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May 29, 2005 THE Sunday Telegraph columnist Rebecca Wilson reveals the truth about why she left Channel 9's Footy Show after just one night.
My mum is still a teacher at a Queensland boys' school. After 40 years in the business, she knows just a little about boys and bullying. When we were growing up, she would share her experience with us: that bullies always pick on targets who are physically weaker.
She told us they never look you in the eye and hunt in a pack. The smarter kids often copped it from the gang of pitbulls who made themselves feel better by preying on others.
I have always believed my mum is right about stuff like that. I believe that in the past two weeks, I have been shown a world where a couple of professionals put their heads together to work out a way to attack someone's life, professionally and personally, without facing her.
It's a world where these people believe their own publicity, and spread the word their target was fair game because she dared to have an opinion different from theirs, and to state it in a column.
For the record, here are the facts. You can make your own judgment.
I rang Sam Chisholm at Channel 9 last Wednesday afternoon and resigned from The Footy Show. He asked me to reconsider, as did executive producer Steve Crawley.
Both were supportive and acted with the utmost professionalism. They thought I had a lot to bring to the program.
The Fairfax media reported on page one and on banners around the city that I had been dumped, even though Crawley and I told The Sydney Morning Herald I had quit.
Fairfax was told by Paul Vautin's manager, John Gibbs, he had heard from several Channel 9 sources I had been dumped.
The Bulletin sent an accomplished reporter to do a story on me. It seemed to proceed on a preconceived notion let's paint a picture of a ball-breaking, ambitious blonde with a legion of enemies.
Anyone who knows me, and makes an effort to scratch the surface, knows that cliche is way off the mark. The reporter told me she had contacted several of my close friends. Last time I checked with those she claimed to have contacted, they were still waiting for the call.
During my first and last appearance on The Footy Show, Vautin ignored me before, during and after it. He didn't speak to me at all, either in a commercial break or during the show. He gave me lip service saying he would respect me, but his actions on and off camera failed to live up to that.
Vautin then went on radio with Gibbs and commentator Andrew Voss last Saturday, where the three criticised my one and only performance on The Footy Show.
They said I had brought nothing to the table, that I was a failure. It's a view clearly not shared by Chisholm and Crawley. Vautin and Gibbs repeated these comments on radio last Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. These statements were made only on the public airwaves, never to my face.
Vautin could have told me directly what he thought before or even after the show. He didn't. To me, that feels like bullying behaviour.
After hearing more attacks on radio, I decided enough was enough. Anonymous calls revealed more wanted to join in and work in a pack. At least Vautin was prepared to publicly state his position.
I was not going to be subjected to a mass and hidden attack from so many quarters. Above all, I wasn't going to put my two beautiful children through any more.
They had told their friends about their mum going on The Footy Show. When their mates watched it and told them how badly I had been treated by Vautin and Peter Sterling, they were mystified. Weren't those blokes meant to be heroes? No longer in their eyes. Or mine.
The anonymous attacks aren't directed at how I feel about issues they are directed right at me.
A friend, Nelune, has been fighting cancer for five years, but took time out from chemotherapy to send this message: "If you are relieved, then I am happy. Don't be bothered by others; those who care about you know you are the best. We will always love you. Others come and go."
These are the people my mum taught me about the ones who are there by your side in the bad times.
I let the bastards beat me, but one day they will get theirs.
The Sunday Telegraph
My mum is still a teacher at a Queensland boys' school. After 40 years in the business, she knows just a little about boys and bullying. When we were growing up, she would share her experience with us: that bullies always pick on targets who are physically weaker.
She told us they never look you in the eye and hunt in a pack. The smarter kids often copped it from the gang of pitbulls who made themselves feel better by preying on others.
I have always believed my mum is right about stuff like that. I believe that in the past two weeks, I have been shown a world where a couple of professionals put their heads together to work out a way to attack someone's life, professionally and personally, without facing her.
It's a world where these people believe their own publicity, and spread the word their target was fair game because she dared to have an opinion different from theirs, and to state it in a column.
For the record, here are the facts. You can make your own judgment.
I rang Sam Chisholm at Channel 9 last Wednesday afternoon and resigned from The Footy Show. He asked me to reconsider, as did executive producer Steve Crawley.
Both were supportive and acted with the utmost professionalism. They thought I had a lot to bring to the program.
The Fairfax media reported on page one and on banners around the city that I had been dumped, even though Crawley and I told The Sydney Morning Herald I had quit.
Fairfax was told by Paul Vautin's manager, John Gibbs, he had heard from several Channel 9 sources I had been dumped.
The Bulletin sent an accomplished reporter to do a story on me. It seemed to proceed on a preconceived notion let's paint a picture of a ball-breaking, ambitious blonde with a legion of enemies.
Anyone who knows me, and makes an effort to scratch the surface, knows that cliche is way off the mark. The reporter told me she had contacted several of my close friends. Last time I checked with those she claimed to have contacted, they were still waiting for the call.
During my first and last appearance on The Footy Show, Vautin ignored me before, during and after it. He didn't speak to me at all, either in a commercial break or during the show. He gave me lip service saying he would respect me, but his actions on and off camera failed to live up to that.
Vautin then went on radio with Gibbs and commentator Andrew Voss last Saturday, where the three criticised my one and only performance on The Footy Show.
They said I had brought nothing to the table, that I was a failure. It's a view clearly not shared by Chisholm and Crawley. Vautin and Gibbs repeated these comments on radio last Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. These statements were made only on the public airwaves, never to my face.
Vautin could have told me directly what he thought before or even after the show. He didn't. To me, that feels like bullying behaviour.
After hearing more attacks on radio, I decided enough was enough. Anonymous calls revealed more wanted to join in and work in a pack. At least Vautin was prepared to publicly state his position.
I was not going to be subjected to a mass and hidden attack from so many quarters. Above all, I wasn't going to put my two beautiful children through any more.
They had told their friends about their mum going on The Footy Show. When their mates watched it and told them how badly I had been treated by Vautin and Peter Sterling, they were mystified. Weren't those blokes meant to be heroes? No longer in their eyes. Or mine.
The anonymous attacks aren't directed at how I feel about issues they are directed right at me.
A friend, Nelune, has been fighting cancer for five years, but took time out from chemotherapy to send this message: "If you are relieved, then I am happy. Don't be bothered by others; those who care about you know you are the best. We will always love you. Others come and go."
These are the people my mum taught me about the ones who are there by your side in the bad times.
I let the bastards beat me, but one day they will get theirs.
The Sunday Telegraph
