‘Tis the season to shame sleazebags
Didn’t 2GB’s Chris Smith read any of the articles published at this time of year about the dangers of misbehaving at office Christmas parties?
Smith has been suspended indefinitely from his afternoon show on Australia’s most famous and popular talkback radio station due to ‘incidents’ that occurred at 2GB station owner Macquarie Radio Network’s Christmas party.
The Daily Telegraph was onto this Christmas tale quickly, asking ‘Who is the 2GB Christmas party groper?’. Station owner John Singleton initially attempted to dismiss it all as a bit of festive fun by claiming it “sounds like every Christmas party I’ve ever been to”. Not this time.
2GB’s Ray Hadley told listeners he wasn’t the mystery ‘groper’ with the Sydney Morning Herald naming Chris Smith as ‘Little Lord Fondle-roy’. Smith was immediately suspended indefinitely by 2GB management.
This isn’t the first time Chris Smith has been in strife for such sleazy behaviour. As the SMH reports, there was a notorious incident in the Channel Nine boardroom a decade ago. Following a boozy lunch, Smith, who was chief-of-staff at A Current Affair at the time, unzipped his fly and ”unfurled his member” to several shocked women in the room. On a separate occasion a senior newspaper journalist once had her breasts fondled by Smith while she was talking to a television identity at a corporate event.
Some people never learn and continue to blame other factors for their disgraceful antics. In this interview today, Smith claims he is a bipolar alcoholic. So familiar – booze and mental issues used as an excuse instead of taking responsibility for actions.
We all know the sort. The egotistical alpha male (in their own mind) who seems to think that ascending to the heady heights of middle management gives them the right to sexually harass female colleagues at office functions. They’re usually given nicknames like “the grope” or “the pest” and everyone (male and female) is too frightened for their own career prospects to protest. Let’s start naming and shaming these sleazebags. Any corporation worth working for will realise such sad individuals destroy staff morale and their behaviour should never be tolerated.
Chris Smith would agree. He remarked in May this year, “If you carry on like a lunatic, full of grog, and have disrespect for women, you should be fired”. Indeed.
