Kyle Sandilands Should Not Be Sacked Just For His Comments
By now, everyone has heard about Kyle and Jackie-O’s segment on 104.1 2-Day FM where a 14-year old girl was hooked up to a lie detector and admitted that her first sexual experience was when she was raped as a 12 year-old. She had been brought to the studio by her mother, who would have received free tickets to Pink’s Australian concert.
Quite rightly, there has been a huge uproar amongst the Australian public, over the treatment of the young girl, the decision of the mother to bring her along, the nature of the contest and the comments made by Kyle Sandilands in response to the young girl’s admission.
The above hyperlink links to a newspaper article containing a transcript of that portion of the segment, including the response from Kyle and Jackie-O.
In my opinion, blame should be apportioned in the above order, starting with the mother. What sort of mother would sell out her own daughter in exchange for concert tickets?
Disciplinary action may be appropriate against those who approved the airing of this segment. The management of the station should have imposed clear guidelines on the sort of topics and people who who are allowed to be on this show. I would suggest that for sexual topics, contestants must be over 18, and all parties must consent.
There have been many calls for Kyle Sandliands to be sacked. I do not agree.
He and Jackie were caught by surprise by the young girl’s statment and did not know what to say. Kyle nervously made the comment “Right. (Pause.) And is that the only experience you’ve had? “
I do think that Kyle is untalented (or rather, his sole talent is speaking in a crude and offensive way), and ask why he is in the position he is in, but that is another matter.
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