Ten's Dress Code Rates Zero With Its Women
THE SUNDAY AGE
Saturday May 7, 1994
IT IS more than two years since a memo on the Channel 10 newsroom notice board, welcoming new reporters Karen O'Sullivan and Bernadette Nunn, described the pair as ``two good little scrubbers".
Those insulted by the note bit back their protests. Now they say it was one in a long line of sexist insults levelled at the station's five women reporters, the latest of which came five days ago in the form of a written dress code from the chief of staff, Mr Tom Bennett.
The memo, a five-page document the network's news and current affairs head, Ms Carmel Travers, later told her journalists to throw in the bin, included such lines as: ``Trousers on women are generally as inappropriate as skirts on men."
``Despite the more realistic appraisal of the worth of women journalists nowadays," Mr Bennett wrote, ``dress standards for female reporters have never been properly defined, until now."
Mr Bennett ordered ``suits - only suits" on his women staff and suggested that the ideal hairstyle did not include a fringe. Although the memo was not addressed to the Ten newsreader Marie-Louise Thiele, it is uncertain as to Mr Bennett's opinion of her hairstyle, which includes a fringe.
``You should dress as though you were a merchant banker or a lawyer," he continued, and went on to ban ties and discourage jewellery. ``No reds, yellows, pinks, or patterns etc."
According to its recipients, the offending memo is the product of sentiments that have haunted the Channel 10 newsroom for years. Women reporters wearing trousers or boots to work have, on occasion, been referred to as ``dykes".
Mr Bennett, by recording his sentiments on paper, has brought the issue to a head.
Incensed by Mr Bennett's memo, and failure to apologise for it, all five women will meet station management next week to push for a more meaningful solution to the tension in the newsroom.
Ms Travers and Mr Neil McCarthy, the network chief of human resources, will arrive from Sydney in two days.
Mr Bennett was suspended by the station last Thursday for speaking without permission to 3AW's Sarah Henderson program.
The news director, Mr Neil Miller, who with the news editor, Mr Mike Tancred, approved Mr Bennett's memo, said Mr Bennett had been suspended pending an inquiry. Mr Bennett was expected to return to work tomorrow. He will receive a cool reception from his women staff.
According to Channel 10 staff, none of whom would be quoted, both Mr Bennett and Mr Tancred appeared unrepentant regarding the dress edict, which also drew criticism from rival news directors Mr John Sorrell (Channel Nine) and Mr David Broadbent (Channel Seven) and the ABC's Mary Delahunty.
All three called in to the Henderson program to condemn the Bennett memo. Ms Delahunty, presenter of the `7.30 Report', said: ``I actually know Tom Bennett and I think he needs a Valium. I think he needs to lie down, poor little love. What is he on about?" Mr Broadbent said: ``My first reaction was `Oh dear, Tommy is at it again'. The reference to other women reporters looking tacky is clearly nonsense. It's quite objectionable really."
Mr Sorell said: ``I think it's a relic of the 1970s, really. My girls are totally offended by that. These days you expect people to wear acceptable dress standards as on-air reporters and basically they do that. No way would I set out a rigid code like Tom did."
Mr Tancred, whose gold pass to the Edward Beale hairdressing salon was offered to women staff in the offending memo, made lighthearted threats to abandon his razor and tie. Both Mr Tancred and Mr Bennett appeared more concerned that the story of friction in the newsroom had been leaked to other media. Both refused to comment when contacted by `The Sunday Age'.
Equally angered by the Bennett memo was Ten's wardrobe assistant Ms Anne Sykes, who last Wednesday issued a counter notice to both Mr Bennett and Mr Miller, which read: ``We transmit in color, not black and white."
That night, Ten's newsreader Ms Thiele, in an apparent show of solidarity, appeared on camera in hot pink - a Bennett no-no.
© 1994 THE SUNDAY AGE