Defamation case brought against Nine

And on it goes….

A director of the Western Bulldogs, Susan Alberti, has now launched a defamation case against Channel Nine and AFL Footy Show hosts Sam Newman and Garry Lyon.

She has engaged lawyers to claim damages, including aggravated damages, from Nine through the Supreme Court.

“I’m a person of character and reputation — good reputation — and I didn’t spend the last 30 years of my life to be tarnished the way I was that night,” Dr Alberti told The Age. “My reputation has been tarnished and I will not tolerate that.

“I have asked for an apology. They were given a period of time to respond, they did not respond and I had no other choice but to take this litigation. Let’s just say I’ve got senior counsel, junior counsel and a legal team. I haven’t taken it lightly.”

Alberti’s fury stems from the Footy Show which aired on May 1st in which Sam Newman called the signatories of a letter “liars and hypocrites.”

Claims were also made that Dr Alberti, one of five club directors who signed the letter of complaint, had reserved two tables in The Footy Show’s studio audience.

Dr Alberti, also the national president of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, later clarified that she had bid for the tables at a charity auction and then donated them to another charity.

Dr Alberti requested that Lyon issue an apology to her on the program. Instead, co-host and North Melbourne president James Brayshaw made a clarification that was momentarily interrupted by Newman.

“Last week we — shut up, Sam, for a second — we referred to Western Bulldogs board member Susan Alberti’s criticism of a segment on our show,” Brayshaw said on the show.

“To clarify what was said and intended, we didn’t impute Mrs Alberti was a liar, and we’ve now been informed by Susan — and this is important — that the two tables that she purchased to The Footy Show were purchased to donate to her favourite charities. We appreciate the fact that this was pointed out to us and we thank her for her input.”

Dr Alberti yesterday described the tone of the statement as “dismissive”.

“It was totally unsatisfactory … in fact they just aggravated things altogether,” she said. “It came on at precisely 11.21pm when most people were falling off to sleep.”

Late yesterday a Nine Network spokeswoman, Arabella Gibson, said: “I have not seen any documentation on this matter. If and when we do, Nine will have no comment on the issue.”

Also this week the author of a letter over Caroline Wilson’s wardrobe (which led to the Newman’s ‘mannequin’ skit) apologised to Wilson in The Age Green Guide letters.

“I would formally like to apologise to Caroline Wilson,” wrote Matilda Clark of Moonee Ponds.

Source: The Age