Jacobs shared her thoughts and reflections on her own media journey as she delivered the keynote speech at the annual Crown Pride Luncheon last Friday.
For many years Jacobs was in Perth homes each night at the newsreader on Ten’s nightly news bulletin. She’s a trailblazer, the first Aboriginal woman, and the first lesbian to hold such a position in Australian television.
Nowadays she’s based in Sydney reading the midday news across the nation, and she also spent a few years experiencing a different kind of television, joining the opinion sharing show Studio 10.
It was burns expert Doctor Fiona Wood that inspired Jacobs to make the move to Sydney and be the proverbial smaller fish in a bigger pond.
During an interview with Wood, Jacobs asked her if she was ever satisfied with her achievements, the medical experts answered no – she is always looking for the next professional peak to climb. It’s a comment that prompted Jacobs to consider diving into new challenges.
Not long after Jacobs arrived on the east coast, she began to cover some of the biggest stories of her career – devastating bush fires and a global pandemic.
“It can really shirt you into fifth gear. I felt like I was slogging my guts out to stay across everything.” Jacobs shared.
Sharing her views was a new experience
“At the beginning, being part of Studio 10 was completely different to being a news reader, a news anchor. I never had to share my opinions, everything was on auto-cue, there was no time to ad-lib, there were no opinions.”
“First of all, I didn’t think I had any opinions.” Jacobs said of her arrival on the chat show. “I’d come from a place where I didn’t think anybody wanted to hear them.”
Jacobs shared that she quickly learned about both-sides-ism in the media and how clear facts can often be jettisoned in a desire to give positive and negative sides of a debate equal space, and she also found herself being completely misquoted by other media outlets.
As an Indigenous woman, colleagues were eager to hear Jacobs’ thoughts on issues about race. She recalls discussions about Australia Day celebrations as being one key moment.
“A little later in the year Black Lives Matter really kicked off after the murder of George Floyd” Jacobs said. “Everyone was asking, ‘How could they burns down their shops, their neighbourhoods, their businesses, their services they rely on?’
“People didn’t realise the impact that racism has. When you experience racism everyday you become enraged. When the communities in Minesota said they wanted to defund the police, on Studio 10 that day I said, ‘Well if the community wants it, then that’s what they should have.”
Immediately there were headlines claiming that Jacobs wanted to defund the police, when all she’d actually said was that communities should make their own decisions. The story was picked up in Perth by the breakfast team on radio station 6PR, Jacobs said she wouldn’t name the presenters responsible, before smiling and noting that Perth’s Lord Mayor was not at the lunch.
Jacobs said she next found herself the focus of attention following the death of Queen Elizabeth II.
“It wasn’t a nuanced conversation about how complicated the relationships are between First Nations people and the monarchy.” Jacobs said reflecting on how the media seized upon comments she’d made on Studio 10 when she asked to explain why some Indigenous people felt disappointed that during the Queens 70-year reign, she had not done more to acknowledge the effects of colonisation.
Once again Jacobs found herself looking at headlines that were completely different to what she’d actually said.
Jacobs says she became the go-to person for ‘woke’ issues
On Studio 10 Jacobs said she found herself cast in the role of the person to turn to for issues that were being labeled ‘woke’.
“Trans women in sport, gender neutral toilets or clothing in the kids section of K-Mart.” Jacobs said listing of the topics that were thrown her way. She recalled that when Alok Vaid-Menon was invited to be a guest on the show, her co-presenter who was tapped to do the interview alongside her pulled out and left her to speak to the non-binary activist and writer on her own.
“I was so excited to have Alok on Studio 10 talking about gender issues and all the things that they love to talk about and they’re a world leader for.” Jacobs shared, but said it was one of many examples of where her cohosts said “you just do it” when it came to topics of sexuality, gender or race.
The TV host said she also found it frustrating when TV producers took an attitude that whenever someone appeared on screen to advocate for something there also needed to be someone to speak against it. It was an issue that became more obvious during the lead up to the referendum on the the Voice to Parliament.
“You don’t need to have a ‘no’ for every ‘yes’.” Jacobs said describing it as a misrepresentation of the issue. “I came to know really intimately what both-sides-ism means.”
In a blunt assessment of the role the media plays in society Jacobs touched on big news stories including the conflict in Gaza, the death of indigenous Perth teen Cassius Turvey, the arrest of Perth grandmother Donna Nelson in Japan, and the deaths of Jesse Baird and Luke Davies.
“Palestine, both-sides-ism, when we talk about the death toll being 44,000 Palestinians and 140 journos and 228 workers being guild, we don’t have to keep bringing it back to October 7th.” Jacobs said.
“Being the diversity is both a blessing and a curse. A blessing – because you’re there and you can push the change. A curse – because you’re there and you are the change.”
Jacobs said there needed to be more recognition of ‘cultural load’ in large organisations, so that people from diversity backgrounds were not always called on to be the ones who spoke up for issues.
“The cultural load that we carry as diverse Australians in enormous. What organisations don’t realise is that our opinion, our ideas, us speaking up – saves them from themselves.”
Jacobs noted that stories about Indigenous Australians have far less reach in the media. While the death of Cassius Turvey and the arrest of Donna Nelson were big news stories in Perth, they have not been picked up as much on the east coast. Jacobs questioned if a much greater level of coverage would have eventuated if either person had not been Indigenous.
Call for more awareness and support for domestic violence in queer communities
In her current role on the midday news Jacobs shared that was worked to bring stories about domestic violence and domestic violence in the queer community to air.
“This became apparent when my dear colleague Jesse Baird and his partner Luke Davies, much loved QANTAS crew member, were allegedly murdered. It hit us very hard, and it was felt throughout the world.”
Jacobs described former Chanel 10 producer and presenter Jesse Baird as someone who was like a little brother to both her and wife Karina. Reporting his death, and the investigation into the double murder, was a difficult challenge for Jacobs and all at Chanel 10.
Following allegations that the police themselves had shortcomings in ensuring community safety in relation to the deaths the board of the New South Wales Mardi Gras uninvited police from the 2024 parade, which was due to take place just days after the two young men’s bodies were located.
For a mainstream audience there was bewilderment at the response, questioning if the LGBTIQA+ community was failing to meet the standards of its own celebration of inclusivity by omitting the police from the parade.
Jacobs referred to a chapter in a new book from author Roxanne Gay who comments on the global issue of police inclusion in Pride parades saying “Unless you prove that you’re worrthy of being included in our community, you don’t get to help us celebrate.” The reading of the quote getting a loud round of applause.
“One in ten people in queer community have experienced domestic violence, but because it doesn’t get any attention in the media, there aren’t a lot of services and there isn’t a lot of work done in prevention.” Jacobs noted.
LGBTIQA+ communities are always forced to fight for progress
Jacobs noted that legislation to ban that under-16 from social media platforms is being rushed through parliament, even though many experts have questioned the effectiveness of the proposal, and queer kids have been identified as a group who will lose social connections.
“Bipartisanship for things, like this social media ban on children, that actually harm our communities, comes so easily – because it harms are communities. And things that will help our communities are not done through bipartisanship – we have to fight for it.”
“Marriage equality could have been legislated, but instead it went to a vote that opened the floodgates to homophobia. Religious freedom and anti-discrimination bills that protect LGBTIQA+ folks could be legislated, instead they are weaponised against of most vulnerable with ugly debates demoising us.” Jacobs lamented.
“Our rights as queer people have never come easily, our right to exist is a constant fight. Our right to work in a safe environment is a constant fight, the right to housing.”
Jacobs hightlighted that at the intersection of being a person of colour, having a disability, being a queer person – the right to housing becomes a distant target.
The news presenter also questioned the WA parliament’s lack action of rights reform in the areas of intersex rights.
“Because fear wins votes, we are demonised, our issues are weaponised. We’re told to be afraid of difference in our society – because our children are being corrupted.”
Jacobs said the recent court win by Alex Greenwich over fellow NSW politician Mark Latham may be a turning of the tide.
Reaffirming her commitment to supporting the LGBTIQ+ communities through being the patron of Rainbow Futures WA and being an ambassador for the Pinnacle Foundation, Jacobs said Pride celebrations were a time to recharge and celebrate but there was still a lot of work to be done.
“There’s still a lot of equality to be achieved, but together, we can achieve it.”
