‘Mate, you’re a piece of s..t’: Bruce McWilliam unplugged in furious farewell

Things won’t be the same without the legendary Bruce McWilliam following his departure from Seven, as this reporter well knows.

Bruce McWilliam had some parting words for The Australian when asked a number of straightforward questions. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Damian Shaw

Three weeks ago, Seven boss James Warburton sent an all-staff email in which he heaped praise on the company’s soon-to-depart commercial director Bruce McWilliam, lionising the 68-year-old as “an icon of the Australian media industry”.

“We are all going to miss Bruce’s wise counsel, guidance, deep knowledge of the law and media, and wicked sense of ­humour,” he wrote.

“Things won’t be the same without a constant stream of texts and emails from Bruce.”

This reporter can vouch for that. On Wednesday, McWilliam – the legendary corporate fixer, legal adviser, commercial deal maker and media communicator – sent me a text message in response to a number of straight­forward questions The Australian had asked about his handling of an alleged fraud investigation relating to the misuse of a company expense account at Seven in 2022.

The text began: “Mate you’re a piece of shit.”

Yep, things won’t be the same without Bruce.

His final tirade provides an unfiltered insight into how Seven’s in-house Svengali sought to manage, and massage, the media company’s external communications for more than two decades.

Journalists who have had to deal with McWilliam are used to the tirades that usually conclude with the rushed caveat that, oh, by the way, everything he just said was “off the record”.

On Wednesday, there was no such “off the record” edict when responding to The Australian’s inquiries about his reported involvement in covering up an alleged expenses scandal involving former Sunrise executive producer Michael Pell, whom McWilliam described as a “creative genius”.

The allegations against Pell, and the way McWilliam had sought to dismiss them, formed the basis of a feature-length article in Nine’s tabloids, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, on Wednesday morning.

McWilliam was incensed, responding within three minutes to The Australian’s set of questions about allegations raised in the article. “Mate you’re a piece of shit,” he started. “I defended Pell. They were piling on. You have no human characteristics so I know you wouldn’t understand about supporting anyone.”

Do journalists care that McWilliam spits venom by the litre? Not really. Most know how to take it on the chin.

But the departure of the old warhorse and his loose style of corporate diplomacy is a moment to reflect on how media operatives spin the message. Professionalism and accountability are in, unchecked abuse is out.

To underscore the point, a few hours after McWilliam let fly at The Australian on Wednesday, a senior figure from Seven called. He had got wind of McWilliam’s vivid messages to me, and had called to check if I was “OK”.

Was a media executive really calling to ask if my feelings had been hurt? Hilarious!

But then, the kicker. “Just so you know, Bruce is gone. He’s now a former Seven employee.”

And so, just like that, the rehabilitation of Seven’s reputation – battered senseless by that ­Spotlight/Bruce Lehrmann/Taylor Auerbach saga – is formally under way, albeit in hushed tones.

The unmistakeable gist of the messenger’s call was that the McWilliam model of corporate communications and troubleshooting is dead and buried.

Publicly, Seven maintains it has “acted appropriately at all times” with regards to securing the infamous Lehrmann interview on Spotlight. Privately, senior figures at the network concede that from a corporate reputation perspective, it’s a long road back.

As it happens, I was already aware that McWilliam had left the building. In his final gruff message to me on Wednesday, when I asked the date of his final day at Seven, he replied: “I’ve left.”

As a parting gift, he added that I was a “joke” and an “idiot”.