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AO’K to Kyle: “Hate speech is a curb on your right to free speech.”

Yesterday Andrew O'Keefe stepped up his criticism of Kyle Sandilands on Weekend Sunrise.

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Yesterday Andrew O’Keefe, who is a chairman of the White Ribbon Foundation, stepped up his criticism of Kyle Sandilands on Weekend Sunrise, following comments attacking a News Ltd. journalist.

“I know that Kyle has the capacity to be a lot better a man than that, but what he’s done so far has been aggressive, sexist and quite deluded I think,” he said.

“There is no such thing as a right to Free Speech in Australia,” he said.

“Hate speech is a curb on your right to Free Speech.”

Well done to AO’K for saying what Seven management has been unable to say all week, even after Austereo publicly denounced Sandilands’ comments. He also gave an excellent interview to Richard Stubbs on ABC Radio.

The incident continues to attract condemnation with several opinion pieces in weekend newspapers.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFSnw1b55aw[/youtube]

31 Responses

  2. @Moanique, I agree with you, Alan Jones has come out with way worse hate speeches than Kyle. Sustained bile spewing against minorities and the ALP is part of Jones’s job description. But that doesn’t excuse Kyle in any way, he has overstepped the mark of decency one too many times and has been called on it this time. He is in a lot of trouble, and rightly so. This is a TV blog, so Alan Jones’ rants will not be reported here, but I can recommend the Jocks Journal website for news about Australian radio personalities.

  3. Can’t believe people are still going on and on about this. None of you liked Kyle in the first place, yet still find the time to jump on the bandwagon. I agree with MuchoTB, there are much worse things going on. And as other commenters have said, Alan Jones has come out with much worse hate speech than Kyle, but you won’t see it reported here because Alan Jones isn’t on TV anymore.

  4. Well, I’m glad Andrew made the comments he did. Anything less would have been hypocritical given his role of chairman of the White Ribbon Foundation. Channel 7 needs to take a serious look at whether they want further associations with the obscene Kyle when several of their own popular anchors have spoken against him (eg, the Sunrise crew).

    @Knowfirst. If Only not tuning into these poor excuses for human beings made a difference. I totally agree with you that the others you mentioned are just as despicable and I choose not to be subjected to their rants. However, it appears that there are many out there who find these people amusing or worth listening to. In Kyle’s case, it is particularly disturbing as he has influence over people who have not properly developed yet and are easily influenced. Tuning out is not enough anymore. The decent part of society needs to take action!

    @Smith, I agree totally that demographics and socioeconomics need to be looked at here. Firstly, I can’t believe that such an obscene man is so incredibly popular. How Do the ratings come about? His TV show clearly wasn’t anywhere near as popular. Who’s right? Secondly, if he is appealing to the ‘no fat chicks’ bumper sticker brigade, is this the demographic advertisers want to appeal to?? I can’t imagine many of these people shopping at Myer, for example. And do we need to encourage this section of the population to further exercise their uneducated, misogynistic and neanderthal behaviour?

    Personally, I see enough of the next generation of dole-bludging, attitudinal little haters at work without thinking about the myriad of others out there. Decent society has a responsibility to set a good example, so thanks Andrew for stepping up!

  6. Meh. IMO there’s a lot worse things going on in the world than Kyle Sandilands shooting his mouth off at a journalist. If people really wanted to support White Ribbon Day and events of the sort, they’d donate to charity instead of just ranting on online forums like this

  8. Tune in Monday for the Kyle’s return volley at AOK. And I agree with @Knowfirst – Jones, Hadley, et all are just as bad as Kyle, in fact, they are worse because so many people take what they say as gospel…

  9. @knowfirst, Alan Jones’s continuing dominance of the Sydney airwaves is an absolute indictment. How he kept his job after the Cronulla riots in late 2005 is something I have never understood as he was directly associated with making on-air comments that helped incite the riot. The hate and negativity he spews towards Julia Gillard and the ALP makes Andrew Bolt look like Goldilocks.

  11. So let me get this straight, Kyle went on a tirade against the reporter for what she said, and then had the gall to (incorrectly) use free speech as a defense, what a hypocrite.

    A O’K is A OK by me, good on him for speaking out against Kyle’s behavior.

  13. Kaylen – if you don’t want hate speech, then Alan Jones wouldn’t be on the air – do you remember his comments inciting the racial violence in Cronulla several years ago? Far worse than Sandilands has ever come out with.

  15. Knowfirst-

    Because there are some things we must accept: the (implied) right to free speech.

    And some things we shouldn’t accept: hate speech.

    You can have the former without the latter, as it should be.

  16. Excuse me if i’m a little naive when it comes to ratings demographics but is it time we looked at socio economics as well? King kyle would undoubtedly rate through the roof in suburbs dominated by cars with modified exhausts and no fat chicks bumper stickers.

  17. AOK is technically correct.

    The Australian Constitution does not expressly protect freedom of speech or expression. In 1992, however, the High Court of Australia held that a right to freedom of expression, in so far as public and political discussion were concerned, was implied in the Constitution. The right does not extend to more generally to a right to freedom of expression where political issues are not involved.

    hrcr.org/safrica/expression/freedom_speech.html

    However if we keep bigoted, racist, hateful fools like Andrew Bolt, Alan Jones, Ray Hadley et al on the air, I can’t see why Sandilands can’t be on the air either (despite how much I loathe him and the others listed).

    We have an on/off switch, and it’s time we used it.

  18. Andrew is correct; the right to freedom of speech is not enshrined in the Australian Constitution as it is in the US Constitution. Kyle’s rant can be liked to a hate speech and good on AO’K for having the guts to say something whereas his masters at Channel 7 have been gutless wonders for almost a week now.

  19. Good on him, but how come Jacqui O gets off scott free. She didn’t pull Sandilands up, she never does because she doesn’t know right from wrong. It bothers me these two have such a lot of air time.

  24. I first heard /andrew discuss while promoting White Ribbon Day earlier this week, to me it’s nothing more than the pot calling the kettle black. Andrew is no angel either…….

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