The Chaser Report - How To Build Rapport With Bruce Lehrmann (Taylor's Version)

Episode Date: April 7, 2024

Dom Knight and Charles Firth take an objective look at the testimony of Taylor Auerbach in Bruce Lehrmann's defamation case, without adding any of their own opinion, speculation, or theory to the facts of the matter. And to any Channel Seven producers wanting to build rapport with Charles or Dom, you now know what to do. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Chaser Report is recorded on Gatigal Land. Striving for mediocrity in a world of excellence, this is The Chaser Report. Hello and welcome to The Chaser Report with Dom and Charles. Charles, we said we'd do a wrap-up of the latest developments in the Bruce Lehman proceedings. Yes. And I just want to say from the offset, Charles, I just want to just get this off my chest. Reporting judicial proceedings is protected by the defence of absolute privilege under Section 27 Part to be of the Defamation Act.

So as long as we are simply describing evidence, documents, details tended in court, I don't see how anybody could sue us. Is there a problem with us sort of wryly commenting on our opinions about the veracity or otherwise of certain evidence tended in court? Yes. So what we should do is just have a very non-sarcastic tone. That's right. We should just lay it out.

out. It's very important to lay it out. There's no opinion. I certainly wouldn't want a snigger or laugh. Well, the funny thing is, Dom, that I suffer from a condition. It's very rare condition. Where things that I say sound sarcastic, even when they're not. The way these things work is they're on transcript, aren't they generally? Oh, yeah. So if the transcript of what you said is respectful and shows that you believe what's being said, I think the tone would be hard to communicate in a proceedings. Well, that's good. But also just recognise the if you do hear a bit of a sarcastic tone coming through, that's just a result of my very rare condition.

Yes. It doesn't convey any level of sarcasm at all. And also, I guess having spent our lives in satire, we have a sort of brain injury whereby we find it very hard to believe even people who've been very honest and done nothing wrong. Well, exactly. And it's actually debilitating for us. We are the victims in this scenario.

We are the victims, like so many other people in this story. And if people, if we were sued for defamation, you. It would actually be victimising us because of our condition. Yes. Let's get into it after this. Now, Charles, the thing I want to observe at the start of this process, and again, this is just a report of court proceedings. Yes, good.

I'm glad. We're sort of like the journal of record. Court reporters, in a sense, although we didn't intend the court. We're just basically reading out things from other newspapers. I just want to remind everybody that these proceedings began when Bruce Lehman was not identified by the project. He's claiming that the report that they aired, which did not mention his name, nevertheless identified him. Yes.

At this stage in the proceedings, Charles, would you say that we know who Bruce Lehman is? Yes. Would you say we know quite a lot about Bruce Lehman at this point in time? Yes, of course. Because a lot of evidence has been tended recently. We're going to go through some of the things that the court has heard recently. It's pretty extraordinary. It's pretty extraordinary.

It's the point what you're saying is, Bruce Laman brought this proceeding because already he thought, well, when somebody describes, you know, a creep running around Parliament House. He felt that he'd been identified. That's clearly me. Like, isn't that the point? That's what he did. Well, presumably that's what he was saying. Enough was said.

Yes. Enough was that the people could conclude it was me if they knew me. And then what you're saying is even beyond that, we have been, I think it's right to say, we have been surprised by the allegations. made against Bruce Lemon in the last week. Like, even knowing everything that we have already known, including things like the fact that he's also up on other sexual assault charges, completely unrelated to all the Britney Higgins stuff, in Toowoomba, which is in Queensland.

Which is in Queensland. There's a prominent Toowoomba figure or something, wasn't there, for a while. So even after all that, there's still a new level of allegations, which are a surprise, run us through them. Okay, so I've got the list here from The Guardian, and they've got a nice little bullet pointed. The five things we heard last Thursday, So we're recording this on Friday, as the proceedings continue, by the way.

So I'm not completely up to date. So this is from Taylor Albaq, who used to be a producer at Channel 7. A fine upstanding man. And was basically Bruce Lehman's Wrangler or Minder, trying to cajole him into giving an interview to their program Spotlight, right? Yes. So he's working for essentially a fairly tabloid TV news program. Charles. Don't be defaming Spotlight.

A fine upstanding program in no way salacious. But his job is. I mean, you know, like, think what you like about Taylor Olbeck, but, you know, like his job is to do the dirty work of getting interviews. Like, that's his job is to sort of wine and dine people. Prominent figures, and he's certainly whined and dine Bruce Lehman. Let's listen to some of the things the court heard. Point one, Orbach told the court, his evidence not ours, Charles,

that Lerman bought cocaine and Googled sex workers on a night out. Now, in point one, isn't there a bit of vertical integration? Don't you get the cocaine from the sex workers? Yeah, I would have thought so. It's going on there. It's very inefficient. The market needs to solve that one. So that's the allegation.

Yeah. Point two. Our buck claimed he was offered a pay rise in promotion. Sorry, how do you Google sex workers? Isn't that, wouldn't it? Is there illegal or something? Well, sex works legal and you say. No, that would be fine.

Okay, yeah, right. It's just independent contractors. Presumably. Yeah, it's just Google independent contractors. I'm going to Google right now. Do you have any co-com? Canes? Yeah, maybe you can tick a box that says that you can do that.

That's point one. Point two, Albuck claimed he was, and I'm quoting the guardian here, he was offered a pay rise in promotion after being rebuked by seven for putting a Thai massage parlor expense on a Channel 7 credit card and offering his resignation. So this night out happened. Yeah. So the court heard that basically the personal cards bounced. Wait a minute.

So is this for the sex work or the cocaine? The sex work. Allegedly that the women turned up at the, the hotel suite or the apartment, wherever it was that Channel 7 had paid for the accommodation. Yeah. And they brought a portable F-POS machine, as you do. As you do.

As you do. Yeah. Because they're independent contractors. Yeah, yeah. With a business to write. I hope they pay themselves super. Yeah. I wonder what the credit card charges are.

Anyway, so they brought the machine along. Yep. And their personal cars didn't work. They bounced. So our buck went, well, this is a bit embarrassing.

I've got to bring out the Channel 7 corporate card. That won't bounce, presumably. And so that's how Channel 7 got involved in pay. for it. Right. But was Albaq, surely, regardless of who paid for it on the night, this was a work-related expense for Al-Bak, wasn't it?

Like, his whole job is to get this guy across the line and to agree to do the interview. Well, this is one of the things that's been contesting. Being told, look, at all costs, let's get this story. This is a hot story. We want to talk to the victim in this story. Well, the... Bruce Lehman.

The thing that's strange is that apparently he then... the following day, he said to his boss, oh, I've charged all these things that were personal, I'll pay them back and offered to resign after what went down. But then the court heard he got a promotion. Right. So he was... So what you're saying is,

do you think that there was a... I mean, just spitballing here. This is not evidence. But spitballing here, you walk into your boss. You say, mate, I've done the most amazing thing. I've actually landed an interview with the guy that you told me to just no expenses spared get. Right.

But in doing so, some of the stuff that I would normally charge to my personal account, and then we'd work out a back channel to get me back the money, you know, through per DMs or whatever. Instead, I actually just had to go direct using the corporate credit card because my personal credit card didn't work. Charles, you wanted to know how this whole thing unfolded with Lehman and the Googling. I've got Albux testimony here. I'm quoting. Okay. He said he was building rapport with Lambert in the hope of securing an interview for Spotlight.

And here's where I'm quoting. Mr. Lehm had, over dinner, purchased a bag of cocaine while we were dining at Franca. Does that mean that someone delivered it to the restaurant? Is he claiming? Or was it like a bonus options menu or something? Was that the dessert menu? I don't know. So, wait a minute.

Where is Franca and how do we get a booking there? So he pulled the cocaine out and then started to put it on a plate. What? In the restaurant? Sorry, sorry. I missed it. And then when we got upstairs to the room, he pulled the bag out and started to put it on a plate. I'm quoting still.

And then started talking to me about a prospective spotlight story and his desire to order prostitutes to the Meritin that night and began Googling a series of websites to try and make that happen. So it's all come out. He's gone upstairs to the Meriton, which Seven, I think, paid for. That's not in dispute. Put the Coke on the plate. Start saying, well, we could do a story.

By the way, going to Google me some prostitutes to come to the Meritin. So it's all happening at once. Things are moving quickly, Judge. Yeah, that's right. Do you think it's building rapport? I think that's very rapport building. Okay. So I've got a few questions, which I'd like, I don't know whether it's been answered in evidence,

but did he microwave the plate first before he put the cocaine down? I don't know. You know how, otherwise it gets a bit, well, I've heard. You've heard. It gets a bit cluggie if you don't have a sort of slightly heated plate. It's a good tip, Charles. Thank you for that. I reckon that's a thing.

And what colour was the plate? Because white on wide, it's a disaster. Okay, I can only imagine. Okay. So this is the interesting. thing. So point two about the claim that Albaq was offered a pay rise and promotion after being rebuked. So Channel 7 asked lots of questions and I mean full credit to the credit card review team at Channel 7. They went, hang on a sec. This isn't quite right. So he sent an email or

resignation the following day. Right. 26th of November. Okay. 739 a.m. So I mean, well done to him for being up that early. So he was, yeah, well, you know, bump in the morning. So he built Channel 7 more than $10,000 for the services of the Thai massuses. Those are some high-paid masseuses. Especially, you'd think you'd get somewhere better than Merriton to do that. They'd sort of a bit low rent. There was somewhere where he had a jacuzzi. Anyway.

Oh, okay. Matthew Riches and SC, representing Lamon, said that Albux payment was personal rather than work-related. Really? Was it? He was building rapport. I reckon there should be evidence from the people who are on either side of that hotel room.

because Merritton apartments and the notoriously, the walls are very thin. Like, I think you'd probably be able to get the transcripters from the person next door. So, Lamond's lawyer says that it was personal, not work-related, had been dishonest in doing it. And then Albaugh said, no, no, it was to do with my work. And not only did Channel 7 not accept my resignation, but the week after they rebuked me, the week after they rebuked Orbach for building the company card,

he was offered a promotion and a pay-rise again from the Guardian. Well, you can interpret that however you want, But I don't think we're allowed to interpret that. No, no, no, no. I mean, he got the interview, right? He got the interview, but he probably, you know what I reckon was? I reckon he was promoted for his incredible remorse. It could be.

Also, maybe his bosses were kind and were like, oh, this poor bloke, he's spending $1,000 on prostitutes for his personal expenses. He needs more money. He needs more money. For his personal expenses. That makes sense. Be amazing to know. I've never thought of Channel 7 as a compassionate workplace, but

I'm getting the, like, the vibe you get is that their understanding of the foibles of their employees. Look, once you're in, they'll back into the yield. Ask Ben Roberts Smith. That's true. All right, let's take a break for a moment and just double-check the legislation on all of this. The Chaser Report, news you can't trust. A couple of other brief things that aren't really relevant here. Apparently Albuck hates his former colleague, Steve Jackson.

Lehmann's SC is trying to claim that this is all. Albaq getting revenge on Channel 7. But wait a minute, wait a minute. Don't Bruce Lerman and Albaq have great rapport? Well, not so much anymore. All right. No, I think the lawyers are getting stuck into each other. Look, I hope that after this they can become friends again.

Well, I wonder how they'll become friends again. There's a ritual. Okay, so there's that. Now, this is where it starts getting more concerning. It says here Albaq admitted sending naked. photos of a woman to journalists without her consent. What? Yeah. Albeck did this. Alback. And this is what was apparently related.

The question in court was whether this was related to the termination of his employment at Sky News. And apparently Sky News told him that they were terminating him for trust and confidence issues. So Albaq's, well, no, there's some problem with our back. There's some credibility. Credibility issues. The final thing is, and this is interesting, Albaq claims that he let Liam in into the Channel 7 offices to photocopy confidential court documents. Oh my fucking Lord. What? And so this is interesting.

Yeah, that's... So, Lamon got all these documents, presumably through the discovery process or whatever. Yes. You get anything that the other side have on you, you get a copy of. Which you're explicitly not allowed to then share with media organizations. Like, when you do discovery... Is that right? Yes. You've been involved in discovery. Yes. When you're involved in discovery, the whole point is they are there simply for the purposes of

that court proceeding. It's actually quite... Albuck alleges that some of this stuff was... Photographed by Mark Llewellyn, the Spotlight EP. Fucking hell. And he actually says that the smoking gun here is that Llewellyn's glasses and bald head were visible in the screen reflection. That's what our buck's calling. Wow, I think there's a lot of people with bald heads at Channel Cere. I mean, I, where was Cossier at the time?

Look, that is a very, I mean, that is, that's a big allegation. It's certainly a big allegation. Why is that good, but it's the least salacious. So nobody's reported. So Albuck let him into Channel 7. This is what he's saying. You let Lammon into the Channel 7 office, presumably in Martin Place. Yeah.

Used his staff pass to log into the photocopier. Yeah. And left Lammon there to photocopy a large number of legal documents. So basically the whole dossier allegedly was handed over. No, mate, no. That is not what it's saying. It's saying that maybe he just, his Kinko's card had run out. Maybe he needed to do some, maybe he was doing it.

He was just admin. And he would have just taken those documents away. Right, like, he understands, Bruce Laman understands that he's not allowed to just will he nearly share it with the media organization. I'm sure, like I'm sure. Maybe he was just photocopying his ass and just sending it to all staff who then couldn't identify. Oh, I wonder whether actually, I reckon photocopy would be a good surface to do cocaine from. Would it? Yes, because it's like it's a flat glass surface.

Flat glass surface and you could heat it up by using the photocopier thing. Yeah. And then set it to all stuff along with your ass, right. So Albaq also alleged that a layman paid for the night, the big night, other than the presumably the charges for sex workers, but then asked for and receive reimbursement for Channel 7. So it's not clear exactly how much Channel 7 paid for in all of this. But that's not very surprising either,

because isn't Channel 7 paying for his apartment? They're paying for a lot of things for the guy, yeah, yeah. Yeah, like he's just... It's sort of like their version of charity. You know how some organizations do things like give to the homeless or give to, you know, environment or, you know, give to medicine Saint-Frontier. Yeah, people who are, you know, doing it tough. Yeah, yeah. And Channel 7 looks at Bruce Lemon and goes, well, that's our, that's what we do.

So, Charles, I guess the question I'd ask at the end of this, and it's really for listeners to make up their own minds, I wouldn't want to speculate. Have these proceedings saved Bruce Lehman's report? and protected it from any harm it may have received at the hands of the project? Or is Bruce Lehmann now in a more embarrassing position than he was when he started? This is something defamation plaintiffs often end up asking themselves, I've noticed, Charles. Yes, yes. It does make you go. Maybe defamation law in this country doesn't need reform.

Like maybe... Well, it did get reformed, so that truth was a complete defense. That was a good change. And I think people are still having... a hard time catching up with that reform because they're key. But it's good. I like the defamation laws at the moment.

A lot of people say they're still too, you know, on the side of the plaintiff. They're not looking that way in court. The plaintiffs aren't kicking a lot of ass in the court. Yeah, but I like them because they sort of like, it's like putting out some bait for a fish. A trail of white powder. A trail of white powder.

They grab onto it and then we get to be able to read the court transcripts. everyone wins. I mean, all I'm saying, this is just after the court heard, we're not reflecting on what I mean in any way. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm just, I just hope justice is done, Charles. I just hope justice is that my only hope in mentioning these proceedings is a desire to see justice done.

This just leads me with one question. I guess at the end of all this evidence we've heard, all this interesting detail, which doesn't mean anything as far as I can tell. I certainly doesn't make me change my opinion of anybody's reputation. What can we sell Channel 7? Because to be honest, they pay well. Yes. But the problem is, I don't really.

want to, like, none of the things that got rapport with Bruce Lamb in it, they're not really things that would get rapport with me. Oh, would you have to hang out with Channel 7? You'd have to hang out with producers from the spotlight? See, this is the, I mean, maybe that's the way they get rapport with us is to agree. Like, $10,000, I'm just thinking you could buy the latest Mac. Like, there's so many. I love that.

If you want to buy Charles, get it the latest Mac. You can put that towards your mortgage. Yeah, or you could put it towards your mortgage. You could buy a fuck-it-off TV. I mean, like, there's so many that you could go around the world on that sort of money. So you heard it here first. If any media organisation wants to buy Charles Firth, just get the latest Mac. Yep.

And bring it to the Chastrolet. Who can you give dirt on? Anyone. Anyone? Like, I'll sell you out for a new Mac. Our gear is from Brod. We're part of the iconic class network. Charles Firth is on the market.

I've got all the dirt on Domnight.