A Spotlight credit card was used by an employee, who has since left Network Seven, to book a masseuse for Mr Lehrmann in November, 2022. The credit charge was without the knowledge or consent of executive producer Mark Llewellyn.
The incident prompted attempts by the Spotlight team to reverse the transaction when the employee owned up to using the credit card to pay for the masseuse.
Spotlight producer Steve Jackson, who was not present on the night and did not authorise or have any knowledge of the use of the credit card, then suggested the employee ask the Thai masseuse to reverse the transactions the next day and âpay cash insteadâ to remove the transaction from the credit card in keeping with the networkâs expense policies.
âWhen Seven eventually let him go â nine months after treating himself and, allegedly, Lehrmann to a rub on company money â he was given a glowing reference by Seven and snapped up by Sky News to be its âinvestigations producer.'" #MediaWatchpic.twitter.com/j0JUJ64H6S
Sevenâs owner Kerry Stokes is understood to be furious at the negative publicity from the alleged murky dealings of the Spotlight producers and how it has tainted other Seven News brands.
âThere is a lot of discussion about whether we can contain the damage or need to cut the head off the snake and close it down,â said one of many Seven insiders who spoke to The Daily Telegraph on condition of anonymity.
Seven bosses are wondering if the damage can be contained and the show saved as Nine did with Sixty Minutes after a botched child recovery operation in Lebanon saw four crew members arrested. The alternative would be to axe it.
60 Minutes has had its moments over time, nothing unique to this program alone.
Depends what else comes up along the way. Plenty of dirty laundry still to be heard by the sounds of it.
I donât think the average viewer cares, youâre right. However, most of Australia is over this whole case and anything to do with BL, itâs just become a big game of he said/she said .
This is probably more around culture inside 7, do they want to show staff they are serious around code of conduct?
They could rebrand it âSeven News Exclusiveâ or something etc.
