Tim Blair: Lisa Wilkinson’s ‘cheap’ shot about tabloid journalism denies her background

Former The Project host Lisa Wilkinson’s distaste at being drawn as a ‘cheap tabloid journalist’ is laughable, writes Tim Blair. On a reported $1.7m, she may not have come cheap, but she has a rich tabloid heritage.

It is reasonable for a journalist to be asked about the level of public interest in their work.

After all, public interest is central to a reporting career. Journalists who are unread tend also to be unpaid.

Yet media veteran Lisa Wilkinson, defending herself on Thursday in a defamation trial launched by Bruce Lehrmann, was hostile to questioning about interest in her coverage of Brittany Higgins’s rape claims — claims strongly denied by Lehrmann.

“You were thrilled by the riveting commercial appeal of the story that she told,” Lehrmann’s lawyer, Matthew Richardson SC, put to Wilkinson on Thursday.

Wilkinson’s response was one for the ages: “Please don’t make me sound like a cheap tabloid journalist, Mr Richardson.”

Given that Wilkinson has been getting by on a reported annual salary of some $1.7m, even after taking a leave of absence from her hosting ­duties at The Project, she clearly isn’t cheap.

But The Project is as tabloid as television news can be.

Likewise, Wilkinson’s previous roles on Nine’s Today show and as editor of Dolly and Cleo magazines speak to a rich tabloid heritage.

Lisa Wilkinson leaves the Federal Court on Thursday. Picture: Christian Gilles

Exactly why Wilkinson should want to disown her hugely successful tabloid accomplishments is anyone’s guess.

Even her husband, author Peter FitzSimons, writes for the tabloid Sydney Morning Herald (except the SMH describes itself as “compact”, which is what a tabloid is called if you’re on seven figures and live on the other side of the Bridge).

Size matters.

But Wilkinson presumably rejected the notion that she is a tabloid figure in the sense of favouring sensationalism and scandal over rigorous research.

If that was so, Wilkinson certainly didn’t do herself any favours when she launched into a terrific conspiracy theory about cover-ups and high-level political intrigue over the Higgins case.

It was sheer tabloid gold, no matter how “tabloid” may be interpreted.

“Did you believe,” Justice Michael Lee asked Wilkinson at one point, “that there had been a systemic cover-up of a rape allegation or not?”

“Yes,” non-tabloider Lisa replied.

“I believed there was a lot of damage control going on within the Prime Minister’s Office to keep this whole thing under wraps.”

Wilkinson’s supportive evidence for this belief, she revealed to the court, was that members of then-PM Scott Morrison’s staff had been in contact with former minister Linda Reynolds’s office after the rape allegations were made.

All of this added up, Wilkinson said, to something “pretty significant”.

Yet Wilkinson, as Lehrmann’s lawyer pointed out, had no idea about the content of those meetings.

“I know how politics works, Mr Richardson,” Wilkinson replied.

What a perfect tabloid kicker.