Episode 26, 25 July 2016

Beating up a ban

The Daily Telegraph did not hold back with its story on a high school wanting to ban the word 'girls'. But what checks did it make to verify the claims?

SAMANTHA ARMYTAGE: A leading Sydney girls’ school is being investigated for political correctness. The Daily Telegraph is reporting today, teachers at Cheltenham Girls High have been told to stop calling the students girls, ladies or women, instead they have to use gender neutral terms, I guess like, you know ‘good morning humans, female humans’. Is it, is this ridiculous, Ron?

RON WILSON: Oh look, boys are boys, girls are girls and never the twain shall meet ...

— Channel Seven, Sunrise, 20 July, 2016

Hello I’m Paul Barry, welcome to Media Watch.

And that front page story in the Telegraph last week by Miranda Devine had everyone reeling, because the notion that an all-girls high school would ban the word “girls” is somewhat ridiculous.

Yet that’s exactly what the Tele was claiming:

SCHOOL BANS GIRLS

EXCLUSIVE
PC MADNESS

Teachers told to talk gender neutral

— Daily Telegraph, 20 July, 2016

So, what was the basis for the story?

Well, star columnist Miranda Devine, who’s a passionate critic of the Safe Schools program—which she claimed was behind it all—assured us:

TEACHERS at a leading Sydney all-girls school have been asked to stop calling students “girls”, “ladies” or “women”, but to use “gender-neutral” language instead.

— Daily Telegraph, 20 July, 2016

And the Tele was happy to crank up the outrage on this hot button issue.

Putting it on page one and running another news story inside the paper headed:

Gender agenda bridge too far

— Daily Telegraph, 20 July, 2016

With a stern editorial to back it all up.

This girls school is no place for girls

— Daily Telegraph, 20 July, 2016

Plus ... a near full-page column from Ms Devine to tell us how stupid and shocking it all was:

TOLERANCE CLASS COP-OUT

THE PC POLICE ARE BULLYING OUR KIDS

— Daily Telegraph, 20 July, 2016

But there was one minor problem with all this commotion.

Because Cheltenham Girls’ High School soon made clear on its Facebook page that it wasn’t actually true.

The school has not, and will not, change the way students’ gender is referred to.

— Facebook, 20 July, 2016

A few hours later, the NSW Education Minister, also poured a bucket on the Tele’s front-page news, telling 2GB’s Ben Fordham.

ADRIAN PICCOLI: I don’t believe the story is true ... and let me just say it would be absurd to suggest at any school that that would be the case, that you can’t use the word 'girl' or 'boy' ... and they’ve got it wrong.

— 2GB, Sydney Live, 20 July, 2016

And to cap it all the NSW Education Department followed up with its own statement confirming:

No member of the school staff has ever been directed, or requested, to refrain from using terms such as ‘girls’, ‘ladies’, ‘women’ or other gender specific terminology when addressing students or staff.

— NSW Dept of Education, Email to Media Watch, 22 July, 2016

So what checks had the Tele made before splashing the scoop on page one?

Had Ms Devine spoken to any parents at the school?

Answer, no.

MIRANDA DEVINE: I have not actually talked to any parents directly, but I have talked to someone who has talked to the parents, they are desperate to be heard, but they are terrified ...

— 2GB, Nights with Steve Price, 19 July, 2016

So had anyone talked to the high school principal? Answer, no again. Although Devine had tried:

MIRANDA DEVINE: The principal, Susan Bridge, is very much on board with this. She was away on long service leave when some of these edicts were issued but I, I tried to talk to her today and she has not responded to my calls and instead has sent my questions off to the department.

— 2GB, Nights with Steve Price, 19 July, 2016

So if the Tele didn’t speak to parents or the principal, how could it be sure the edict was made?

Well, Devine claimed in her report that:

The request to teachers at Cheltenham Girls High School came in a staff meeting last term to discuss implementation of the controversial Safe Schools anti-bullying program for lesbian, gay and transgender, (LGBTI) students.

— Daily Telegraph, 20 July, 2016

And, in response to our questions, the Telegraph assured us it had, quote:

Detailed accounts from insiders who attended the meeting ...

— Daily Telegraph, Email to Media Watch, 22 July, 2016

But we’ve also talked to insiders.

And while they agree a request was made, they claim, it was by a junior teacher.

And that it only suggested gender-neutral language be used where students requested it.

It was not endorsed by the school. And it was certainly never a ban. And according to one source:

... it was not linked to calling a girl a girl in any way.

— Cheltenham Girls High School Teacher, Statement to Media Watch, 21 July, 2016

So what does the Tele have to about all these denials and the evidence that their alarming headlines were wrong?

The paper told Media Watch:

We emphatically stand by the story.

— Daily Telegraph, 22 July, 2016

And Miranda Devine is doing the same. She was on Sky News last night with Chris Kenny, and on 2GB this morning with Alan Jones, claiming the school and education minister are just covering up.

Meanwhile the fall-out has been toxic, with parents and pupils angry and bruised, and the principal bombarded with abusive calls and emails like this:

The promotion of lesbian filth in Cheltenham Girls High School is a national disgrace ... you should be sacked on the spot

— Email to Susan Bridge, Principal, Cheltenham Girls High School

Once again caving in to the minority of the hairy underarm lesbians and skinny little gay boys of lbgti or safe schools!

— Email to Susan Bridge, Principal, Cheltenham Girls High School

...full of sicko dyke and poof indoctrinators - LEAVE OUR KIDS ALONE!

— Email to Susan Bridge, Principal, Cheltenham Girls High School

Charming stuff. And all prompted by a classic Tele beat up.

YOUR COMMENTS

Comments (24)

Add your comment

Mark (my words) :

28 Jul 2016 4:22:38pm

Miranda offers only homophobia and fraudulent statements, sans journalism.

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Harry Potter :

28 Jul 2016 3:46:34pm

A Miranda Devine article is like Lord Voldemort's diary, it must be stabbed with a basilisk's tooth ...before it manipulates the weak-minded.

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Jane W. :

28 Jul 2016 3:46:03pm

Miranda Devine earns my "Stalkley Award" for 2016 journo most obsessively harassing lesbians and trans people... runner up Rebecca Urban. I await a tele-movie climax where they finally stop attacking and start dating us, realising their homophobia ultimately hid an internal struggle. They have that butch-esque 'aggressive' swagger we girls just MELT over!

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Dr Aaron Brown :

28 Jul 2016 12:12:43pm

Miranda Devine is an appalling hack; how companies can exchange money for her so-called 'work' astounds me. She does not research her stories, does not interview the people involved, does not examine data and is widely ridiculed by academics and even the general public. The woman only types (and re-types and re-types and re-types) one story: "me hate gay and transgender". Beyond bigotry, it discredits those companies publishing it.

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Reinhard :

28 Jul 2016 11:08:48am

So Devine's exclusive "source" is "someone who has talked to the parents".
I've also "talked to someone" who "talked to someone" who claims that Miranda Devine has two heads.
See how easy that is...

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Michelle Alber :

27 Jul 2016 11:04:39pm

This is not surprising. Miranda Divine s columns on the Greyhound racing ban similarly lack credibility. She took cheap pot shots at Animals Australia, and in doing so, made accusations about Peter Singer, one of the founders who likely has t been associated with AA for decades. She described him as supporting bestiality, involuntary euthanasia, infanticide etc Her description appeared to be identical to the description of him in Wikipedia. Havard University currently has a statement on their website explaining that Wikipedia is not a credible source of information. Could you please look into Miranda Divine s apparent use of Wikipedia as the basis for her reporting. Thank you.

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Darth Trad :

27 Jul 2016 8:29:50am

My daughters go to that school. It was a total media scrum/farce. All thanks to those lunatics at the Aust Liberty Alliance, who must have been looking around for new targets as their bid to muscle into the Senate didn't work. Is Miranda a supporter? Inquiring minds want to know.

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DinkumFair :

26 Jul 2016 10:27:36pm

So why to so many suckers still buy what the Murdock Press pumps out? Personally I prefer Sorbent. It is more comfortable and more hygienic.

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Karl :

26 Jul 2016 10:22:09pm

I have missed Miranda Devine's nonsense articles for far too many moons.

It was such a relief to read her "comic opera" piece.

I suggest that Paul Barry immediately set up (if he has not already done so) a gong for the end of the year called the "Miranda Devine Comic Opera" Award in her honour.

At present she is a shoe-in to win her own award. What a bonus!

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Jeff :

26 Jul 2016 8:46:09pm

Ah,The Daily Telegraph....or as Tharunka once put it "The Paper You Can Thrust."

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PC Madness :

26 Jul 2016 12:02:04pm

Good on you Miranda for exposing the Unsafe Schools program for what it is, Marxist brainwashing that ignores biology.

These children need help not enablement.

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Elizabeth :

26 Jul 2016 10:26:02am

I guess a comprehensive public school that performs so well, is so beloved by its students, does so much good for the community and has such an outstanding reputation was just too much for Miranda to take. She may have achieved some apparently essential-to-her attention and managed to froth up her acolytes but all she achieved locally was dismissive contempt; for her, not the school.

Kudos to Mrs Bridge and staff, you have handled this blatant lie and subsequent abuse as gracefully as you do everything. I'm very proud that my daughters are Cheltenham Girls and that as such they have the compassion, dignity and education to see this for what it is. Miranda and other complicit media, you have only made us stronger.

Thanks, as always, for being there, Media Watch.

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Richard le Sarcophage :

26 Jul 2016 9:34:26am

Partly this is, in my opinion, just another hate and lie-fest by the Murdoch machine, which doesn't do much but lie, distort and foment hate and fear, the inevitable result of forty years of total dominance of society by the psychopathic Right. But also, as we can see by the filthy homophobic abuse heaped on the school by the Telegraph's more rabid readers, and from the tack being taken by the Australian, that the Murdoch apparatus intends leading the homophobic forces during the plebiscite campaign regarding 'marriage equality'. Clearly the Murdochites see an outburst of homophobic hatred as beneficial to them and their 'Prince Across the Water', the dear, exiled, leader, Tony Abbott.

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Steve :

26 Jul 2016 4:34:52am

Well it is the Telegraph after all

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Disgusted :

26 Jul 2016 12:50:46am

If anyone still does not see the merit for the Safe Schools program, all they need to do is look at the disgusting homophobic and bigoted emails the Principal is getting over a made up story (hopefully these emails are from "concerned citizens" rather than parents). It is clear we still have a very long way to go :(

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Nic Brokenshire :

26 Jul 2016 12:21:39am

I was disgusted. To think that a leading Sydney girls' school could end a sentence with a preposition! ("The school has not, and will not, change the way studentsâ€™ gender is referred to.") What is the world coming to? :)

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Beating up a ban

YOUR COMMENTS

Comments (24)

Mark (my words) :

Harry Potter :

Jane W. :

Dr Aaron Brown :

Reinhard :

Michelle Alber :

Darth Trad :

Richard le Sarcophage :

DinkumFair :

Karl :

Richard le Sarcophage :

Jeff :

PC Madness :

Richard le Sarcophage :

Elizabeth :

Richard le Sarcophage :

Richard le Sarcophage :

Steve :

Disgusted :

Nic Brokenshire :

Richard le Sarcophage :

mike bird :

Andrew Qld :

Richard le Sarcophage :

Also in this episode

Beating up a ban

Leading us to war

Womb watching at the women's mags

Beating up a ban

YOUR COMMENTS

Comments (24)

Mark (my words) :

Harry Potter :

Jane W. :

Dr Aaron Brown :

Reinhard :

Michelle Alber :

Darth Trad :

Richard le Sarcophage :

DinkumFair :

Karl :

Richard le Sarcophage :

Jeff :

PC Madness :

Richard le Sarcophage :

Elizabeth :

Richard le Sarcophage :

Richard le Sarcophage :

Steve :

Disgusted :

Nic Brokenshire :

Richard le Sarcophage :

mike bird :

Andrew Qld :

Richard le Sarcophage :

Also in this episode

Beating up a ban

Leading us to war

Womb watching at the women's mags

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