A video of Belle Gibson talking about her terminal cancer in a mock interview with her book publisher has been used in Federal Court as part of the case against the former wellness blogger.
The video involves Gibson undergoing media training and answering practice questions about cancer, her “survival” story and charity work ahead of the release of her 2014 book The Whole Pantry.
“This is just for us … so that if you are sitting opposite a Good Weekend journalist who’s asking you quite investigative questions … we want to rehearse some questions with you,” a Penguin employee says.
“Because what we suspect might happen now, is that because you are the success story of the moment … you know what journalists do, they want to start scratch, scratch, scratching away.”
“Well, they already are,” Gibson replies.
“Exactly. And we’re concerned about that,” replied the Penguin staffer.
“I’m going to ask you some of these questions, and some of them you won’t like, but that’s OK because it’s just us,” the publisher continues.
“And we’re here to help you come to what you want to be saying about you, and your life, and your cancer, and your book, and your family, and all those things.”
Penguin has been forced to admit they failed to fact-check Gibson’s book and has been ordered to pay $30,000 and include prominent warnings on all future books containing natural therapies, reports SMH.
Gibson once again failed to appear in court yesterday.
Consumer Affairs Victoria are pushing for a fine of $1.1 million dollars, a judge will hand down her verdict in the coming weeks.
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