Daily Mail rakes through years of podcasts for Erin Molan case
The Daily Mail has raked through years of Channel 9 star Erin Molan’s on-air appearances in its 61-page defence to claims it portrayed her as a racist.
NSW
Don't miss out on the headlines from NSW. Followed categories will be added to My News.
The Daily Mail has hit back ferociously at Erin Molan’s defamation lawsuit, raking through several years of rugby league podcasts in a bid to prove in court that the sports presenter is racist.
Among the comments the media outlet has plucked from 2GB’s Continuous Call Team archive and quoted in its defence are Molan saying “You like raw feesh?”, “Pick up your chopsticks” and “I wuv you wery long time”.
The 61-page bombshell truth defence references the Nine star’s co-hosts, alleging the Continuous Call Team frequently spouted “racist content” on the show by mocking Pacific Islander and Maori names and emulating Chinese, Indian and other accents.
Molan’s lawyer said in a statement: “Ms Molan has commenced proceedings in the Federal Court of Australia for defamatory allegations made about her by the Daily Mail.
“Those allegations, now repeated by the Daily Mail in its defence, are denied. It would be inappropriate to comment further as the matter is before the court.”
Molan alleges in her statement of claim that the Daily Mail painted her as a racist and an “arrogant white woman of privilege” in a story about her saying “hooka looka mooka hooka fooka” on air in June.
She has said repeatedly she was not mocking Polynesian names and it was a reference to a past Continuous Call Team story about Chris and Ray Warren.
The Daily Mail’s defence, filed on Monday, contains transcripts of 24 conversations on Continuous Call Team dating back to March 2017 involving Molan and past and present co-hosts Ray Hadley, Bob Fulton, Darryl Brohman and others.
Among the excerpts is the April 1, 2017, broadcast in which Hadley says, “And now, why don’t we have a conversation with Darryl doing his Chinese and Erin doing her Chinese?”
“Herro, I wery goo lookin,” Molan said, according to the defence.
“Just do one for me, ‘I love you long time’, just do that for me,” Hadley said.
“I wuv you wery long tiyme, wery handsome man, ohhh, you like to walk with me in a cercle,” Ms Molan said.
In another excerpt in the defence on March 17, 2018, Hadley tells a story about women in Japan giving birth.
“You like raw feesh,” Molan said. “Sorry, was that racist?”
“Yeah … it wasn’t good,” Fulton said.
“Was it really? No it wasn’t, ’cause they do,” Molan said.
According to the defence, Molan sometimes participated in the conversations and at other times laughed along, stayed silent, or asked “in a humorous fashion” whether what had been said was racist.
In another excerpt from August 24, 2019, Brohman declares he is going to release a Chinese cookbook.
“Gonna put a big nappy on so I look like a sumo and say, ‘Come and get it! Big Marn’s Chinese Cookbook!’,” he said, according to the defence.
“Herro! That’s gonna be the name of the book,” Brohman said later.
“I just don’t know if this is OK now in this day and age,” Molan said.
“Oh, who cares,” Fulton said.
Later in the conversation, the defence quotes Molan as saying “Now we’re all talking like ohhh … you no … bad boy … you naughty … dwop your pen … pick up your chopstick” in an accent.
“Can I just throw something in here? Do we like working here? I don’t think we’re gonna have a big chance of being here next year,” Fulton said.
“I know we like to toe the line but this might be like a whole heel over the line,” Molan said.
“No, no, we’re right,” Mark Levy said.
The defence also includes a transcript from March 18, 2017, in which Brohman put on several accents, including Irish, American, Chinese, Japanese, and Indian, and Molan said: “Someone will write in now and say we’re being racist. I think it’s hilarious.”
The defence also includes transcripts of Brohman recounting the story about Chris and Ray Warren that Molan said she was referencing with her original comment.
“It was last year at a Manly game and they had a reserve that I hadn’t seen before, but he had a name with about 30 letters in it, and I had trouble pronouncing it, and I said to Chris, ‘Mate, how do you pronounce this bloke’s name?’” Brohman said on April 5, 2020.
“He said, ‘Well, Dad thought his name was Chooka-lucka-loo-loo, but I said no, no, no, Dad, I think it’s Chooka-lucka-loo-loo-loo-loo.’”
Audio of the conversations remain publicly available online.
MORE NEWS
Phoebe declares women should ‘feel valued’ amid Sam split
Manhunt after woman found dead in Wentworthville apartment
Celeb relapse: ‘I drank hand sanitiser to get high in the jungle’
In the defence, the Daily Mail claims these conversations prove Molan is racist, or that in an alternative defence of contextual truth she engaged in racist behaviour and conduct likely to offend people on the basis of their race or ethnicity.
The outlet has also filed a defence of honest opinion.
Molan also accused the Daily Mail of falsely stating she refused to apologise when she had in fact apologised on air.
In the defence, the media outlet said it was not “a true apology” and she had “simply stated that if people ‘in the current climate’ had been offended or hurt by her that she was sorry”.
The court documents reveal Molan’s solicitors asked the Daily Mail for an apology on August 26.
She claims the media outlet generated a wave of further abuse in which she was labelled a “racist bitch” by former NRL player John Hopoate.
Each side of the hostile brawl has hired a top-tier barrister, with Molan represented by Sandy Dawson SC and the Daily Mail by Bruce McClintock SC.
The matter is due for a first court hearing on Friday.
ERIN MOLAN ‘BLOWN AWAY’ AFTER TAKING ON TROLLS
Nine presenter Erin Molan has been “blown away” by support after an emotional interview about the toll online trolls took on her life.
She broke down while speaking to 60 Minutes about the horrific messages she had received on social media, and said she feared for her and her unborn daughter’s life after the abuse.
Since then, there has been an outpouring of support lauding her bravery and candour in telling her story.
She took to social media to thank the well-wishers which include Jelena Dokic, Bec Judd, Deborah Knight and Troy Cassar-Daley.
“Blown away. Thank you. I’ll get back to you all I promise xxx,” she said.
Other well-wishers included former top Australian tennis player Casey Dellacqua.
“You are an inspiration in every way. Well done lovely,” she said.
In an interview that aired on Sunday, the sports presenter detailed some of the vile messages she had received.
In one, a troll said they hoped Molan gave birth to a stillborn and “died in the process.”
She said the sickening message “really hurt” and took her to some “pretty dark places” — particularly given what had happened to her sister.
“I have an older sister who had a stillbirth, carried a beautiful little girl to full term, Emily. And to watch her bury her child and stand up with a little coffin and say, mummy loves you and she’s so sorry.
“To sit there and watch my sister go through that, meant that my pregnancy was fairly anxious throughout. So to start to receive messages of that nature, really impacted me.”
The extent of abuse sent to Molan culminated in a terrifying 2am encounter which “sent her over the edge”.
“We were lying in bed and we’re asleep, it was like 1am or 2am and it sounded like someone had, like a window smashed. It was a big massive smash and I thought he was going to try and do what he was saying he was going to do to my baby,” she said.
The harrowing evening prompted her to head to the police station and report the troll.
60 Minutes reported that the man behind the campaign targeting Molan, himself a father of young girls, was eventually charged by police and received a suspended sentence.
Molan was praised by politicians and other television presenters on social media for her honest interview.
“Terrible it comes to this, good on you Erin Molan – trolls hiding behind keyboards and avatars would never have the courage to push themselves of sacrifice as much to achieve what you have,” NSW Labor MP Jihad Dib tweeted.
MORE NEWS
Michael Clarke, Pip Edwards take a punt on love at The Everest
Work on Sydney’s $340m vertical university begins
Police baffled as NSW woman fights for life
Fellow broadcasters Georgia Love and Lucy Zelic praised Molan for speaking out against trolls.
“This is one of the most important issues of our time and I cannot commend your bravery or thank you enough for putting your names and voices to trying to change it,” Love said.
Zelic said she hope it would lead to reform; “It was so moving to put the spotlight on a hugely troubling issue that so many of us have been affected by. Here’s to change and reform going forward,” she said.
Former Broncos coach Anthony Seibold and MP Warren Mundine were also featured in the program, speaking of the online abuse they receive.
It comes as Meghan Markle claims “she was the most trolled person in the world” while speaking to an American podcast.
“I‘m told that in 2019, I was the most trolled person in the entire world, male or female. Now for eight months of that, I wasn’t even visible. I was on maternity leave or with a baby,” she said.
“What was able to be manufactured and churned out, it‘s almost unsurvivable. That’s so big you can’t even think of what that feels like.”