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Mel McLaughlin: “I just want to move on.”

Mel McLaughlin says she accepts Chris Gayle's apology and wants to move on.

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TEN Sports presenter Mel McLaughlin says she accepts Chris Gayle’s apology and wants to move on.

Speaking with The Project last night, McLaughlin said she is more used to reporting stories than being at the centre of them but acknowledged the cricketer’s flirting as being disappointing and unexpected.

“I’m a little bit uncomfortable. I’m not used to being at the centre of any sort of story,” she said.

“This one certainly escalated, didn’t it, but I’m okay,” she said.

Yesterday Gayle issued an apology at Melbourne airport before being hit with a $10,000 fine.

“I accept that,” McLaughlin said of the apology.

“I just want to move on.”

McLaughlin said she has always felt respected and attitudes toward women reporters in sport had changed.

“I love my job and I’d just rather be talking about that,” she said.

But Gayle remains under fire with further stories of his previous conduct emerging. Yesterday it was one of the hottest stories in the country.

25 Responses

  2. This was seized upon by the bleeding heart left wing extreme element because originally she handled it poorly and now realizes it.Nothing to see here…..move on

  3. Why was she on The Project? talk about milking a storm in a teacup.
    Oh it’s commercial television. I’m sure they were all so concerned about Mel’s welfare, furrowed brows and all. And privately Mel was just chuffed about what she can get out of it career wise.

    1. Come on. Your quite naive to think that a major news story like this and an interview with the subject wasn’t going to happen in primetime on the network she works for. If this happened on say nine’s cricket coverage do you think that nine wouldn’t hesitate to pop the subject on a current affair.

  4. It amuses me that women want to be the equal of men, but when it comes to taking the s..t, its. poor me, I am hurt. Put the shoe on the other foot, if it was a woman who said it to a man, it would be tough ti….s or taken as a joke. I do not feel sorry for her. She was in a male domain, what else would you expect.

    1. The reason this is an issue is because in society woman aren’t the equal of men.

      Crickets a male domain, really. Woman play cricket, woman watch cricket, woman are sports reporters etc. I don’t think cricket as sport wants to alienate a potential audience that makes up around 50% of the worlds population.

    2. All those arguing that it’s just a bit of banter and should get over it, pretend the sports person was openly homosexual and made these comments to a male reporter. The outcry and double standards would be deafening. To accept that misogyny and sexist commentary is something that people should treat as a harmless joke is pathetic.

      1. No, what is “pathetic” is the massive over-reaction to this harmless bit of banter, using words like “sexist” and “misogynist” to describe an incident in which nobody was assaulted, nobody was hurt, nobody was threatened, harassed or bullied. All it was was a bit of mischief that caused the reporter mild embarrassment at worst, but it has been seized upon by ‘right-on’ social justice warriors who have an agenda. Whatever happened to maintaining a sense of perspective?

  7. McLaughlin opened the interview by gushing that she has been looking forward to interviewing Gayle. Gayle took that as a flirtation and responded in kind. The whole thing ran for less than 5 seconds. He didn’t ask her out he said the team would be having some beers after the game, if they won, and said she was welcome to join them. That’s either being sociable or flirtatious depending how much leeway your are giving Gayle.

    The SMH bloggers (who never watched the match or the whole interview) had it edited it out of context and manufactured global outrage and the ABC made it the major story of the day using their own female sports reporters to attack Gayle. Ten demanding an apology is a bit much, their interviewer conducted the interview and the rest of their commentary team extracted maximum mirth from it on the night.

    What we learn from all this is that in this day and age a…

    1. Disagree. As if he would compliment a male journo on his eyes. It was flirting 101, with no invitation from McLaughlin. Saying she is “looking forward” to an interview is no invitation for what took place. Is it a hanging offence? No. Was it inappropriate? Absolutely.

      1. Yeah I think CG was the flirter, but the way it has been blown out of proportion is extreme. ABC was the worst offender in this area. CG comes from the Caribbean, where the guys are laid back and do flirt a little. On TV it was a bit of….”did he really just do that”…and then we moved on. The fine is excessive, the sanctimonious bleating of so many is a case of media gone mad on a slow news day. Anybody tuning into ABC radio at the wrong time yesterday would have thought that he had gone much further than a 10 second flirt….crazy

  8. Channel 10, the network that is home to The Bachelor where they are happy for 20 women from the general public to dress up in as little as possible with flesh on show and throw themselves at men, or a particular man. Talk about double standards and hypocrisy. CG flirted with her asked her out, she declined (she is single now)…end of story. It would have been better if he had done it off camera, but it really is no big deal..

  9. I don’t think Mel is the problem – I think she’s embarrassed by all of the attention. It’s easy to dismiss the story as a big fuss over nothing, but it connects with the bigger issue of the ingrained cultural attitude men have towards women and why it’s no longer acceptable to turn a blind eye.

  10. I would never condone any form of sexual harassment but it makes me wonder if this would be big news if the roles were reversed – eg a female athlete coming on to a male journalist.

    1. Did you read the article? The whole thing is about how Mel doesn’t want to make it a story and for everyone to move on. How on earth did you come to the conclusion that she wants to dwell on it and needs to get a life? Seriously, it’s in the very first sentence of the article.

    2. I think your comment is a bit unfair. If you watched the project last night everything about her demeanour said she didn’t want to talk about it, be in this situation and wanted it to be over. She just wanted to do her job.

        1. How can you comment on Mel if you don’t hear her side of the situation or read this article properly. The title of this article is “I just want to move on” and your telling her to “get over it”. Does not make sense.

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