Nine entertainment report: TV reporters told they were the lucky ones while being bullied, groped and ignored
In Nine’s TV newsrooms across Australia, staff were told for so long how lucky they were to work there.
The reality — revealed in the bombshell independent report released by the embattled network on Thursday — was a melting pot of sexism, racism, bullying, misogyny, mistrust, ambition, drunkenness —and managers covering it all up.
The TV News and Current Affairs section of the Intersection findings lifts the lid on what life has been like inside the company’s TV news operations.
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By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.That operation was up until earlier this year run by Darren Wick, who quit in March under a cloud — but with a $1 million payout in his pocket as he left.
The type of operation he used to run makes for ugly reading.
More than half of staff said they had been bullied or harassed in the past five years. A third said they had been sexually harassed.
Only 14 per cent reported the bullying. And 5 per cent reported the sexual harassment.
The words of staff members, quoted in the report, spoke even louder than the numbers.
“Channel Nine … destroyed me as a human being. They ghosted me out of a job. I lost my career. This was the price I paid for speaking up. The minute I spoke up my life was over,” said one.
“Of course, senior leaders were aware of it. They enabled it and helped cover it up. Anyone who claims they didn’t know … would have to have been ... living with their head in a bucket of sand,” said another.
Staff described the environment as a “cowboy operation”. Of a work environment that “reeked of a man’s locker room”.
“Sexualised comments and jokes, staring and leering, to inappropriate touching, kissing, fondling or groping, as well as indecent exposure and stalking”, were behaviours mentioned.
And in internal competition for stories and positions, a significant gender pay gap, a heavy drinking culture — and bygone attitudes to female staff — and the report said many were left scarred by their workplace experience.
“I was broken. I left the newsroom after a year. By the time I left my soul was gone,” one staff member said.
However, the report found that there now appeared to be a “strong foundation for cultural change”.
