‘Not shocking at all’: Tracey Spicer blasts ‘problematic’ media industry amidst bullying and sexual harassment allegations
The Australian media industry is reeling from recent allegations of bullying and sexual harassment, but according to Tracey Spicer, this is not new.
On a new episode of Mumbrella’s one-on-one podcast, the revered TV broadcaster and journalist discussed recent claims that have hit the industry, and said they are, unfortunately, not surprising.
“They’re not shocking at all because the culture in the mainstream media has been problematic for a very long time,” Spicer told host Neil Griffiths.
“And to find the source of that, you only have to look at the lack of diversity at the executive levels, even after all these years.
“You know, in all my time in mainstream television, I only worked for one female boss, all the other ones were guys. And that’s not to say that they were bad – I had some really fantastic male mentors as well as some problematic guys who were in positions of power – but if you don’t have any kind of diversity in your leadership, obviously there are going to be problematic practices.
“And the media still hasn’t caught up with the proper policies and procedures that have been put in place in a lot of corporations since the Me Too movement.”
Spicer herself was embroiled in a highly-publicised lawsuit against her former employer, Network 10, in 2006, after she was dismissed six weeks after returning from maternity leave, arguing that “all of a sudden I wasn’t seen as a sexy young newsreader anymore”.
A settlement was eventually reached in early 2007.
Spicer’s statements echo comments made by fellow TV figure and Nine personality Kerri-Anne Kennerly earlier this year who said “history has just repeated itself” regarding the recent allegations.
“Back in the day, particularly women like Kerri-Anne who came through before me, just had to put up with it,” Spicer continued.
“I mean, I was fortunate to be going through at a time where I could call it out at a time when other women were calling it out. But 10 years prior to us, there was no way that women could have called it out because there was effectively one woman in every newsroom or one woman in every studio.
“It’s when you get critical mass that you can start to create change. It’s like that whole board piece. If you get 30% of women on the board, that’s when the culture starts to change.”
Listen to the full episode here.
Spicer will lead an online training program – Intro to Media Skills – for AFTRS for Business on July 30. Click here for more details.
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Neil Griffiths is the Managing Editor of Mumbrella. He joined the company in October 2023.
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