Craig Hutchison breaks his silence on missing Mark Robinson trade radio audio
Rumours of Trade Radio being censored swirled last week after an interview with Mark Robinson was taken down. Craig Hutchison has spoken on why it was really cut.
It seems the case of the missing Trade Radio audio will remain a mystery.
SEN boss Craig Hutchison says neither he nor the AFL asked for the opinionated segment from former Herald Sun chief football writer Mark Robinson to be removed from a Trade Radio podcast.
Eyebrows were raised when a chat with Robinson last Thursday was not included on a podcast of that morning’s Trade Radio show.
Hosted by Channel 9’s Tom Morris and former Essendon great James Hird, they had ‘Robbo’ on the show to discuss topics such as Chris Judd’s move to West Coast to Carlton back in the day before they moved onto more recent topics and Robbo came off the long run criticising the AFL over its mishandling of Bailey Smith and appointment of Laura Kane to the league’s footy boss role.
When quizzed on his weekly Sounding Board show of his involvement in the saga, Hutchison said neither party had asked for the segment to be removed.
“There was certainly no directive not to post the podcast,” he said on Monday.
“That was I think an editorial judgement I think from one of the team and then it was interpreted as censorship.
“The AFL didn’t know and didn’t ask for anything around the podcast being removed and nor did I.
“It was just the circumstance of the day.
“There was nothing from the AFL or for me on the matter on the podcast.”
Hutchison said he was not actually aware of what Robinson had said until that afternoon.
“It was a peculiar day to be fair,” he said.
“I was on the way to Shepparton for our SEN Goulburn Valley launch at lunchtime so I’m in and out of range a bit in the car on the way in the morning.
“I hadn’t heard the interview or that Mark was on and I got alerted by one of our digital staff that Mark had indeed been on and said some things that were right off script from what the interview was intended to be and (was asked) how best to handle that.
“I offered a view that it wasn’t in our best interests to be writing a story on SEN.com.au on about whatever the tone of the interview was. I hadn’t heard it, didn’t know what he said.
“I don’t think there is any point in amplifying the content on our platform because it is quite a unique situation.
“We as a business Sports Entertainment Network provide the content to AFL.com.au and that deal was done at the time when we didn’t have SEN as an owner of our own platform so I thought it would be a bit cheeky to further amplify whatever those comments were on our platform.”
IF YOU MISSED OUT ON WHAT ROBINSON SAID, HERE IT IS:
“Some of the players are really starting to s**t me.”
“I want to talk about Bailey Smith and everyone is going to call me a woke, silly old fool, but for Bailey Smith to abuse the photographer is one thing, that’s really poor.
“For Bailey Smith to be a part of an Instagram photo with (Holmes dressed as) Caroline Wilson and put a (colloquially) semen emoji up there is one of the most disgusting things I’ve seen a player do.
“If it was my mother, or my sister, or my wife … I can guarantee you myself and my three brothers would be going around to say hello to Bailey Smith.
“Who does he think he is to put a semen emoji on a photo of (Holmes dressed as) Caroline Wilson.
“It’s not woke to call it out. It’s decency. Be a decent person. And for the AFL to allow that to go unpunished is one of the most disgusting inactions by the AFL in my time in football.
“We can all laugh at Bailey Smith and say he’s just a young man, you can have fun without being a pig.
“I’m disappointed in Greg Swann and in Andrew Dillon for allowing that to go through to the keeper without punishment.”
Originally published as Craig Hutchison breaks his silence on missing Mark Robinson trade radio audio
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