Seven Spotlight interviewed Brittany Higgins’ alleged rapist, Bruce Lehrmann, over the weekend, but it still doesn’t clear up the situation. If anything, it makes Higgins look even worse than it already does. Unfortunately, it also doesn’t paint Lisa Wilkinson well either. While people have come out to defend the veteran journalist, the audio recordings featured in the Channel Seven program have her admitting to getting political figures into difficult positions to side with someone who might not be telling the truth.
This is not to say that Lehrmann is telling the truth, either. It’s not about taking sides. It’s about pointing out the flaws in the stories both he and Higgins are telling. Just because Brittany is a woman doesn’t mean people must believe her. The saying “You have to believe women” doesn’t always work, as men can be victims.
Lehrmann bought up in his interview with Liam Bartlett that it’s entirely possible he was a scapegoat for Higgins to save her job. CTV footage from the night in question shows them both at Parliament House after hours, but Higgins does not look drunk in the footage leading up to the alleged assault.
Nat Barr’s Frustrating Interview
The day after the interview aired, Natalie Barr on Sunrise interviewed Tanya Plibersek and Barnaby Joyce, where she had to ask Plibersek, who claims to have advocated for domestic abuse and sexual assault victims for over 30 years, five times whether Higgins or Wilkinson spoke to her about bringing up the alleged rape during Question Time.
Questions Journalists Need To Ask Bruce Lehrmann And Brittany Higgins
There was also a claim a while ago from someone present at the event Lehrmann and Higgins attended before they went back to Parliament House, who said she saw the pair making out. Bruce denies this ever happened during his Spotlight interview.
Moreover, the photo that was used as evidence during the criminal trial of Brittany’s bruised leg, where Bruce allegedly held her down as he was raping her, was of a bruise that was 11 days old. The bruise could have been from anything like running into an open car door or something like that. If Lehrmann did “hold her down” as suggested, why weren’t both her legs bruised?
There are also questions the public needs to ask that journalists don’t know what to ask their subjects. These include:
- Why did Brittany fear losing her job?
- Why did Higgins wait almost two weeks to photograph the bruise?
- Did either party contact the higher pollies to tell them they were going to Parliament House?
- Why wasn’t the work down before the event? Why did it have to be done at night when no one was around to vouch for them?
It is questions like this that make sensible people sit up and realise that something is not correct. In conclusion, there are many thoughts on what happened with Bruce Lehrmann and Brittany Higgins. That will be explored in another post.
