Operatic costume change

Defamatorium ... Kim Williams lawyers-up against the newspaper his lawyers used to defend ... Opera House hissy fit denied ... Working both sides of Libel Street ... It's not over till the fat lady sings 

Kim Williams and Louise Herron: it's not over

CLARINET playing Kimbo Williams always looked out of place amid the oikes and mutton-heads that comprise the galley slaves in Rupe's great media ship. 

As CEO he loyally mouthed all the company ordained platitudes about freedom of the press and the beastly Finkelstein and Conroy projects. 

So, it's a tad unfortunate that someone who had the grizzly task of defending the piles of molten lava that passes for journalism switches. 

So it is with Kimbo, goggle specs and all. 

He's taking Fairfax Media to court over a mildly amusing piece by Fin Review gossip artiste Joe Aston who reported that Williams, as chairman of the Sydney Opera House Trust, had a stand-up barney with the trust's CEO, Louise Herron. 

Freedom of the press and all that only goes as far as the court door.  

The story said that Kimbo "stormed out of his final board meeting" over Herron's management of the restaurant tender that "forced Guillaume Brahimi from the building". 

Williams is alleged to have told Herron at the meeting, "I'm over you" and then tendered his resignation to Arts Minister George Souris. 

The story is still on The Sydney Morning Herald's website, accompanied by a massive grovel, in which the paper said that every material fact in the story was wrong.  

There was also this more generalised grovel to Williams published on September 4 in relation to an unrelated article by columnist Paul Sheehan.  

Joe Aston: source for Opera House story gone to ground

What has disturbed the pond is that Mark O'Brien and his team at Johnson Winter & Slattery have stepped in as Kimbo's solicitors, having six months earlier departed as Fairfax's pre-publication and litigation defence lawyers. 

Fairfax general counsel Gail Hambly asked O'Brien to remove himself from the Williams case, but the old rugger-bugger more or less said "get stuffed". 

In fact, there's been a trickle of letters from O'Brien to Fairfax on behalf of other clients complaining about his former client. 

Among the reptiles there was concern in 2008 about O'Brien's appointment as the external lawyer for Fairfax. Journalists scratched together a missive for then editor Alan Oakley objecting to the appointment: 

"He has represented many of the people about whom we have written, and he has acted to threaten or to bring defamation actions against the paper and individual journalists ... 

It would be an understatement to say this has upset many of your senior staff who work their guts out ... [etc, etc] ..." 

More here  

Journalists also found it upsetting that in November 2011, while still the external lawyer for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Sun-Herald, O'Brien obtained a suppression order in the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal on behalf of his client, the convicted inside trader John Joseph Hartman. 

More here  

It was inevitable that once O'Brien was outside the tent (replaced by Leanne Norman at Banki Haddock Fiora) it was pretty clear that the flow of urine now would be going back inside. 

He would have first-hand knowledge of the litigation and settlement strategy of the publisher and the way the company works internally. 

O'Brien still acts to protect that beacon of journalistic integrity, A Current Affair. 

Here at Justinian our position is that when it comes to the free speech jurisdiction, you're either for it or agin it. The straddle looks unattractive.  

P.S...

Crikey recently unearthed a letter to Joe Aston, the author of the allegedly defamatory piece about Kimbo. 

It came in response to some low grade sniping Aston had fired at Sydney Morning Herald columnist Mike Carlton - claiming that he was old, left-wing and irrelevant. 

"Aston

Your 'story' on Kim Williams would appear to be a perfect clusterfuck, wrong in every detail. And expensive, too. (Although, in your favour, you did spell his name correctly.)

Can't say I'm surprised. As I have said before, you can't write. You are not funny. You are an unmitigated pissant, a polyp on the arse-end  of journalism.

Normally I wouldn’t bother to write to a posturing little twerp like you, but in this case I wanted you to know how much I am enjoying your public humiliation.

Now go fuck yourself.

Sincerely

Mike Carlton" 

Joe - ring O'Brien.