Jose Aquino against Stuff (Trump)

Stuff published an item on January 22, 2025, headlined Watch: The reactions of Trump, Vance and families in church as reverend pleads for mercy to LGBTQ+ people and migrants.

The video showed The Episcopal Bishop of Washington, the Right Reverend Mariann Budde speaking directly to President Donald Trump saying “you have felt the providential hand of a loving God.  In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now.”

The Associated Press article referred to executive orders issued by Mr Trump rolling back transgender rights and toughening immigration policies.

Jose Aquino complained that those references were biased, inaccurate and unsupported and that the article breached Media Council Principle (1) Accuracy, Fairness and Balance and (4) Comment and Fact.

He said: “No transgender rights have been rolled back. They still have the same rights as everyone else. They can still use bathrooms and play sports. The biased article doesn't identify specifically which rights have been 'rolled back' or how the order a roll back.

"During his inauguration speech, Trump said: ‘As of today, it will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female."

This is not a controversial policy and only started to be so a few years ago because of media driven ideology. You fail to grasp the truth of this statement. By putting it right after the 'roll back' claim, you seem to be falsely claiming that pointing out there are 2 genders is somehow a roll back of transgender rights. Again, you fail to explain how this is so.

“You also fail to identify the crassness of a bishop using a prayer service focused on national unity, to make partisan political points and why this might be seen as inappropriate.”

In response Stuff said the story linked to an earlier article which outlined Mr Trump's executive order on transgender rights. That included a requirement that federal prisons and shelters for migrants and rape victims would be segregated by sex and that federal taxpayer money could not be used to fund “transition services” such as gender-affirming surgery or treatments such as hormone therapy.

That article also reported the order blocked requirements at government facilities and at workplaces that transgender people be referred to using the pronouns that align with their gender.

The Media Council noted it was clear that President Trump had issued executive orders limiting advances made in recognising transgender people. The details of the orders were reported in a previous article which was linked to in the story that prompted Mr Aquino’s complaint.

While Mr Aquino disagreed with the news agency’s representation of the executive order by insisting “no transgender rights had been rolled back” the Media Council did not believe a case was made to show that the story was biased or inaccurate.

The Council noted Mr Aquino’s views on the subject and his comments about the bishop’s remarks. He was entitled to his opinions on those points but that did not amount to evidence that the reporting breached the Council’s principles. Beyond carrying fair, balanced and accurate news report of the Washington service and related context, there was no obligation for Stuff to criticise the bishop as Mr Aquino wanted.

 
Decision: There were no grounds to proceed.