Is Kyle's punishment disproportionate?
While this post is somewhat late, the 'domino' effect of shock jock Kyle Sandilands' actions has been bugging me for the past week and a half. When the story broke on Wednesday afternoon (29th) it caused an absolute uproar among the public.
What actually happened? The mother of a 14-year-old girl put her daughter up to be attached to a polygraph machine, on live radio, in order to win tickets to P!nk's upcoming Australian Tour. The intention of the mother when she put her daughter up to this stunt was to 'conclusively' (polygraphs or lie detectors aren't accurate at the best of times; evidence from them isn't admissible in court) prove whether her daughter's claim that she had been raped when she was 12-years-old was correct or incorrect.
As if this wasn't bad enough, when the girl revealed that she had been raped, Kyle asked "a-and is this your only experience?". He defends himself by saying "I’m in New Zealand... and all I have is a microphone, a computer screen, and a camera that relays back to Jackie and the producers in the studio." "To tell you the truth I was floundering around, signalling to the producers and Jackie – down the camera – indicating that we had to get it off air. I didn’t realise I had said [that]." (thepunch.com.au)
Following this event Kyle has been sacked from all AusStereo stations, and is being refused employment everywhere else, and has been sacked from Australian Idol as a judge (which he earns AU$1m/ year from). But the question remains: Is his punishment disproportionate?
I think the answer is yes. Kyle was unaware prior to the segment commencing that the girl had been raped; the producers had given the OK for the segment to go ahead, without prior consideration for the consequences. As the old maxim says 'Don't shoot the messenger', in this case Kyle was the messenger. His subsequent axing from Australian Idol was because 'Idol has remained a family-focused show, even more so this year with the 6.30pm Sunday timeslot. His radio persona has taken on a more controversial position ... which is not in the interest of the show.' There was also a stigma surrounding Kyle, with a career fraught with controversy, awarded 'Most hated Australian Identity' in September 2006 by Zoo Weekly.
The Australian media, once again have overlooked the mother as a factor, the producers, 2Day FM, and AusStereo. But the compounding effect of popular opinion has taken its toll, and what was a manageable incident has turned into front page news, and took up much more time than it should've.
References:
Wikipedia, 2009. Kyle Sandilands. [Online] (Updated 9th of August, 2009)
Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyle_Sandilands
[Accessed on the 9th of August, 2009]
The Punch, 2009. Kyle Sandilands: Girl’s rape revelation stunned me. [Online] (Updated 29th of July, 2009)
Available at: http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/kyle-sandilands-girls-rape-revelation-stunned-me/
[Accessed on the 9th of August, 2009]
Crawford, P., 2009. Sex, lies, and audiotape, time to switch off.
The Mercury, 8th of August, 2009. p27.
But there is little doubt that the aim was to publicly shame the girl.
ReplyDeleteI think it's still inappropriate to ask a minor about their sex life on national radio - what sort of a parent does that? To win tickets to a rockstar concert? Kyle and Jackie O still should have realised the whole segement was inappropriate, and tried to steer it away from the direction it was taking. If you ask me, this sort of outcome was inevitable.