A Former Ch 10 Presenter Has Dragged Lisa Wilkinson To Hell Amid Logies Speech Backlash
Wilkinson has been criticised by the Brittany Higgins' judge and the media for her Logies speech.
Lisa Wilkinson and Channel 10 will reportedly promise not to make any further comments regarding Brittany Higgins’ parliamentary rape allegations until the conclusion of the trial after Wilkinson’s Logies speech forced a major delay in the case.
The ACT Supreme Court has delayed Bruce Lehrmann’s trial for the alleged sexual assault of Brittany Higgins until October 4, amid high-profile public commentary on the case in recent days. Lehrmann not only maintains his innocence but denies that any form of sexual activity took place between himself and Higgins in early 2019.
Director of public prosecutions Shane Drumgold has reportedly asked lawyers for 10 and Wilkinson to provide written undertakings — which would include promises to refrain from further commentary on the matter. Both parties “will be forthcoming” in the request.
Commentary would likely be extended to broader conversations regarding parliamentary workplace culture, with Justice McCallum noting it would be hard to discuss this without inadvertently bringing up factors relevant to the trial.
“Even the discussion of a workplace culture has to do a delicate dance,” Justice Lucy McCallum told the court. “I think it would be a masterpiece of rhetoric and subtlety to avoid breaking the rules.”
The news comes after Wilkinson has been slammed by the media — including former Channel 10 employees — for her Logies speech.
FormerChannel 10 weatherman Tim Bailey told Wilkinson to “pull ya head in” in a now-deleted tweet, adding “I know this might be difficult because it is a very big head.”
Bailey has since deleted the tweet but added another comment seemingly directed at Wilkinson.
Ricky Gervais once said of awards:
“Just accept ya F-ing little trophy and F off!”Good advice, yeah?
— Tim Bailey (@dailybaileylive) June 22, 2022
Meanwhile, Sunrise presenter Nat Barr noted that it was strange that her speech seemingly didn’t get checked by Channel 10’slawyers before the Logies.
“You know, we have our own lawyers, we often consult them before we put a story to air, would this have been the case where Channel 10’s lawyers should have stepped in and lawyered this speech?” she said on Sunrise on Wednesday.
Interestingly, the lawyer interviewed on the same episode of Sunrise, Dr Matthew Collins — who called Wilkinson’s speech “ill-advised” — was reportedly approached later on Wednesday to represent Wilkinson and the Ten Network. It is unclear if he has accepted the offer.
In addition to undertakings from Wilkinson and 10, Drumgold is also in talks with Australian Radio Network regarding comments reportedly made on the Jonesy and Amanda Show. There are also reportedly as many as five books in the works from high-profile journalists like Samantha Maiden, Nikki Savva and Peter Van Onselen that could mention the allegations, with Drumgold looking into a course of action to prevent these potential books don’t jeopardise the trial.
It is understood that authors of any potential books will either be forced to remove any content that is before the court, or wait until the trial’s conclusion to publish.
Wilkinson is yet to publicly respond to the situation.