In the wake of decorated war veteran Ben Roberts-Smith losing his defamation case against Nine Newspapers, people are calling for media personality Yumi Stynes to be issued an apology.
Justice Anthony Besanko, who was presiding over Robert-Smith’s case, found imputations put forward across six articles by The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and The Canberra Times were substantially or contextually true.
The proceedings were officially dismissed, after Justice Besanko found the articles proved some, but not all, of the defamatory imputations, in a major win for the newspapers.
He said the most serious imputations alleged in the articles had been proven, and the newspapers had upheld the defence of contextual truth for the remainder.
Justice Besanko found allegations of threats and domestic violence could not be proven, but that he was “satisfied” the defence team had made out the defence of contextual truth.
While not every murder allegation made by the newspapers had been established, the judge found the two key killings had taken place.
The ruling has led people to reconsider Stynes’ viral dig at the soldier and not everyone is seeing it as a tone deaf remark anymore.
Stynes was vilified in 2012 after she joked about Robert-Smith’s ripped body during a segment on 10’s now defunct The Circle.
A photo of the war veteran was shown shirtless and standing at the edge of a pool.
“Hello! Look at that physique! He’s going to dive down to the bottom of the pool and see if his brain is there,” she quipped.
Stynes’ comments were met with horror, and she was dragged online and even apologised on television for her mishap.
‘‘I’m really sorry. I didn’t mean to offend anybody and I have total respect for people that work in the defence forces, and I’ve never met Ben, but I’m sure he’s lovely, and he does seem like a big family man,” she said.
Fast-forward to 2023 and people on the internet are calling for Stynes to be issued an apology.
Someone tweeted: “How about some apologies to Yumi Stynes?”
“Today I’m thinking of Yumi Stynes who was really ahead of the curve on BRS,” someone else wrote
“Yumi Stynes was intelligent and perceptive enough to see right through [him] when
many others couldn’t. You copped sh*t for that, Yumi. You’re owed a big apology
from many,” another added.
“Just so staggering! Goes to show how entitled and privileged Ben Roberts-Smith thinks he is. We owe Yumi Stynes a huge apology,” someone else wrote
“Thinking of 2012 and how Yumi Stynes was unfairly eviscerated for saying Ben Roberts-Smith going to dive down to the bottom of the pool to see if his brain [was] there...”
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“I hope all these people who came for Yumi in 2012 reflect a lot today,” another
wrote.
Stynes has yet to respond to the influx of support she’s been getting over a decade later.
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