He’s a cretin, a hate-filled belligerent whose talent is in inverse proportion to his offensiveness. As Penbo pointed out yesterday, he’s a dead-set, rolled-gold, card-carrying dickhead.
Dickheads are a dime a dozen. Why is this one given a voice?
The short answer is he’s popular so he brings in the cash.
The longer answer is that 2DayFM (part of the Austereo network) hoist him up on a platform. Sponsors, advertisers and therefore listeners keep him there. And his tepidly giggling co-host Jackie O allows him to spout obnoxiousness virtually unchallenged.
Arsehats will probably always be arsehats. And yes, people can tune out (although you’ll passively inhale the arsehattery in some public places). But the people that allow this poisonous bile to spew out and make the world a worse place should be shamed into taking action and ridding the airwaves of Sandilands.
It’s tempting to say the Government should step in. After all, they regulate our exposure to cigarette smoke and pollution, they’re constantly working to stop us drinking and taking drugs. They try to protect kids from junk food advertising and sex on TV. So why not do something to stop what would be called hate speech if it were used in a racist context?
And the Government would clearly love the opportunity to better control the media. But remember, people, that way danger lies.
So it’s the enablers we need to focus on.
Let’s do a quick recap of the situation. Kyle and Jackie O host a TV special that is immediately and widely panned, and drops more than a million viewers in five minutes.
A journalist reports that it has been labelled a disaster.
Kyle makes a very personal attack on that journalist. An unforgiveable attack. Not only does he – as he has done before – gibber nasty insults about her appearance, but he makes a physical threat: “Watch your mouth, girl, or I will hunt you down”.
People say nasty crap like this all the time. But they’re not broadcast to the nation. Sandilands is, with the help of people who should know better.
The immediately obvious enabler is Jackie O. She sits next to this vindictive, immature, nasty piece of work as he spits out “fat slag” and worse. And she says nothing apart from weakly pleading that he learn to take it on the chin.
In a broader context the audience is to blame. What is it that makes all these people tune in to someone with such a consistent history of bastardry? This is the guy who turned to a 14-year-old rape victim and asked: “Is that the only experience you’ve had?”
This is the guy who suggested “you put (Magda Szubankski) in a concentration camp and you watch the weight fall off … like she could be skinny”.
The guy who pulled this particularly nasty stunt on refugees from Pol Pot’s Cambodian regime.
What sort of person are you to enjoy this sort of crap? Or do the whimsical charms of pop quizzes and psychics and the parade of celebrities make it all OK? Or is it the music?
Sorry, dear Listener, it’s not really your fault that they provide such a tempting trough for you to feed at.
No, it’s the big business behind Kyle that deserves every sharp toe of the bollocking they’re getting.
Holden and the Good Guys quite rightly pulled their sponsorship and there’s a move on to convince all advertisers to pull out of the show.
As they should. Even if they are willing to take the loss of good will towards them for their association with Sandilands in exchange for the exposure of his inexplicably popular show, they have some moral responsibility here.
But the people with the power, the people who made Sandilands into what he is today, the people who give him his voice, is the radio station and ultimately Austereo.
Dear Austereo - how dare you remain silent? How dare you offer ‘no comment’? When The Punch rang, why would nobody talk? By not condemning Sandilands, you are implicitly endorsing him.
It may be that you are revelling in all this controversy, as though it’s some confected outrage over a fashion malfunction or a naughty joke. If that’s the case, you’re as guilty of misreading the public’s mood as Qantas was with its Twitter PR stunt this week. And you’re also ultimately responsible for everything Kyle has done.
Not all publicity is good publicity. People are genuinely angry and upset at Kyle’s attack on and threats against the journalist. And it’s your fault. This was no one-off dummy spit. This is a guy who consistently picks on women, who intimated violence, who feeds hate. This has been building up for too long, and it’s reached bursting point.
You are culpable, and you must act.
Lance the boil, Austereo. Sack Sandilands
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