I'm sure by now all my Aussie readers (if I have any in general) now know about the sexual assault allegations facing Don Burke (for the rest of you, he's an Aussie gardening guru and former TV host of Burke's Backyard). From 1987 to 2004 he was the face of family-friendly viewing of Australian screens, but now his true nature seems finally to have been revealed. Along with calling one female colleague "a dumb slut," demoting another for defending her, driving a woman to a self-funded hotel suite and forcing her to sleep with him and general bullying and intimidation of male and female staff, it's also been reported he loved discussing and feeling plants' sex organs off-camera. It seems he doesn't just like fertilising things in the garden, huh?
That's reprehensible, but this story became personal to me when he quickly claimed to have such problems by invoking a self-diagnosis of Asperger's syndrome. I have myself and this is not for my image or that of any other autistic person (except him, if he is), but even I know that doesn't excuse his conduct (there have already been too many accusations for him to be innocent). Hell, considering autistic people in general, it doesn't even explain that. And rather than trying to blame it on an already stigmatised condition, he could've at least had a fucking professional diagnosis first. And most recently it's been reported that Kerry Packer, the late owner of Burke's former network Channel Nine, once told him to grow up. I rest my case. He can piss off back to his home among the gum trees and stay there.
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