Kyle Sandilands - a bit of a tosser.
Rape Is No Joke, a campaign that originally started on Facebook - in response to Facebook's complete and utter failure to shut down pages that advocate and in some cases are alleged to organise rape - have now targeted Australian arch-douchebag Kyle 'No Talent' Sandilands.
Good on 'em I say. More after the jump.
UPDATE: And the hits keep on comin'. Kyle has added another gaffe to his roster here.
Sandilands is being targeted primarily because of this tirade he launched against news.com.au's Alison Stephenson, where in return for a poor review of his lacklustre TV show, he made fun of her 'titties' and promised to 'hunt her down'.
Rest assured dear readers, it's all about freedom of speech. MWAH HAH HAH. No actually it's about one broadcaster with a nasty habit of slagging off women, and generally being a complete asshat.
Some choice elements of KS's career from Wikipedia;
(As judge on Australian Idol) Sandilands was involved in a number of controversies relating to remarks to contestants as his stint as a judge. In October 2005, Sandilands referred to the eventual 2005 idol winner Kate DeAraugo's arms as "tuckshop lady arms". In September 2006, Sandilands told 2006 idol runner up contestant Jessica Mauboy to lose her "jelly belly". A year later, Sandilands referred to idol contestant Bobby Flynn as a "mong" - a derogatory slang term for mongoloid, referring to people suffering from Down syndrome.
(As judge on Australia's Got Talent) Sandilands had asked contestant Heather Cook, "Are you male or female?". When Cook tried to make light of being asked if she was male or female, Sandilands then made a joke about her weight, saying "You're a belly full of laughs". Sandilands then added he wasn't hired to be "bland and boring", he was just being honest.
(On 2Day FM) On 4 August 2006, Sandilands used his radio program to call Fiona Connolly, a columnist from Sydney's Daily Telegraph, "fat" and a "liar". After calling her the "chick that I hate at Sydney Confidential" he also stated he "... would hire a private investigator to film her and her family then I'm going to put it on a website and I'm going to show everyone what members of her family do that are dodgy ..." He has since been banned by Austereo management from mentioning Connolly on air.
(On 2Day FM) Media Watch further reported that on 20 July 2009 Jackie O and Sandilands 'cruelly' and 'sadistically' taunted a refugee from Pol Pot's Cambodia and meted out similar treatment to the woman's 19 year-old niece whilst on-air. (Note: I believe the aunt and niece had never met. This would be the first time they would lay eyes on each other. The niece was hidden behind one of two doors. Sandilands told the aunt she had to pick the right door, or would be sent back to Cambodia without seeing her niece. What a swell guy.)
(On 2Day FM) On 29 July 2009, Sandilands and co-host, Henderson, were leading a segment on their regular 2Day FM morning show in which a 14 year old girl was strapped to a lie detector while the child's mother, Sandilands and Henderson questioned her, including questions about her prior experience with sex and drugs. Sandilands was participating in the radio show from New Zealand via hookup. Before questioning started Jackie Henderson had propositioned to the mother "What’s your worst fear? Is it the sex?".
The girl started by saying, "I'm scared. It's not fair". Sandilands said, "She is scared everyone. Yeah." The segment went astray when the girl revealed she had been raped at the age of 12. The girl had been asked by her mother if she had any sexual experience. After a long pause, Sandilands then clarified "Right ... is that the only experience you've had?" (Note: Rape is not a 'sexual experience' Kyle, it is a violent crime.)
The segment was widely criticised by health professionals, media commentators, the Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, and the public. The controversy was reported internationally. A group of 15 high-profile psychologists, academics and child advocates wrote to The Age calling for the show to be cancelled. They suggested the show had been the venue for child abuse and a gross violation of human rights. The Kyle and Jackie O Show continued broadcasting on the Thursday and Friday mornings after the offending segment had been broadcast. In the days after the stunt Sandilands said on air:
"We’re very sad for the girl and very disappointed and apologetic to anyone who took offence to it." (Note: the classic 'non-apology', not "I'm sorry I did this evil, callous thing" but rather "I'm sorry if you took offence at it".)
(On 2Day FM) On 9 September 2009, Sandilands was suspended for two weeks after making comments that were alleged to racially and religiously vilify Magda Szubanski, an Australian TV host and comedian. Sandliands said on-air: “You put her in a concentration camp and you watch the weight fall off … like she could be skinny”. Sandilands and Henderson were debating who should be the next face of weight-loss company Jenny Craig. Szubanski had recently lost 25 kg using the Jenny Craig program during a well-documented public weight battle. Szubanski, whose father was a Polish resistance fighter during World War II, told ninemsn news "I couldn’t give two hoots about what Kyle says about me, but to trivialise what happened to people in concentration camps is abhorrent." Jewish groups also criticised Sandilands and once again called for his sacking.
(On 2Day FM) After the debut airing of Kyle and Jackie O's Night with the Stars on 22 November 2011, the subsequent ratings that were released showed that the program 'poorly performed' with only 200,000 viewers at the conclusion of the program. Several critics including news.com.au journalist, Alison Stephenson branded the show a 'disaster' and 'awkward'. During the radio airing of the Kyle and Jackie O Show on 23 November, Kyle made direct sexist comments towards Stephenson, on-air Sandilands said, "You're a bullshit artist, girl. You should be fired from your job" Kyle then made derogatory comments about her appearance, "Your hair's very '90s. And your blouse. You haven't got that much titty to be having that low cut a blouse. Watch your mouth or I'll hunt you down." Subsequent to the comments, several major sponsors which includes Holden, The Good Guys, Vodafone, Telstra, Fantastic Furniture, Pepsi, Crazy John's, Blackmores and Medibank all withdrew advertisements from either the entire Southern Cross Austereo network which the radio show is hosted on or during the broadcasting of the Kyle and Jackie O Show. The withdrawal of the advertisement is reported to cost the Austereo radio network over $8 million per year.So, yes, he really seems to hate ugly, fat people, especially women and really likes to talk about women's 'titties'. Whatta guy.
On 24 November, Sandilands released a statement during the airing of The Kyle and Jackie O Show in response to claim that the comments he made were sexist, "If you took a personal offence to it Ali I'm sorry, but maybe you should think again before you start going (against) different people. If they say I can dish it out but I can't take it, I never ever dish it out first. I only ever retaliate to someone else's crazy allegations." He defended his initial remarks and said that they were his opinions in response to Alison Stephenson's opinions which were posted on news.com.au. During the broadcast, Sandilands also denied that the comments had any sexist intention.
So, RINJ are launching a campaign against him and any other similar shock-jocks they find, which you can read about here. This is timely, with Australia's continuing media inquiry. Despite being suspended more times than I can keep track of, Kyle 'the one-minute hate' Sandilands still has a very cushy and lucrative range of jobs. At what point does this absolute tool need to be forced to be responsible for the things he says? When everyone from Catherine Deveney to polar opposite Miranda Devine think he's a twat, isn't there some point where the ACMA says 'You know Kyle, you ARE a twat. Get off the goddamn air!
We don't even like him here. In 2009, T&A cheesecake magazine, Zoo Weekly named him top of the 50 people most hated by Australians. He came ahead of imprisoning incest rapist Josef Fritzl. Yeah, read that again. In 2009, Zoo readers hated Kyle Sandilands more than the most hated man in the world at the time.
Comedian Dave Hughes called him a 'dickhead' during a comedy routine at the Logie Awards (an Australian TV awards ceremony, where we give awards to people based on how long they've played the same role in the same boring soap opera ;) ). When asked to apologise, Dave Hughes did - in classic Kyle Sandilands non-apology style.
I don't know how successful RINJ's campaign will be. They're coming to the party a little late, but I would like to see this professional troll off television and off the air. His attacks on women, his vitriol over petty slights coupled with his sheer callousness display - to me anyway - qualities I mentioned here.
I'd really like Australian talk radio to be of a vastly better quality. Misogynists like Sandilands and frauds, racists and liars like Alan Jones have turned our airwaves into a quagmire of lunacy.
So, RINJ, have at him. Give the bastard hell.
