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Eddie McGuire joked about drowning a woman on Triple M radio

OPPOSITION leader Bill Shorten has broken an agreement he had with Eddie McGuire following the media personality’s latest scandal.

James Matthey and Olivia Lambert
12 min read
June 20, 2016 - 5:56PM
Eddie McGuire on thin ice after offensive comments

BILL Shorten has cancelled an interview with Eddie McGuire as the chorus of public figures condemning the under-fire media personality continue to grow.

The Collingwood president and broadcaster has apologised for saying he would pay $50,000 to see journalist Caroline Wilson stay under a pool of iced water, before going on to describe Wilson as “like a black widow” spider.

Mr Shorten’s spokesman said the Labor leader had cancelled his appearance on McGuire’s Triple M Melbourne breakfast radio show scheduled for Tuesday morning.

The opposition leader, a confessed Collingwood supporter, refused to comment when asked if McGuire should stand down from his Collingwood Football Club office, but admitted the Fox Footy presenter’s comments about Wilson were completely unacceptable.

“I wish sometimes that people would think about what they are going say before they say it,” Shorten told reporters in Perth on Monday.

Labor frontbencher Penny Wong said in Canberra McGuire’s comments were out of line.

“We ought not speak in ways that are suggestive explicitly or implicitly of violence ... and ways that demean people on the basis of their gender,” Senator Wong said.

McGuire simply doesn’t seem to get it.

Wilson hit back at McGuire on Monday after he targeted her with his attempted humour last week, while media personalities Meshel Laurie and Jessica Rowe also ripped in.

AFL boss Gillon McLachlan then addressed the issue in a press conference, saying McGuire’s conduct and the fact it wasn’t discussed until a week after it happened was “an indictment on everyone”.

The Collingwood Football Club president copped it for making comments on radio about drowning Wilson at the Big Freeze at the G, an event where celebrities plunge into ice to raise money for motor neurone disease.

“I reckon we should start a campaign or a one-person slide next year,” he said last weekend.

“Caroline Wilson, I’ll put in the 10 grand straight away, make it 20, and if she stays under, 50.”

He then suggested people should stand around Wilson and “bomb” her, while he also likened her to a “black widow” spider.

McLachlan took aim at McGuire and the entire football community, saying such an attitude towards women was not acceptable.

“Words and jokes have incredible power. The fact the comments were made on radio a week ago and were not called out is an indictment on everyone working in football,” McLachlan said. “The fact we can still argue this may have been done in jest shows a lack of understanding on this issue.

“Casual language and jokes that are offensive to women are part of the problem.

“We’re all learning that everyday comments cause harm and help create an environment that allows more mistreatment of women to occur without consequence.”

McLachlan confirmed he did not ask McGuire to resign from his post, but said the incident reminded him how far the AFL still has to go for women to feel comfortable in the sport.

“The conversation this week was a stark reminder to me of how much change is needed for women to feel truly welcome in our code, and reinforced my commitment to supporting change.

“Those (comments) weren’t reported in a week and I look at everyone in this room (journalists), every network, every AFL club and I want to understand why.

“Our sport must lead. I recognise the AFL has an important role in influencing community attitudes.

“It’s not good enough. We can’t say that we, as an industry, is committed to leading change if we don’t step up and call it out.”

McLachlan said the AFL can’t tolerate demeaning attitudes towards women.
McLachlan said the AFL can’t tolerate demeaning attitudes towards women.

Laurie called McGuire “a pig” on her show Matt & Meshel on KIIS 101.1 this morning.

“You know what, you’re a pig,” Laurie said. “You have no compunction in casual racism and to suggest it be hilarious to drown a woman and call all your mates in on it ... fundamentally he should not be allowed to broadcast.

“This is a man who cannot speak without spreading hate.”

Rowe launched an extraordinary attack on McGuire on Studio 10. She has had run-ins with him in the past, most notably when he allegedly said: “When do you want to bone her?” in relation to her firing from Channel Nine.

She attacked him, North Melbourne chairman James Brayshaw (who was involved in last weekend’s incident in Melbourne) and the AFL in a blistering spray.

“Let’s remember, this is a man who has a track record, who has said inappropriate things about me, which he has denied saying. He’s also said inappropriate things about Adam Goodes, and now he is with a bunch of other boofy blokes making light of holding a woman underwater,” Rowe said.

“Yes, it was a joke, but there’s nothing funny about that. It is time that people call him out.

“He is someone who is a protected species because he is a Melbourne identity, he can constantly say these sorts of inappropriate things and then say it was a joke.

“I think the AFL are absolutely gutless if they in fact say they are wanting to see more women in the AFL. They’ve just launched new women’s AFL teams and these comments came during a week when there was a special White Ribbon game played (between the Swans and Giants to highlight the need to end violence against women).

“The AFL needs to pull him into line, as well as James Brayshaw.

“Those two are CEOs of football clubs, if we think this is appropriate behaviour, heaven help us.”

Rowe was furious with McGuire.
Rowe was furious with McGuire.

In a three-minute attack, Rowe said it was about time people understood the full consequences such behaviour can have on women.

“I’m really sick of these posturing blokes thinking they can get away with stuff because they think it’s funny. No, it is not funny,” she said.

“There are a lot of women sick and tired of feeling belittled and undermined and for it to be just brushed away as a joke.

“Caroline Wilson is a very experienced journalist. She has been ridiculed on the Footy Show when (panellist) Sam Newman had a go at her with a naked mannequin and her face stapled on. No, that is not on.

“Sexist jokes do have a consequence.”

Finally, Rowe challenged McGuire to prove he really was a leader in the community.

“I’m sick of him saying, ‘Oh it’s supposed to be like this,’ when he is a leader, people know who he is, he can do a whole lot better than that.

“If he really has guts, if he really wants to say, ‘I’m a good bloke here,’ Eddie, why don’t you donate $50,000 to White Ribbon. That is the amount you said you would like to see for people to hold Caroline Wilson underwater.

“OK Eddie, if you are truly sorry, $50,000 to White Ribbon.”

Wilson herself spoke on 3AW radio on Monday morning, saying McGuire’s comments “probably crossed the line”.

“It was such a pity they needed to default to that really vicious language. I don’t accept that it was just playful banter,” Wilson said on the Ross and John Show.

“It’s like casual racism: casual violent language might be meant as a joke but I wonder how many times we have to draw this line in the sand between what is a joke and what is completely unacceptable.

“I think he gets away with a lot because people are scared of him ... I occasionally take him to task and he doesn’t like it. He has such power.”

Wilson also defended her position on an article she wrote suggesting McGuire should be thinking about a succession plan at the Pies, which she believes upset him.

“I am solid as a rock (on that story),” Wilson said.

“This piece I wrote he didn’t like was completely my own opinion based on no conversations he or I had ... that sort of means I can’t stick my neck out and be critical of him.”

Caroline Wilson was on McGuire’s radar.
Caroline Wilson was on McGuire’s radar.

Wilson ran into McGuire at events in the days after the comments were made.

“I ran into Ed at the Hall of Fame (induction) and again when they launched the women’s footy league on Wednesday and I did feel a bit uncomfortable being around him. I didn’t go and talk to him,” she said.

Also speaking on 3AW was entertainment guru Peter Ford, who said “Eddie must apologise or resign”.

McGuire defended himself on Triple M radio on Monday morning, then took to the airwaves later on to do the same.

“Do you think it has promulgated violence toward women, sliding down into water?” McGuire asked Neil Mitchell on 3AW this morning. “I’m prepared to accept that and that’s why I’ve said this morning, from the bottom my heart, I’m so sorry those comments have resonated that way that anyone could even think that.

“No one spoke of Caroline in the context of her being a woman, it was Caroline the media performer, who skewers people left, right and centre.

“There was no malice involved in it, absolutely no malice.

“It was a spirit of absolute fun and for it to be taken five, six, seven days later and put in a different context skews it. I thought equality was the fact we can joke with each other, but clearly we have learnt something.

“We apologise unreservedly.

“It’s humour. I pick up the paper every day, there’s a cartoon ... you take that, when you’re high profile. She’s a big figure in the football world.”

Eddie thinks it’s all an over-reaction.
Eddie thinks it’s all an over-reaction.

He said he had left a voice message and text message apologising to Wilson and spoken to his AFL colleagues, but had not heard anything about any action being taken against him.

McGuire added that he already donates to shelters and fighting domestic violence.

“I think we’ve got to careful this doesn’t become the red herring,” he said, “One woman a week is murdered. That’s where I’m working, at pointy end of this.

“It’s probably a discussion, maybe it’s a forum ...

“Equality is treating everybody the same, man and woman. At what stage does Caroline become the woman reporter instead of the reporter? If we have to err the other way then so be it, because the downside is horrific.”

Journalist Tracy Grimshaw voiced her opinion on the matter on KIIS 106.5’s Kyle and Jackie O.

“It went too far, I don’t think there’s any doubt about that,” Grimshaw said.

“I would hate to think any of those three blokes were having that conversation intending to imply violence against a woman. I would hate to think that was the motivation for that conversation. I bet it wasn’t, but it went too far.

“I think they need to address it, they need to apologise about it, she’s apparently furious which I can understand.”

AFL spokesman Patrick Keane weighed in on Twitter on Sunday night, writing that the on-air comments “could be seen as supporting violent attitudes to women and was clearly inappropriate”. He said the AFL had only become aware of the comments on Sunday.

The 51-year-old’s first radio appearance of the day had him claiming his comments were just “banter”.

“Anything at all that can be perceived to promulgate or support, even in a lighthearted manner, any form of domestic violence against women is unacceptable,” he said on The Hot Breakfast.

“It was all done in the spirit of the fun of the day and seeing who would be next going down the slide.

“The day — the Big Freeze at the G — was based on good humour, sledging each other, tomfoolery. The whole thing was about having fun at Gil (McLachlan’s) expense, my expense, everyone’s expense.

“However, it was clearly banter, but on White Ribbon weekend, we have to be ever-vigilant in stamping out anything that could be misconstrued one iota of supporting the abhorrent act of domestic violence.”

After McGuire made his comments last weekend, others in the studio had a good laugh and former AFL coach Danny Frawley even offered to hold her underwater. Frawley later apologised for his part in the incident.

“Last Monday on radio I made a couple of insensitive and inappropriate remarks about Caroline Wilson,” Frawley said on Fox Footy on Sunday night.

“Clearly it was a poor attempt at humour for which I sincerely apologise.”

Danny Frawley was apologetic.
Danny Frawley was apologetic.

Brayshaw also apologised on Monday, admitting he had let himself down.

“I was part of an on-air conversation during the Queen’s Birthday broadcast where things were said that were both inappropriate and unacceptable,” Brayshaw said.

“I offer my sincere, unreserved and unqualified apology.

“Respect for women and their role in both football and society is of vital importance. As leaders, we need to be very, very aware of this.

“We let ourselves down during the broadcast in this crucial area last week. I know Ed and Danny have already apologised and it is absolutely appropriate that I do too.”

In the 3AW commentary box at the event, Wilson was present and recalled similar remarks being made. However, she said she was not offended in that context because she was there to defend herself.

“In order to sledge each other, you need to both be there,” Wilson said.

“The difference here is I was there. It was shut down immediately after that comment, very different to the way the other conversation (with McGuire) continued.”

Former Collingwood captain Tony Shaw was in that commentary box, and was emotional when defending himself as he spoke to 3AW’s Neil Mitchell, often struggling to finish sentences.

“I don’t know whether I should apologise or not, I don’t think I should because I don’t think I did anything wrong,” Shaw said.

“I’ve worked with Caro for 12 years. We’ve had arguments but I respect Caro that much.

“You build up a reputation, and then ...

“I care about my reputation. I texted her (Wilson) this morning and she didn’t have an issue. But it’s not about Caro, it’s about being involved in something like this.”

Surf Life Saving Australia posted on Facebook on Sunday night that it was “disappointing to see high-profile media identities make light of drowning”, which killed 102 people on Australia’s coastline last year.

McGuire at the Big Freeze at the G.
McGuire at the Big Freeze at the G.

Sports writer Erin Riley drew attention to McGuire’s comment in a column pointing out that it was made just days before the weekend match between the Bulldogs and the Cats to support White Ribbon.

McGuire’s comments went unnoticed by most last week, but Riley wrote a damning piece which has put the Collingwood Football Club president in the spotlight.

“These are some of the most high-profile men in football joking about hurting one of football’s most prominent women,” Riley wrote.

“So much of our discussions about violence against women acknowledge the importance of language and of attitudes in shaping the way men think about women.”

She acknowledged McGuire was making a joke, but said his comments were dangerous.

“The image of a woman being held underwater against her will while people jump on her body is a horrifying picture of violence. It is nothing less,” she said.

“And make no mistake, the damage McGuire and co are doing by normalising attitudes of disrespect and violence toward a woman does more harm than a thousand themed matches and white ribbons on uniforms do good.”

Twitter users labelled McGuire’s comments “disgusting” and the hashtag #SackEddie emerged.

Riley said the comments were unacceptable and called on the AFL to step in.

“If the AFL and its clubs are genuinely committed to doing something about violence against women, they need to respond to this, and not just brush it under the rug,” she said.

McGuire is known for making controversial comments — remember when he suggested Adam Goodes could promote the musical King Kong?

In 2010, he hosted the Winter Olympics with Mick Molloy and made homophobic comments about male figure skaters.

McGuire began talking about the fashion in ice skating, with Molloy commenting that athletes in the sport did not leave anything in the locker room.

“They don’t leave anything in the closet either,” McGuire said.

— with AAP

Originally published as Eddie McGuire joked about drowning a woman on Triple M radio

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