Radio rape confession: Blame the mother not Sandilands
I like to verbally bash Kyle Sandilands as the next Australian. From his annoyingly whiny voice devoid of any authoritarian bass to the way I imagine he waddles his way around to the way his mouth always looks open even when it’s closed… yes there’s plenty about this guy that just pushes my buttons.
However, fair is fair.
This morning when ‘Michelle’ brought her fourteen year old daughter “Rachel” in for their lie detector segment she dropped a bomb shell, “Oh ok… I got raped when I was 12 years old.”
The negative publicity that followed mostly centered around Sandilands and his handling of the moments immediately following the dialogue. Whilst I’d love to hold Sandilands to this one, to be honest I think the mother Michelle has a hell of a lot more to answer for here.
Early on in the segment Michelle is asked whether or not she thought her daughter was a virgin or not to which she replies “I think she might have had sex before”.
Moments after her child announces she was raped when she was twelve on air, Michelle states ‘I only found that out a couple of months ago, Yes I knew about that’.
As appalling as it might be to probe into the sex life of a fourteen year old on a breakfast radio show might be, these statements from the mother whether intentional or not mostly absolves Sandilands of any liability.
As for the radio station he works for and the producer of his show, well I think they’ve got just as much as Michelle to answer for.
Before reading on it’s worth listening to the lie detector segment below;
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At the age of 14 a child generally speaking has a legal guardian, in this case her mother Michelle. Now with prior knowledge of her child being raped at age 12, and acknowledging on air that no counselling had been sought following the incident, what kind of mother drags her daughter into a radio station and proceeds to ask her about her sex life.
I mean ok, even if we block out the rape incident what sort of answer was she expecting to get. Does the rest of Australia really need to hear intimate details about a fourteen year old’s sex life whilst they drive to work?
At the very least station manager Jenny Parkes, whilst able to claim knew nothing of the rape incident had to have known the mother was going to ask about her daughters sex life.
Prior to the incident the mother also admitted her child had been picked up by undercover cops and smoked marijuana, so clearly we’re dealing with a trouble child and a deadbeat mum here. Again if we discard the rape incident and Rachel simply said she’d slept with a few guys where was the show going to go from there?
What was Kyle going to call her a slut and Jackie O look down her nose at Michelle for such terrible parenting?
The reality is that asking a fourteen year old about their sex life with a public audience listening in is only going to end badly. If it was any other medium a grown man and woman publicly enquiring into their sex life would most likely wind up with criminal charges being laid.
Anyone want to take bets on how long it’d take for me to get handcuffed if I started asking random kids I came across about their sexual experiences?
Following the incident a highly suspicious ‘apology‘ was posted on the Punch which reads suspiciously more like a carefully crafted press release from a PR company then words from Kyle Sandilands himself.
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 “Have you had any other experiences?”
At the same time I was speaking I was signalling to Jackie that we had to terminate the segment. I went into a slight panic as how to get the thing off the air and I was more focused on making that happen than on what I said.
As an audience Australia seems to be a bit confused on where we stand when it comes to entertainment at the expense of children. Just two months comedy sketch show the Chaser’s War on Everything aired the following segment;
It seems radio mostly goes under the radar for most people and discussing children’s sex lives is somewhat more acceptable then poking fun at charity organisations.
What’s more offensive, a fictional sketch using child actors about an imaginary children’s foundation or probing a real fourteen year old’s sex life live on breakfast radio?
You tell me.
July 30th, 2009 at 10:21 am paul(Quote)
No blame Sandilands and the mother as well as the radio station. The only one not to blame is the young girl in question, We can only hope that children services investigates this and that they get the young girl the help she will requires to first deal with the trauma of the rape and then with the abuse she has received from her mother Kyle Sandilands and the radio station.
Just like the chaser Kyle thinks that a simple apology fixes everything when they stuff up how wrong they are. It is time to show him and others that sorry can not fix everything and he should be taken off the air. The radio station should be fined and the money be use to help victims of abuse.
July 30th, 2009 at 10:37 am ozsoapbox(Quote)
That’s assuming she’s not making up stories. She’s prone to sneaking out and doing drugs so who knows if she was even raped or not.
How exactly did Kyle stuff up here. He has a producer for the show and a station manager, it’s not like her personally screens or chooses who comes on his show segments.
I agree the station should be fined though, whoever was responsible for screening guests has failed horribly over this.
July 30th, 2009 at 1:50 pm paul(Quote)
yes it’s true we don’t know if this is a hoax, however most young girls and boy that have been sexually abuse turn to drug in order to deal with what has happened to them. ie: mask their pain and feelings
I know i have dealt with these problems with over several hundred young girls and boys when i worked for the department human services as a youth worker in the 90′s in Victoria and think people need to give her the benefit of trust in what she is saying unless they can prove she is making up stories.
July 30th, 2009 at 2:03 pm paul(Quote)
How exactly did Kyle stuff up here. If I’m not mistaken there is a short delay in transmitting to the public, if this is so he could have hit the kill switch hence stopping her response to her mothers question. And not asking her for more information about her sexual history.
July 30th, 2009 at 2:11 pm ozsoapbox(Quote)
This thought did cross my mind when i was writing and I had a look into it.
Whilst you’d think they’d have a 7 second delay setup, currently there’s no regulation for radio to have a system in place. Television yes but not for radio so I’d say they were literally broadcasting live.
Why this is so I have no idea and hopefully incidents like this change the regulation.
July 31st, 2009 at 8:08 am Steve(Quote)
Is it your contention that Sandilands is simply a voice and has no role in programming or deciding who appears on his show? If so then Sandilands is more of a waste of space than I thought, and an overpaid one.
His culpability is allowing the exploitation of this young girl. Even the premise of the show, asking a 14 year old to take a lie detector test to discuss her sex life and drug habits is repugnant. The truth or otherwise of the rape is irrelevant.
Yes the mother has to share a large portion of the blame but he and the show’s management are the supposed professionals. They have as much if not more culpability.
I also note that little of this discussion is directed at Jackie O, I guess that is a comment on her role as much as anything else.
Give me a break!
July 31st, 2009 at 9:14 am ozsoapbox(Quote)
I’d imagine Sandilands has some input into what segments appear on the show but very little input or involvement into guests that appear. Don’t forget he’s been doing the show overseas via a webcam/satellite link for a while now.
You said it yourself, the show’s management (by way of producer of the morning show and whoever’s responsible for guest screening) are responsible. Kyle and Jackie O would have had as much notice about the mother asking about rape as the audience did.
A 7 second delay should have been place but again that’s managements fault, unless for some reason Kyle or Jackie have demanded they don’t have one implemented.
The mother as a legal guardian took her daughter onto the show with the intent to publicly impose on her private life including her sex life with prior knowledge to the rape. In my opinion using the segment in the way that she did places the mother more at fault then the station’s mangement.
I’d wager management had been led on to believe by the mother Michelle that it was just going to be a bit of light hearted fun at the expense of a teenage girls sexual experiences with a few older guys. I can guarantee you twelve year old rape didn’t come up in the guest screening.
July 31st, 2009 at 9:38 am Rob(Quote)
THANK YOU – FINALLY a balanced assessment of the situation.
It is the mother who should bear the brunt of the responsibility in this situation. If people don’t like the Kyle and JackieO show, then the solution is simple – DON’T LISTEN! You would have to be a moron with your head under rock if you don’t know the stunts they get up to, and i guess they are Sydney’s #1 for a reason.
Having said that, they probably should have been on delay with a dump button.
Regardless, the mother’s actions were calculated and distasteful – but at LEAST her daughter is now able to receive counseling, albeit two years late!
These calls to remove 2Day’s licence, sack Kyle and JackieO, etc etc, are absurd.
August 1st, 2009 at 8:28 am ozsoapbox(Quote)
Seems I was a little too gentle on Kyle and Jackie.
So it seems the hosts deliberately choose not to use one. Hmm, the ‘scripted stunt to drive up publicity for Australian Idol’ theory is starting to look good.
August 2nd, 2009 at
[...] on the heels of the on-air child rape revelation last week that has been hotly discussed in Australia over week or so it seems Austereo have decided [...]