More criticism of Channel 7, the voices behind the Voice, and the longest Jan 6 sentence yet

More accusations levelled at Seven over trans segment The fallout from Channel 7’s trans-panic edition of Spotlight continues. Firstly, transgender woman Grace Hyland complained that her image had been used in promotion of the episode without her permission, with the show seeming to imply she had been pressured into transitioning and/or regrets it, which isn’t true.

The program focused on people who had de-transitioned, claiming that children were being pressured to “change from boy to girl or girl to boy”. Now musician St. South says the same happened to them, petitioning the network to take the episode down: “I was horrified to find one of my post-top-surgery videos (expressing how much better my life is because of surgery) included in this segment without my consent.”

Channel 7 has already apologised to Hyland and taken the offending promo down. Is a broader apology coming? Watch this space.

Consulting process This week, accompanied by the pipes of John Farnham, the Yes campaign for an Indigenous Voice to Parliament launched a major ad. It’s a stirring piece, running through what an Australian of, say, 60ish would have seen change in their time — from 1967 to the present day, via Mabo and gun control, Nicky Winmar and marriage equality (and for reasons we can’t begin to fathom, Bob Hawke celebrating the America’s Cup). It was put together by The Monkeys, a big advertising company frequently responsible for the greatest crime known to humanity — genuinely moving adverts for terrible companies.

The Monkeys was snapped up by Accenture Song a few years back which… you may be seeing where we’re going with this… is part of Accenture, the big and powerful consulting firm (although not big four big and powerful). Yep, just like everything else in Australia, the Yes campaign is being run by a sodding consulting firm.

Containing multitudes Along similar lines, a tipster got in touch to point out that the publisher behind the official Our Voices From The Heart book, released last Thursday, is HarperCollins, which is owned by a little homegrown publisher called News Corp. 

Yep, not only does News Corp put aside its campaign to burn down the ABC and salt the earth from which it sprang when it comes to book deals, it also wants in on the pro-Voice campaign it dedicates so much of its newsprint and airtime to damaging.

Of course, News Corp has not attacked the Voice quite as uniformly as it does the ABC (because nothing else seems to earn that level of commitment), publishing work from Chris Kenny and Troy Bramston backing the voice and poking holes in the No Campaign. Interestingly, News Corp’s publishing arm has paid less attention to the No campaign than their news outlets, leaving edifying tomes like Gary Johns’ The Burden of Culture to more, uh, niche publishers like Quadrant Books.

Boys be not Proud Usually when we in the Crikey bunker report on “text messages read in court” it’s the kind that do nothing but embarrass powerful figures and possibly reveal a little of how that power is accrued and exercised. Today in the US, we got a powerful dose of the other kind, with former “chairman” of far-right street fighting group the Proud Boys Enrique Tarrio convicted of seditious conspiracy and sentenced to 22 years in prison for his role in the January 6 Capitol riots.

Tarrio is the fourth Proud Boy to be convicted over the riots, and his is the longest sentence handed down yet. He was not present for the riots himself, having been arrested a few days earlier and ordered by a judge to leave the city for burning a DC church’s Black Lives Matter banner and bringing “high-capacity rifle magazines” into the district. However, prosecutors argued Tarrio helped plan and coordinate the attack via a group chat.

Ultimately, Tarrio’s defence lawyers’ argument that he was not a terrorist but a “misguided patriot” couldn’t surmount the evidence of the group chat.

As Proud Boys swarmed the Capitol, Tarrio posted: “Do what must be done.” Later that day someone asked what they should do next. Tarrio responded, “Do it again.” As the riot peaked, Tarrio posted: “Don’t fucking leave.” Later, he wrote “Make no mistake, we did this.”

Prior to this, during the September 2020 presidential debate, when then and possibly future president Donald Trump was asked to condemn the Proud Boys, he simply said “Proud Boys, stand back and stand by”.