The much vaunted and much drawn out “dog fucker” controversy, in which The Chaser team, through their television broadcast series The Hamster Decides, displayed a (at the time clearly, but since legally proven to be) doctored image featuring NewsCorp journalist Chris Kenny astride a dog in the throes of coitus, continues to drag on at the seeming behest of Kenny himself, who must really be enjoying the amount of times his own name has been published throughout the saga.
The ABC finally backed down in mid-April, issuing a public apology to Kenny as requested, with the understanding that drawn-out legal action would be avoided as a result. The ABC’s managing director Mark Scott stated at the time, “I wish to apologise to Mr Chris Kenny for the controversial ‘The Hamster Decides’ skit run by ABC-TV in September last year. Having reviewed the issue, in my opinion it falls short of the quality demanded by our audience and normally delivered by our programming.“
Upon accepting the apology, Chris Kenny issued a statement that seemingly heralded an end to the affair, “It’s taken seven months but I was pleased to finally get a call and an apology from Mark Scott today. I have instructed my lawyers to try to settle this matter as soon as possible.“
Now it seems that that simply hasn’t been the case, and Kenny has allowed the legal issue to drag out without bringing it to a close as his statement implied, and the ABC is about sick of it. Today, their legal team has issued an ultimatum to Kenny’s stating that, in simple terms, they’re confident Kenny won’t win any appeal, and if he withdraws within 7 days they won’t chase him up to cover any costs.
The NSW Supreme Court did find that the Chaser’s segment was capable of defaming Chris Kenny, though they did make note of striking out one of his arguments, which was that Kenny seemed fearful that, as a result of the photo, people might think that he actually fucks dogs.
You can read all of the ABC’s legal letter right here.
via SMH.
