45 emails sent to ABC about Antoinette Lattouf after two days in the job
The ABC had received 45 emails from listeners about Antoinette Lattouf by her second day as a casual radio host at the national broadcaster.
The ABC received 45 email complaints from listeners about Antoinette Lattouf in her first two days as a stand-in radio host at the public broadcaster.
Outgoing ABC managing director David Anderson had the correspondence about Antoinette Lattouf forwarded on to then-ABC chief content officer Christopher Oliver-Taylor, who apologised repeatedly to former ABC chair Ita Buttrose for the position he had put her in.
“We are dealing with this issue at hand and apologise that you are receiving this correspondence. It is not acceptable,” he wrote in an email to her on Wednesday, the day Ms Lattouf would be taken off the air.
“It goes with the job Chris … I think we will keep getting these complaints until Antoinette leaves,” Ms Buttrose, who is expected to take to the witness box on Tuesday, said.
A minute later, he responded: “I agree. We have been left in an untenable position as to how to resolve and are working to find the best solution to this predicament. Again I apologise to you, David (Anderson) and the Board for putting you in this position.”
Behind the scenes, for the three days in December 2023 that Ms Lattouf guest-presented Sydneys Mornings, ABC executives were scrambling to deal with the flurry of complaints, which were centred around Ms Lattouf and the ABC’s “impartiality”, and her article for Crikey titled “fact-checkers can’t verify viral ‘gas the Jews’ footage”, as well as media interest from The Australian.
On Monday December 18 at 1.35pm, following Ms Lattouf’s first on-air shift, Mr Anderson wrote to Mr Oliver-Taylor to say “I’ve started to get many complaints about Antoinette” and queried what department she was in. He attached an email complaint sent to communications minister Michelle Rowland, which said: “This person has very loudly, clearly and widely announced her partiality regarding the current crisis in the Middle East.”
At 9pm that night, Mr Anderson texted Mr Oliver-Taylor to say the now infamous words: “I think we have an Antoinette issue.”
He continued: “Her socials are full of ant-Semitic (sic) hatred. I’ll send you a link. I’m not sure we can have someone on air that suggests that Hamas should return to their ethnic cleansing in Gaza and move onto the West Bank.”
Mr Anderson attached a post by Ms Lattouf which she called “Responding to fan mail about Gaza”.
Asked by an Instagram user following the October 7 massacre whether Ms Lattouf expects Israel “to keep quiet”, she said: “Hell no! They should finish off the ethnic cleansing job they started. Then move on the West Bank. Kill and annex. Then same with Lebanon and Jordan.”
Mr Anderson continued: “It is a reputational issue. And clearly we need to research anyone as a replacement presenter rather than just Steve be happy they’ve done Ed pols training. As per Justine’s note to News staff, the perception of our people’s impartiality is as important as their adherence to the policies. Anyway, let’s chat tomorrow.”
Mr Oliver-Taylor responded: “Agree … Likely on air tomorrow but I presume she gets pulled off air after tomorrow’s shift.”
He emailed the Instagram post to then-acting head of the ABC’s Capital City Networks Steve Ahern, and acting editorial director Simon Melkman, along with the words: “I think we have a problem”.
Mr Melkman responded “at this stage I’d advise caution” but said “from seeing the full post it’s reasonably apparent that she was sharing tongue-in-cheek / humorous retorts” and not “egregious enough to warrant pulling her off air”.
He said that “I think there’s a high chance that if the ABC was to cut her presenting role short because of this Instagram post – a post which she would presumably argue was entirely defensible, and not reflective of offensive views etc. – she would make it a very big (and very public) issue.”
The next morning, Mr Oliver-Taylor received more advice from Mr Melkman, who said he had not identified “any breaches of our personal use of social media guidelines” and that there were “key differences between this case and the Josh Szeps case” because he was pulled from air because “he undertook non-ABC activity (appearing on Sky News) without ABC permission” but she had not breached her contract.
The next morning at 11.19am, Mr Oliver-Taylor emailed Mr Anderson to say “she has not breached the personal use of social media guidelines that we are aware of, she has three shifts remaining and the link to the ABC is nascent due to her casual employment.”
That night, at 8.49pm, Ms Buttrose emailed Mr Anderson to ask “Has Antoinette been replaced. I am over getting emails about her.”
He responded 40 minutes later that “Antoinette will finish up on Friday. It’s a managed exit given the situation. I can explain more tomorrow.”
Ms Buttrose: “I have a whole clutch more of complaints. Why can’t she come down with flu? Or Covid. Or a stomach upset? We owe her nothing, we are copping criticism because she wasn’t honest when she was appointed. Managed exit. Really … We should be in damage control not managed exits David.”
He forwarded on the email chain to Mr Oliver-Taylor who recommended they “hold until Friday” or the “blow back will be phenomenal”.
The next morning, Ms Lattouf’s third day in the job, Mr Anderson sent Ms Buttrose a long email which began “Dear Ita, We are absolutely in damage control”.
“We have been placed in an untenable position.”
He blamed Mr Ahern of making a “negligent, error of judgment by employing Ms Lattouf” and said they directed Ms Lattouf that the topic of the Middle East conflict is “off limits”.
“There is without doubt already damage caused by her engagement. I expect the WhatsApp group email campaign where we are receiving emails regarding her ‘appointment’ to continue until we reveal on Friday that Ms Lattouf will not be returning next week.”
Mr Ahern, Mr Melkman, and Mr Oliver-Taylor, head of audio Ben Latimer met to discuss a social media post that read: “HRW reporting starvation as a tool of war”.
At 12.29pm, Mr Oliver-Taylor texted Mr Anderson to say it was “my view … that she had breached our editorial policies while in our employment”.
“She also failed to follow a direction from her producer not to post anything while working with the ABC. As a result of this, I have no option but to stand her down.”
A short time later, he said it had been “actioned”.
In a file note to himself on December 21, Mr Oliver-Taylor writes “Apparantly (sic) no checks were made as to whether she could be considered impartial for the ABC’s audience”.
“Highest potential controversy is us pulling her off air and the story is that there is unjustifiable complaints from a pro-Israel lobby that has led to her sacking,” he also noted.
“Main lightning rod is the contentious journalism in crikey.”
Ms Buttrose is expected to give evidence on Tuesday, along with Mr Ahern.
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