{"id":325198,"date":"2023-08-22T03:26:23","date_gmt":"2023-08-22T03:26:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=325198"},"modified":"2023-08-22T07:01:45","modified_gmt":"2023-08-22T07:01:45","slug":"defamed-tigers-boss-threatens-to-sue-podcast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=325198","title":{"rendered":"'Defamed' Tigers boss threatens to sue podcast"},"content":{"rendered":"

W\ufeffests Tigers<\/a> chairman Lee Hagipantelis has threatened to sue a fan podcast, alleging his "character and reputation are defamed" by comments made.<\/p>\n

The WestsLife Podcast<\/em> is run by a small group of Tigers fans, but they have been highly critical of club management – particularly Hagipantelis and CEO Justin Pascoe – \ufeffamid a torrid run of on-field results.<\/p>\n

The Sydney Morning Herald has revealed<\/a> Hagipantelis – who runs a law firm – sent a letter to the podcast hosts on Monday threatening legal action unless he was issued an apology.<\/p>\n

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"Podcasters are perfectly entitled to hold an opinion or criticise the club, myself or Justin Pascoe," Hagipantelis told the Herald.<\/p>\n

"That is not an issue. However, if my character and reputation are defamed in a public setting, then there are legal consequences.<\/p>\n

\"Wests<\/p>\n

"I note this has been acknowledged by the gentleman in question given they have unreservedly apologised."\ufeff<\/p>\n

Hagipantelis was incensed by comments made by the podcast hosts on a recent episode about the Tigers' pursuit of Eels halfback Mitchell Moses.<\/p>\n

Podcast host Rob Bechara claimed Hagipantelis had offered to "pick him (Moses) up every day in his Ferrari and drive him to Concord", while co-host Josh Barnett said, ""Is he 16 years old? That's actually really creepy".<\/p>\n

Stream the NRL premiership 2023 live and free on <\/strong>9Now<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Following Hagipantelis sending the defamation concerns letter on Monday, \ufeffBechara issued a public apology on behalf of the podcast.<\/p>\n

But when contacted by the Herald afterwards, Bechara doubled down on his criticism of the club chairman.<\/p>\n

\"Sheens<\/p>\n

"WestsLife is a podcast for Wests Tigers supporters and all who care to listen," Bechara said.<\/p>\n

"We own our opinions on Hagipantelis which we are entitled to given our decline under his tenure. We won our first game since May 18 (on Saturday) but instead of focusing on that let's make it all about Lee, Lee, Lee. We didn't call him a rapist, murderer or anything defamatory.<\/p>\n

"The only person that defames his character is himself in my opinion. Death, taxes and Lee Hagipantelis embarrassing himself and the Wests Tigers. Focus on lifting our club off the bottom of the table Hagipantelis."\ufeff<\/p>\n

Hagipantelis has previously had run-ins with the WestsLife Podcast<\/em>, one time refusing a request to appear on the show \ufeffand sending a lengthy response complaining about their conduct.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

W\ufeffests Tigers chairman Lee Hagipantelis has threatened to sue a fan podcast, alleging his "character and reputation are defamed" by comments made. The WestsLife Podcast […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":325200,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325198"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=325198"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325198\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":325202,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325198\/revisions\/325202"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/325200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=325198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=325198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=325198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}