Don Burke - Our own Donald Trump

[basilio]

The last couple of days has seen the destruction of Don Burkes (public) persona as Mister Gardening nice guy. Turns out he is an absolute pig of a man in his relations with women ( in particular.)

Apart from his belief that being a star entitles him to say/do anything he wants with any women who crosses his path he also has the particular Trumpian talent of evoking total denial as a defense.

When the list of accusers stretches from senior managment at Channel 9 to the production staff who watched his behaviour to the people who had to endure it the total denial ploy looks as effective as King Canute ordering the tide to stay.

I suppose the overriding question is " How has he gotten away with it for so, so long ?


http://www.canberratimes.com.au/com...t-for-men-like-don-burke-20171127-gztgu3.html

Olympic swimmer Susie O'Neill 'flabbergasted' at Don Burke comments: 'It was crude and it was belittling.

...An absolute monster'

As a result, dozens more people have come forward with allegations about Burke.

"I was a researcher for many years, he was horrific,' said one woman.

Another said he was "gobsmackingly disgusting".

Even a producer who worked with him when he did the odd story for A Current Affair in more recent years, said: "I've worked with a lot of pigs but none so depraved as Burke."

One former print journalist said Burke was "alarming and revolting" to deal with. When she went to do a behind-the-scenes story on Burke's Backyard, the program was filming the house of an elderly couple.

"At the house, Don started making revolting and sexual comments about the plants to the lovely elderly lady," she said.

"He said one flower looked like female genitalia after giving birth. Another he said looked like a clitoris. The woman was horrified.

"It was pretty squishy in the house - you know what filming is like, with the crew and everyone - so Don asked me to sit on his lap. I flatly refused.

"He made similar comments at the next people's house. He was an absolute monster."

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/ent...de-and-it-was-belittling-20171127-gztw2n.html

 

[tech/a]

Not even close to Trump

Fake headline

 

[Tisme]

Another dredging exercise for everyone with an indignation gene to revise history with today's values.

And it's old news that cast and crew have axes to grind with Don Burke. Back in the day it was common knowledge he took no prisoners when it came to everyone doing their job meticulously. I bet there are plenty of Burkes Backyard people who failed the test and have axes to grind using sexual and any other reasons to put the sequiturs in.

 

[SirRumpole]

Being a pig is different from committing a crime. If people are alleging sexual assault, they need to take it to the police and have charges laid and not use the media and cheque book journalism to get revenge.

 

[basilio]

"Being a pig" is a short hand way of saying Don Burke routinely behaved in a way that disgusted his colleagues, his staff and the management at Channel 9.

Being a perfectionist can raise hackles. This went far beyond that.

We know how far because Don Burke himself said the alleged comments were disgusting and he had never/would never say such things. The fact that these comments were heard and reported by scores of people who worked in and around him suggest that either every other person is a liar - or Don Burke is liar.

That is the Trump connection.

Lets sample what a Don Burke pig comment looks like. And the rest of the article tells a story of a woman who ended her career in journalism after a traumatic Don Burke incident.

Olympic swimmer Susie O'Neill 'flabbergasted' at Don Burke comments: 'It was crude and it was belittling'

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In the wake of the explosive revelations about the behaviour of Don Burke, Fairfax Media has been inundated with emails and calls from members of the public, former employees and other media figures making further allegations against the former top-rating presenter.

Olympic swimmer Susie O'Neill said she was alone in her Brisbane house when Burke and two male crew members came to film her in the lead-up to the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

Usually high-profile sports people have a minder, but this was the genial gardener from Burke's Backyard. O"Neill thought, "how dangerous could that be?"

But as she stood in front of one of her favourite artworks, a painting of a flower done by her husband, Burke remarked, "Is your c--- as big as that?"

O'Neill was flabbergasted. "It was crude and it was belittling," she said.

Nick Cummins, her manager at the time, told Fairfax Media he was horrified when he received O'Neill's call to tell him what had happened with Burke. "She was intimidated by the crude sexual innuendo," he recalled.

Former crew members contacted during an extensive Fairfax Media/ABC investigation confirmed O'Neill's account of Burke's behaviour.

Mr Cummins, now CEO of Cricket Tasmania, said he immediately contacted both Channel Nine's management and Burke himself.

"Burke was so convincing in his denials," Mr Cummins recalled.

When he read Fairfax Media's account of women making accusations against Burke, Mr Cummins wanted to point out that it was not just "disgruntled" former Burke employees with an axe to grind.

"It has stayed with me all those years," he said. "It was such an injustice." Although O'Neill's management did their utmost to pull the program, Nine pointed out that O'Neill was contracted to the network and refused to budge.

 

[Junior]

Another dredging exercise for everyone with an indignation gene to revise history with today's values.

And it's old news that cast and crew have axes to grind with Don Burke. Back in the day it was common knowledge he took no prisoners when it came to everyone doing their job meticulously. I bet there are plenty of Burkes Backyard people who failed the test and have axes to grind using sexual and any other reasons to put the sequiturs in.

Just to be clear....you are defending the alleged behaviour of Don Burke?

 

[basilio]

Anyway Don Burke appears to want to take these allegations to court for defamation.

Be fun to see how that turns out. I'll shout the popcorn !!

"Daily Mail Australia earlier revealed Burke called in top defamation lawyer Patrick George, senior partner at the law firm Kennedys Australia.

Burke called the allegations 'false and defamatory' and appeared poised to take legal action against his accusers. "
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...CEO-David-Leckie-speaks-Don-Burke-claims.html

 

[tech/a]

Another dredging exercise for everyone with an indignation gene to revise history with today's values.

Not condoning but I do agree with this.
Things were more liberal and accepted at the time---not accepted now.
This could go back to many different issues

Homo sexuality.
The village people.
Thunder from Down under.
Every Beauty pageant ever run
Kids Beauty pageants and their parents
Cartoons---watch fog horn leg horn!

The list goes on.
Should be a statute of limitations if there isn't then its discrimination!
There are statutes of limitations on most everything else.

 

[Tisme]

Just to be clear....you are defending the alleged behaviour of Don Burke?

I'm saying if it was so bad back in the day, there was nothing stopping any of them from making a formal complaint and seeking legal advice.

Today you look at someone the wrong way and your'e a sexual predator.

My bet is most men have someone in the ether who would climb all over their backs given the chance of a mob assassination as a vehicle. It'll be adults seeking apologies from primary school teasing next on the agenda.

Your question has been crafted to assume Don is guilty as charged and asking me to defend a unspecified behaviour. Perhaps you might like to present the argument in terms of what is actually alleged, on a scale of 1 to 10 how plausible the allegations are, on a scale of 1 to 10 how they relate to sexual misconduct and on a scale fo 1 to 10 how relevant today's snowflake insults are to 1970's 80's, 90's.

 

[Tisme]

Being a pig is different from committing a crime. If people are alleging sexual assault, they need to take it to the police and have charges laid and not use the media and cheque book journalism to get revenge.

What we actually witnessing is "bystander effect". Society has had so many social and correction changes made they are like frogs in a pressure cooker. Instead of heading off the assaults they have been do nothing sheep, just watching on and being penned in by others.

WE all knew that the entertainment industry is full of casting couches, actors, etc and that there's a price for everything, but now the performers have spilled out into mainstream society with their own peculiar brand of ethics and the public don't see them as the skilled actors they are.... they make a living out of convincing people they have values they don't really possess, including vanity.

 

[Junior]

I'm saying if it was so bad back in the day, there was nothing stopping any of them from making a formal complaint and seeking legal advice.

Today you look at someone the wrong way and your'e a sexual predator.

My bet is most men have someone in the ether who would climb all over their backs given the chance of a mob assassination as a vehicle. It'll be adults seeking apologies from primary school teasing next on the agenda.

Your question has been crafted to assume Don is guilty as charged and asking me to defend a unspecified behaviour. Perhaps you might like to present the argument in terms of what is actually alleged, on a scale of 1 to 10 how plausible the allegations are, on a scale of 1 to 10 how they relate to sexual misconduct and on a scale fo 1 to 10 how relevant today's snowflake insults are to 1970's 80's, 90's.

I haven't asked you to defend Don Burke. You already did that, which I find odd unless you worked with Don through that period of time, or have some knowledge of what happened.

The sheer volume of stories coming out, from not just women, but men who worked with him, indicate a high probability that there is some truth to the stories. If you think some of that behaviour was acceptable even 20 or 30 years ago.....then you're a lost cause. Have you ever asked a woman at work if she has a big c*nt? Have you booked a hotel room for young woman and told her it's a part of the job interview process? Was that normal in the 80s?

I don't know how much truth there is to those allegations, but jumping to defend the guy straight off the bat seems odd to me.

 

[basilio]

What we actually witnessing is "bystander effect". Society has had so many social and correction changes made they are like frogs in a pressure cooker. Instead of heading off the assaults they have been do nothing sheep, just watching on and being penned in by others.

WE all knew that the entertainment industry is full of casting couches, actors, etc and that there's a price for everything, but now the performers have spilled out into mainstream society with their own peculiar brand of ethics and the public don't see them as the skilled actors they are.... they make a living out of convincing people they have values they don't really possess, including vanity.

What are you on about Tisme? This makes no sense. At all.

 

[Logique]

Not being partisan are you Bas?

You're not saying Don Burke is the Aussie Bill Clinton are you? Bill Clinton the alleged intern fiddler. And defended by his wife Hillary. Both Democrats.

Bas, let's see you come out and protest in defense of Monica Lewinsky.

 

[Value Collector]

Not being partisan are you Bas?

You're not saying Don Burke is the Aussie Bill Clinton are you? Bill Clinton the alleged intern fiddler. And defended by his wife Hillary. Both Democrats.

Bas, let's see you come out and protest in defense of Monica Lewinsky.

Wasn't the relationship between Bill and Monica Consensual? I don't know all the details, but from memory I can't remember it being a case of sexual harassment.

Bill might have been a crappy husband, but that doesn't equal sexual harassment,

I am willing to be proven wrong, on the details, but I don't think they are same.

 

[Tisme]

I haven't asked you to defend Don Burke. You already did that, which I find odd unless you worked with Don through that period of time, or have some knowledge of what happened.

The sheer volume of stories coming out, from not just women, but men who worked with him, indicate a high probability that there is some truth to the stories. If you think some of that behaviour was acceptable even 20 or 30 years ago.....then you're a lost cause. Have you ever asked a woman at work if she has a big c*nt? Have you booked a hotel room for young woman and told her it's a part of the job interview process? Was that normal in the 80s?

I don't know how much truth there is to those allegations, but jumping to defend the guy straight off the bat seems odd to me.

Well if you worked with Don, I'll have to defer to you then. You obviously have the facts and won't let anyone else in on them it seems

 

[Tisme]

What are you on about Tisme? This makes no sense. At all.

Not to you it wouldn't. I was talking to Sir Rumpole

 

[Tisme]

Wasn't the relationship between Bill and Monica Consensual? I don't know all the details, but from memory I can't remember it being a case of sexual harassment.

Bill might have been a crappy husband, but that doesn't equal sexual harassment,

I am willing to be proven wrong, on the details, but I don't think they are same.

Oh I think you are talking semantics. We all know he was pursued for whatever it was he was guilty of.

 

[Tisme]

Another dredging exercise for everyone with an indignation gene to revise history with today's values.

Not condoning but I do agree with this.
Things were more liberal and accepted at the time---not accepted now.
This could go back to many different issues

Homo sexuality.
The village people.
Thunder from Down under.
Every Beauty pageant ever run
Kids Beauty pageants and their parents
Cartoons---watch fog horn leg horn!

The list goes on.
Should be a statute of limitations if there isn't then its discrimination!
There are statutes of limitations on most everything else.

You must possess a degree of common sense my son.

 

[luutzu]

Not to you it wouldn't. I was talking to Sir Rumpole

Is there a special connection between you two that no other can interpret your written English?

 

[Value Collector]

We all know he was pursued for whatever it was he was guilty of.

What was that exactly?