Seven’s silence on Sandilands is deafening
Seven's stellar year is about to finish on a sour note if it does not distance itself from the remarks of Kyle Sandilands.
- Published by David Knox
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- Filed under News
Kyle Sandilands’ broadside at News Limited journalist Alison Stephenson could not have come at a worse time.
Tomorrow is White Ribbon Day – the UN sanctioned day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.
His remarks against Stephenson were insulting, abusive and threatening.
But it also comes at a time when it threatens to spoil Seven’s party.
On Saturday Seven will wrap up an astounding success of 40 weeks in Total People. It now risks finishing on an appalling footnote to the year.
Seven prides itself on being a family network that pitches to a broad Australian audience but it is seemingly burying its head in the sand.
On Monday it entertained Sandilands’ ambitions for his own primetime show.
But you can’t get into bed with an outspoken personality and then duck for cover when it goes awry.
Radio sponsors and Seven’s own personalities are doing a better PR job than Seven management.
“Obviously Kyle’s remarks showed an intolerable level of disrespect to Alison, and indeed disrespect for women, and a frightening undercurrent of hostility,” said Andrew O’Keefe.
“Victims of violence know well that verbal abuse can be just as harmful as physical abuse, and when the words are overlain with an aggressive sexism they are an attack on the dignity of all women.”
The Daily Telegraph reports retailer The Good Guys said, “The Good Guys does not condone the recent actions of Kyle Sandilands and has withdrawn breakfast sponsorship.”
Telstra was reviewing their association with 2DAYFM, saying “Obviously we want to align ourselves with certain values and behaviours.”
But Seven has so far stayed silent. Is this because the remarks were made on radio and not television?
By comparison, in 2009 when the radio duo hosted their infamous lie-detector stunt, TEN dropped him from Australian Idol.
In a statement it said, “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.”
Australia’s Got Talent has enjoyed exceptional success with a huge family audience.
Yet its judge is able to call a journalist “a piece of shit” in the public arena and the network has no comment?
Does. Not. Make. Sense.
65 Responses
I’ve hated Kyle since the Frenzal Rhomb thing years ago. He has no talent and nothing to offer the public. I sincerely believe he could have an undiagnosed personality disorder or mental illness. Frankly if he did I’d have at least a bit of sympathy/patience for him.
Secret Squirrel, I was about to write a post, but you have said it all. Nicely said!!
This was not a right of a reply, it was a threat. Plain and simple.
@ Secret Squirrel, just as you are calling anyone on here that supports Kyle “insensitive halfwits “, I would describe yours and others over-reactions to this whole issue as being the over-reactions of hypersensitive halfwits
….and the ‘wife/woman beating community’ feel that this bloke does not represent their views…..
Freedom of speech is not being able to say anything you like via a *privately owned* radio station *without consequence*. Freedom of speech means you are free to say what you want in a public space, and then be responded to by others who have an equal amount of freedom to say what they think of who and what was said.
If he argued about the article itself, nobody would care. Instead he started a personal, threatening, disgustingly abusive attack on the journalist herself, who was only reporting facts, as all journalists are supposed to, not dissimilarly to what David does here.
Any way you turn it, what Kyle said has to be addressed, and hopefully he is permanently dealt with.
Why is it that the insensitive halfwits attempting to defend Sandilands’ on-air threats are so incapable of reading what was actually written by Ms Stephenson?
@Jason – pls quote me one sentence from Ms Stephenson’s article where she “She raised the previous radio instances when he was suspended”. You won’t be able to because she didn’t mention anything about his suspension. Her entire article is about the show and people’s reaction to it.
@BarryDBag – if that’s your idea of an apology well then I’m sorry for assuming what your middle initial must stand for.
For those of you saying that Sandilands is entitled to a right-of-reply against Ms Stephenson, of course he is. What he is not entitled to do is make disparaging comments about her appearance or threats of physical violence. Nowhere in her article does she attack him personally, his reaction is completely disproportionate and in appropriate. When you grow up and move beyond the schoolyard, you will hopefully develop an awareness about what behaviour is acceptable in adult society and what is not.
For the record I agree that criticism of anybody, including Kyle, should be expressed without resorting to abuse or making it personal.
How can anybody defend him? She was doing her job as a reviewer and he made it personal. I totally agree though that he will be made a bogan martyr if he gets fired (look at some of the comments here..) so let’s just let the vile little man self-destruct I say.
I think people are right but for the wrong reasons.
Kyle needs some “Anger Management” over his shoot-the-messenger attitude. ‘Tis a pity that Media Watch has finished for the year, Jonathon’s team would have pestered Seven for a comment.
Any person who defends Kyle is condoning violence against women. The posters on here who do so should be ashamed of themselves. The man is pitiful and only ever picks fights with women as he obviously sees them as weaker. There’s a reason why Holden, Medibank, Vodafone, Good Guys, Harvey Norman, Fantastic Furniture, Blackmores and Telstra have all pulled their advertising. Because this sort of childish bullying shouldn’t be tolerated. Well done David, I am glad you are taking such a hard line of this!
Firstly… Kyle should have never been a talent judge. He had no business being on Aus Idol and as for AGT… well they’ve got Brian McFadden on there as well so it shows the standard on that show
Secondly.. what about all the abuse of the country’s Prime Minister gets on talk back radio? Both on 2GB and 2UE there are absolutely shocking things said by both callers and presenters about her. No one talks about or reports that.. except for perhaps Hamster Wheel. Honestly people have taken this way out of proportion..
Well said David.
Kyle should not be allowed to get away with this.
The bully has to go!!!
Seven … cut him loose now before he looses you your advertisers that you love so much! The new show is self indulgent and a waste of time and money … spend it on someone with some real talent or on new Aussie drama.
Kyle Sandilands is the 1%
How is this different from him threatening to punch Dave Hughes in the throat? He should have been gone a long time ago.
I don’t like Kyle & I don’t watch or listen to any of his shows.
I think his comments were offensive & he should be censured. But, I don’t understand why some of the offended think it’s OK to call Kyle names such a D***head, etc. Isn’t that just a little hypocritical.
The episode of the Simpsons where the Giant Advertising material came to life kind of sums this up, if we as a nation totally ignore him he will …go away.
We already have enough overpaid clowns getting attention in this country and they are called politicians and if they annoy us enough we don’t vote for them and they will…go away.
This seems like a good start if left to his own intelligence and vitriol he will implode, sponsors will remove his income stream and guess what…he will go away
Get rid of him!
Poor form Seven! Your silence is deafening!!!
Keep the reports coming!!
David, I cannot believe that you would think an issue as trivial as this would sour Sevens successful year in the ratings. Seriously, what an over-reaction. I have never seen so much hysteria, hypocrisy, and hate from commenters.
hahaha who cares? At least he says what he thinks..she probably is!
This whole story has been blown way out of proportion. So many comments below resort to calling Kyle names, while criticising him for abusing the journo. In my opinion Channel 7 do not need say anything about an incident that took place on radio, just as Channel 10 should have kept out of the lie detector scandal. Nobody forced the girl to participate in that lie detector stunt, perhaps her mother did trying to win free concert tickets.
There certainly is a difference between not agreeing with someone’s point of view versus making it personal.
Look at the way that Kyle acted against this journalist vs the way that Andrew O’Keefe responded. If Kyle had said similar words about the journalist (that O’Keefe had said about Kyle – “frightening undercurrent of hostility”) then there would be no issue.
It’s the bully boy tactics that have gone on for too long with Kyle. John Blackman was known for his nasty remarks on Hey Hey but they were always tongue in cheek. Kyle on the other hand has no tongue in cheek, no sarcasm – just plain aggression.
Even my mother, who loves 2Day FM, stopped listening to it when Kyle was digging through Jackie O’s rubbish bin on the air and giving unflattering play-by-play commentary. Enough is enough.
While I think Kyle Sandilands is vile and his comments were deplorable, I don’t see why Seven needs to make a statement about something that Kyle said on 2Day FM. I think there needs to be an apology made by the managers of 2Day FM and also Kyle himself to the woman he verbally abused. If that doesn’t happen then both should be disciplined. How does it help if Seven issues a statement to apologise for Kyle’s action on 2Day FM?
I cant stand Kyle although give me him over Rove anyday.