Don Burke’s not the only one who should be ashamed

DON BURKE flourished as a friendly face on TV while getting away with disgusting acts against women, writes Sarah Daffy. And the Network he flourished on did nothing.

Television personality Don Burke. (Pic: Getty)

IT’S a terrible day for former TV presenter Don Burke and it only continues to get worse for his accomplices as Channel Nine admits to failure in cleaning up a catastrophic mess in its own backyard.

Burke has been publicly condemned after 50 women — interviewed during a joint Fairfax/ABC investigation — made serious allegations of sexual misconduct instigated by him.

Many of the women who spoke out remain anonymous but Louise Langdon, a former researcher on Burke’s TV and radio programs, said: “Dealing with Don Burke was an endurance test in terms of his persistence in commentary about anything sexual.

“He would often refer to a video he had in his possession which showed a woman having sex with a donkey. He encouraged me to look at this video which was exactly as he described it. I was just speechless. What do you do when your boss is showing you this thing?”

Despite her complaining to senior people at Channel Nine, nothing was done in response to Langdon’s claims.

Bridget Ninness, a producer of Burke’s for many years, also voiced her experience of bullying and harassment from him while working at the network.

Ninness recalls an overseas trip with Burke when he said to her: “I’m just going to tell you that if anything goes wrong on this trip I’m going to rip your f***ing head off and shit down your throat.”

Other women claimed Burke groped their breasts and made lewd comments about their sexual desirability during their time of working with him.

Burke should be unapologetically pursued over these allegations — every employee of an organisation has the right to turn up to work feeling respected, protected and safe. Burke’s alleged behaviour is deplorable and downright disgusting.

You’d expect Channel Nine executives to be outraged by these accusations and assume they were unaware of such acts taking place under their watch.

But the opposite appears to have surfaced — former Channel Nine executives David Leckie and Sam Chisholm pounced at the opportunity to publicly stick the knife into Burke.

Chisholm took aim at Burke calling him a “grub” and “disgrace”.

Leckie claimed he knew Burke was a “horrible, horrible, horrible man”.

“He’s a dreadful, dreadful piece of work … he was a really dirty old man,” Leckie said.

So one can’t help but wonder — what the hell did Channel Nine do about it?

Nothing it seems and that in itself is an offence worthy of vigorous retribution.

It is the job of a major television network to call out inappropriate behaviour in the workplace, to take a stand against it and to make a public example of perpetrators.

It’s astonishing that Leckie and Chisholm would accept any such knowledge of Burke’s behaviour let alone advocate his reprimand.

Former Nine boss David Leckie called Don Burke “a horrible, dirty old man”. (Pic: Adam Yip)

“Don Burke was a disgrace because of his behaviour internally and externally. This precluded him from ever becoming a major star” Leckie said.

So what? Channel Nine should be recognised and praised for stunting Burke’s career progression at the organisation while at the same time admitting they knew about his offences all along? Get stuffed.

Leckie and Chisholm have showcased the network’s deplorable management skills in coming forward with admissions like this and Channel Nine deserves as much public condemnation as Don Burke himself.

Its executives were paid generous sums of money to run this organisation and to ensure a duty of care for their employees. But they failed to do this by deciding to sit on their hands and keep their mouths shut while Burke continued to allegedly assault and harass women at the organisation — while simultaneously earning it ratings as a much loved gardener on our TV screens.

Coming forward now to claim they were privy to this insider information is a disgusting abuse of their power and a public demonstration of their failure in leadership at the company.

Let’s hope current bosses at Nine take these allegations seriously and do all they can to stop more creeps like Burke while they have the power to, unlike their predecessors who chose to lay pathetic claims of previous knowledge bare after the damage had already been done.