Sunday, December 4, 2011

RINJ vs Kyle Sandilands

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.

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, yes, he really seems to hate ugly, fat people, especially women and really likes to talk about women's 'titties'. Whatta guy.

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.

6 comments:

  1. RINJ has entered the fight against this Southern Cross Austereo network that encourages its audience to be violent toward women and makes mockery of the rape of a 12 year old.

    Southern Cross Austereo continues to engage this loser Sandilands who thinks he can mimic Washington DC's DC101's raucous shock-jock "Elliot In the Morning", but without notable talent or eloquence, Sandilands has come to rely on extremely offensive attacks on women and children to gain notoriety and ratings.

    Two years ago on the "Kyle and Jackie O" show, Sanderlinds led a rape-joke tag-team exploit of the rape of a 12 year old by strapping her into a chair and polygraphing her at age 14 (apparently) about a rape that happened to her at 12. Sanderlands currently is promoting to the network's listening audience the concept of hunting down and hurting a female journalist who criticized him. This promotes the culture of violence toward women and encourages listeners to be violent toward women.

    If women and children are to be victims of escalating media violence and objectification, the human species' survival is at risk.

    In the postulation of some historic authors of fiction, radio stations and networks that engage announcers to exploit raping children and acting out violence toward female adults should be closed and bulldozed to the ground.

    Surely in the real world there is enough passion on this topic for at least a massive public disobedience and blockade. Let's see.

    Clearly when a broadcast outlet repeatedly promotes the objectification of women and children and encourages their endangerment, (for shock-value, scandal and ratings) there is justified cause for RINJ's more extreme tactics.

    In case the Southern Cross Austereo business model is not adjusted to exclude attack on youth and women of Australia, blueprints, maps and databases are under examination currently to determine the best targets for militant activism. An advertiser or group of advertisers will be blockaded from access to markets and the public until such time as the issue is resolved for the perceived safety of women and children in the listening audience.

    A press release will be issued after the event has begun.

    If you are a Southern Cross shareholder, we suggest you sell now or tear up your stock certificates as they will become worthless.

    ReplyDelete
  2. @Katie Alsop
    Thanks, Katie Alsop from RINJ. Time will tell what this militant action entails I guess. With Austereo bleeding sponsors constantly because of KS, I'm not even sure it'll be necessary, but Austereo do have a habit of suspending KS then rehiring him every time he spews one of these hateful things.

    If you follow RINJ on Facebook or elsewhere, you can stay tuned to their campaign.

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  3. Dear OldAngryGuy,

    I'm interested in the vernacular use of the phrase 'ass hat' in Australia, ass being an American spelling of the word you often verbally express as 'arse'. I was also wondering if it is related to the popular phrase 'arse clown'?

    I do not believe Mr Sandilands is known to wear hats (of any description), let alone an 'ass hat', but I am quite convinced that his demeanor is very much what we would describe in our culture as a 'douche', or in its longer form a 'douche-bag'.

    (I must add the term 'douche' is very rarely used as a prefix, although I have heard 'douche-face' on occasion.)

    So, under the assumption that Mr Sandilands is either a douche-bag, ass hat or arse clown (or all of the above), I am wondering if it is possible that an 'arse clown' is identified by the fact that he wears an 'ass hat' and if he was to be described as this phrase you may in fact prefer to describe him as an 'arse hat'?

    Much appreciated,

    Anonymous

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  4. @Anonymous
    I must confess that asshat is of internet colloquial origin, thus the American 'ass' spelling. It is also the origin of the phrase I sometimes use of 'asshattery' that is acts and behaviour of a generally stupid or barbarous nature. Arse clown would be a wonderfully commensurate epithet in that regard.

    Perhaps asshat denotes that his head is hovering perilously close to being stuck up his arse?

    As to using the more local version 'arse' I find that 'ass' and 'arse' often serve subtly different purposes. For instance, I would never dream of renaming my fictional award 'Arseholes of Australia' to 'Assholes of Australia' and in fact describe the villainous acts of recipients as 'arseholery'. There are times I feel when ass serves a particular need better, and it's cadence is much more pleasing with partnered with a hat or hattery in general.

    Thank you for your interest in the terms however. It is always pleasant to have a civil dialogue on such terms of disparagement and vulgarity.

    Yours, OAG.

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  5. @Anonymous
    Oh, and 'a bit of a tosser' is quite English. Tosser, like 'wanker' is a lovely disparaging term conjuring the image of a person who is a frequent and obsessive masturbator. It is generally taken to mean someone who is somewhat foolish or silly. It can also be neatly conjoined with '-pot' to create 'tosspot' as in 'so and so is such a tosspot'.

    Ah slang. It's lovely.

    ReplyDelete
  6. http://rinjmakesuscrinj.wordpress.com/

    ReplyDelete