbell last week.
The shock outing sparked massive debate on the SSO website around issues of privacy, homophobia and the politics of coming out.
Addressing journalists the morning after Campbell’s resignation, Premier Kristina Keneally spoke of her disappointment with the media, calling the matter “a very human tragedy”; David Marr wrote op-eds and former Justice Michael Kirby called the outing a “pathetic and disgraceful act”.
A senior NSW Labor source told Sydney Star Observer that “MPs across the board are angry about this”.
“Most can’t see any reason for this being in the public domain and question why Channel 7 ran the story. He didn’t do anything on the public purse, or anything that’s illegal or exploitative,” the source said.
“I don’t think we can ever presume to judge the choices that other people have felt the need to make. There’s never a reason someone should be outed, unless they’ve been quite actively campaigning against the gay and lesbian population.
“Campbell was never one of those people on-line with the people opposed to gay and lesbian rights issues.”
Campbell voted in support of both the NSW Registers Scheme and moves to lower the age of consent for gay men.
Channel 7 did not respond to numerous phone calls or emails requesting answers to these questions or an interview with either the editor who approved the story — head of news and current affairs Peter Meakin — or journalist Adam Walters. They also have not released figures about how many complaints they received over the story.
Speaking to other news sources, Meakin defended the editorial decision, claiming public interest in outing a man who had claimed to be a man of family values — an argument the NSW Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby said was offensive in itself.
“The whole issue of family values is being posed as something that’s against being gay or frequenting gay venues,” Lobby policy coordinator Senthorun Raj said.
“There’s this idea that somehow by being gay or bisexual you are anti-family, and that’s problematic. There are many same-sex couples and families that find those kinds of comments offensive.
“A politician’s private life is not a public spectacle. To assess a politician you should look to how they perform their ministerial functions, obligations to Parliament, and whether they represent the issues they were elected on, no scandalising news about whether a politician was at a gay sex venue.”
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When Sol Trujillo took control of Telstra one of the big unreported things he did was to remove over 200 policies that discriminated against the GLBTQI staff who worked for him. My good friends Trevor and Peter who were on Sixty Minutes with the two babies from India benefited. Telstra has worked very hard to end discrimination, harder then Kevin Rudd, and much harder then Tony Abbott.
David Campbell was not the Jason Akermanis closet case that vilified people. I see a very human side to his story. I and others feel great compassion for the man. He did not deserve Channel 7 outing him to make money. That was the motive behind this. Profit, not the public good. Not the real story of a man who has struggled with his sexuality like so many people. His wife was even fighting Cancer.
I cannot help but feel great anger for Channel 7, and especially for Peter Meakin for suggesting we cannot have family values if we are Gay. All this damage for money. I am sure a lot of us would like to know where Peter Meakin lives.
“Advertisers like ANZ and Telstra are very sensitive to shows that are cruel to members of our community. These companies have worked hard to end discrimination against our community”
wow. and i thought they were just after our money! perhaps we can have a word to them and they can get those nasty Channel 7 reporters to stop investigating ministers who are in charge of the police or public transport!!
I think that all those “save oxford st from the thugs” articles that cropped up ages ago, can now be read in a different light considering the Minister of Police was supposedly one of us. Under his watch there were still some serious homophobic assaults with a completely inadequate police reponse. Can we have retrospective of those articles in the next issue please! it would be very interesting reading.
Two of Channel 7’s Executive Producers are gay.. Maybe asked them what they think of this…
Some of the successful boycotts from our community have been the Tasmanian Government Boycott, and the Cadbury Chocolate Boycott. I recall when He Hey It’s Saturday ended up with Cadbury pulling out as they did a live crossing to Mardi-Gras. The spokesperson for Cadbury said it did not represent family values etc. Within a week they apologized to our community and resumed sponsorship of the program. Christian groups have trouble as they often ask sponsors to break the law and discriminate against people from our community.
Both boycotts from our community brought about change from what looked like the impossible. A State Government, and a large Multi-National Company.
Advertisers like ANZ and Telstra are very sensitive to shows that are cruel to members of our community. These companies have worked hard to end discrimination against our community. Many companies do not support, or want to be seen to be upsetting our community.
Channel 7 cares greatly about any sponsor dropping out. It sends a very clear message about not try and fuck over our community or seek to vilify us in the most disgusting way.
Boycotting channel 7 entirely is asking too much. But I will be boycotting their news and current affairs shows while Walters & Meakin are still employed.
The 7 network does have double standards, employing Kyle Sandilands and Matty Johns after they were sacked from their previous networks for their indiscretions.
Agreed, this is an appalling invasion of privacy.
A friend did say something to me the other day which made me wonder though. She said she believed politicians with a public profile have a certain public responsibility, and – at the very least – he should have exercised a little discretion.
I don’t know whether I agree or not. But the witch-hunt manoeuvres of Channel 7 are highly questionable. Unfortunately, they cast a shadow of ill-repute & tend to tar all media – good or bad – with the same brush.
For shame, Channel 7!
As a 12 yr resident of the northern ‘gong suburbs – all of this doesn’t surprise … 40k from Sydney and wif all the red-necks around you’d think u were in the “deep ole south” – no wonder Campbell was quiet
We could take a lesson from the United States: write to the big advertisers on channel 7.
Unless you are one of the people surveyed for your viewing habits there is no way a boycott will show up in the ratings.
The whole state of NSW in 2010 is PATHETIC – Portugal sounds nice!!!!
Yeah but Dave, we are apathetic as a community when it comes to these things. There aren’t enough people who actually care about issues like these for “boycotts” like these to actually be effective. Xstian conservatives WRITE and WRITE and WRITE. Letters to their mps. We can’t even get rid of Ms Plibersek in the seat if Sydney despite her not standing up for gay marriage!!! (abstaining from avote is not the same thing as voting against!). The reality is that people care more about watching a tv station than the outing of an imcompetent police and transport minister!
Davehaw – It works for the Australian Christian Lobby. It also got Tasmania to end the discrimination. The only thing the manager of the networks understands is ratings and money.
Davehaw, Im Gay and I dont watch Desperate Housewives. Im cotinuously judged by Straights and Fellow Gays. People presume and I mean PRESUME! that I like Lady Ga Ga, Kylie and watch Desperate Housewives, Queer as Folk and hang around the Shift every weekend. All of which is just judgement. So David Campbell frequented a sauna, well maybe its the only place he could relax. Big deal. Not everyone thats Gay waves the Rainbow Flag.
All this talk of a boycott is ridiculous. Do you really think the NSW gay community will turn chanel 7 off when Desperate Housewives comes on? It’ll never work and even if it did, it won’t deliver the desired result.
What do people hope to gain by boycotting? A drop in ratings or loss in advertising revenue won’t educate the journalists, editors and management about the correct way to handle and report stories relating to sexuality and the sexualities of public figures.
I think jonathan had the right idea of some form of imposed education session forcing these people to understand the morality and ethics of non-heterosexuals. Perhaps a change to the broadcasting regulations and role of ACMA is needed to achieve this.
One blogger(“Donulvi Dolam”)seeks to further slur David Campbell.
Campbell was not Police Minister for this year’s – or last years – Mardi Gras.
And your other “allegations” read like a disjointed rant.
I’m gay and a studying journalist and the media needs to make certain decisions of what the public should and want to know. In this case a very poor, ignorant one has been made.
I think the media has this view of gay people because it’s the populist view of our community in public…also look at the readership or the viewers of the publication or station and you can tell what type of demographic they are aiming at. Channel 7 goes for the middle bracket of society and always feature stories attacking people because they work hard and have more money than the have nots and in this story different relationships structures are seen as a threat to the nuclear family. By protecting the interests of the majority who is going to complain? Or be big enough for the station to make a decision???
It’s like the previous comment is so true that our community defends on the few that speak out to protect our rights but are more than willing to go out to a party. Why should people give us rights if we don’t show any action that we want them
The fundamental right to privacy in such a situation has been violated. Leaving aside Campbell’s sexuality for one moment and consider that now anyone who goes to a place like Ken’s can have their image displayed for the world to see.
More people may be interested in Campbell’s doings than mine, for example (which aren’t that interesting). But for any gay man in the closet, what has happened to Campbell will make them thing twice about going out to gay venues – and hopefully leaving the closet.
Channel Seven have violated a fundamental democratic right – the right to privacy in situations where no harm occurs. Maybe Seven could be relocated to Pyongyang where they’d be more at home.
Dave’s suggestion that we write to those who advertise on chanel 7 is a very good one … 7 will respond to challenges to its advertising dolars! A list of significant 7 advertisers (and email addresses) would be a very helpful start.
Of course the fact that by hiding his sexuality it left him open to blackmail that might have affected us all seems to be of no concern to any of you.
How about when men were having sex on the back of a truck at the last Mardi Gra parade in front of thousands of children, who was the police minister at the time of that investigation?
Makes you wonder why nothing ever came of an investigation into what we all know was a crime of indecent exposure.\
I don’t judge the man for being gay but I do wonder what else he has been hiding. such as ….
A Royal commission into police corruption coming to Wollongong suddenly turning into a royal commission into pedophilia and a man murdered (Frank Arkel) not long after stating that he would expose certain “gay” politicians in the area as well as police officers and other types of highly influential people.
Of course the fact that three of Woolongong’s lord mayors are now known to have been homosexuals and the fact that two of them were known pedophiles does throw new light into allegations that have been rampant in Wollongong for years.
Open your eyes people, I would investigate everything this man ever did for the last 20 years at least.
Ha ha! It’s hard enough getting our community to come along to a same sex marriage rall. (1,000 people to a rally but 10,000 to a mardi GRAS dance party????). Good luck trying to get us to boycott a whole tv station with perenially gay community favourites!!! This article is living in the clouds!!
I am not gay and don’t think any person should be judged by there sexuality if it involves consenting adults. It is deplorable and unconscionable what channel 7 did, and even worse when the GM tried to defend it. They are gone from remote. I wondered how low can they get after the one nonsense gutter journalism called Today Tonight and then they demonstrated it clearly with this so called story. I wondered who was trying to frame the guy and then thought if this is there version of news they have lost me and they have
Fail.
I have two concerns with Channel 7’s behaviour:
1. They called it a Gay Sex Scandal – being gay is not scandalous nor something to be ashamed of. These words not only slander the gay community but also send a message to young people that being gay is not ok. Channel 7 should have legal action taken against them by the gay community for slander and should be forced to inject money into anti-homophobia campaigns and into organisations who deal with young people who fall victim to such homophobia. They should also apologise to David Campbell and to the gay community for what they have done.
2. The editors and journo should be fired or at least forced to do a training course around homophobia, acceptance and how to work with the gay community.
That’s my two cents worth. I would support anyone within the gay community who would like to take legal action against the station to make some good come out this scandalous bit of journalism!
We should not only boycott channel 7 but also the companies that advertise on channel 7 and we should write to those companies and tell them why. If they withdraw advertising, then chaneel 7 will need to act and do something to try to admit a wrong here. Star observer – can u publish those advertisers ??
I can’t believe the supposed “high moral ground” being taken here by two so-called journalists with extremely dubious reputations, in particular, Peter Meakin who ran a Breath testing Unit and tried to escape from police. There are a lot of very angry (and very powerful) people as a result of this story. If I were either of these 2 men, I wouldn’t be sleeping all that well at night.
The journalist needs to be put down. Channel 7 is too big but they should be admonished for supporting such a story too.
I already am boycotting channel 7 – have removed the station from my Video Recorder so the channel is not available.
I hope others boycott this station and I hope they go broke.
Meakin has vilified our community. Gays cannot have family values according to what he is saying.
Write to those that advertise on 7, be polite and request a response. Tell them you cannot support their brand due the vilification of members of our community.