A disgusting an individual Sandilands is, I don't support his removal from TV radio or from whatever sewer he is broadcasting from. I support 'freedom of the press' that is paramount. If an individual is wronged by the likes of Sandilands then there are legal avenues they can take. I can't comment on Sandilands presentation on TV or radio as I have never tuned in, but I'm sure judging by his comments about others it would be most entertaining, not.

Bindi Irwin "rape" comment?

and the author of this article has fallen 'hook, line and sinker' into his insidious trap. If you starve people like this (and we have way too many) of the oxygen on which they thrive (and the massive amounts of money they gather) by ignoring them and the media they generate they will wither and go away. And the Austereos will find someone else to promote. Yet you don't ignore them, instead you pander to the weird egos that drive them by writing about them.
That being said this author states that Austereo is out of tune - it is not at all out of tune, in fact it is well tuned into an enormous cohort of similarly feeble minds and from this it too is making stacks of money. Methinks it is the author that is 'out of tune' with a whole different world to hers.
And I don't think Entertainment is the word I would use to describe any of this form of media - there are many other words but i don't think this is the right forum to use them.

To Paul1405, there is a difference between freedom of the press and the licence to abuse that freedom. With any freedom comes responsibility, and Sandilands has clearly not exercised that responsibility. The only solution to the continual abuse of freeedom, and Sandilands is a serial recidivist, is to remove it and that means that Sandilands must be removed. His co-host, Jackie O, has also crossed the line in supporting Sandilands complete irresponsibility and irrationality and should also be removed. Just because some low brow individuals find them entertaining is not an excuse to keep them on air. Congratulations to Holden, the Good Guys and Vodaphone. It is a pity that other sponsors do not have the moral backbone to follow suit, but I guess the lure of the dollar and cheap publicity outweighs and sense of morality and social responsibility.

Catherine Deveny never made a rape comment. You are entitled to your own opinion but not your own facts. You may want to change that or you may be hearing from her lawyers citing defamation.

yes but even after many of Deveny's vile rants she gets a guernsey with guess who? Maybe Sandilands should also be a guest with Deveny, Flannery and other fine Australians on Q&A.

Deveny referred to someone having sex with Bindi Irwin. Bindi Irwin is a child. That's rape.

Sandilands, Deveny: what's sauce for the goose ......

One can't differentiate between 'their' scumbags and 'our' scumbags and still maintain one's integrity. Trash is trash, period.

Hi ianbrum "there is a difference between freedom of the press and the licence to abuse that freedom. With any freedom comes responsibility,"

Firstly I don't want to be seen as defending this Sandilands individual. From your post I just don't know how you judge by who and how the freedom has been abused, and what's to be done about it. What's your take on this. I watched a program on TV a while back where there was an interview with a leader of an ultra right wing neo-nazi group in America. This person went on about Hitler was a good bloke, but didn't go far enough with the Jews, black people were animals etc etc. Do we silence him or do we let him go on poisoning the minds of young people as he has and does?

Paul1405,

There may be two issues here: the right of somebody like Sandilands to insult someone, and the right to do it from a paid position. If his employer decided to sack him, it wouldn't be actually depriving him of his right to free expression, merely of a paid platform to do it from. He would still be as free as you or me to spout rubbish, but on his own time.

Joe

It would be a mistake to remove Sandilands from his broadcasting role. He performs a valuable community service, in that he facilitates easy identification of the phuckwits in our society - they're the ones who like Sandilands.

Well. How sad Mr Sandilands is. A poor example of a public figure and a travesty of an example for young people. As an educator I have spent (like myriads of other teachers) a lifetime trying to enlarge, edify and enlighten the young. Mr Sandilands' behaviour can erode that in a minute or two. And he would doubtless have the hide to denigrate the teaching profession for a whole set of populist reasons.

I should add that over the years one of my teaching goals has been to assist the young to distinguish between the wise owls of this world and the galahs. Fortunately many young people are smart enough to take my advice and to ignore the chattering classes of the cheap media.

If Channel 7 has any respect for its own reputation it will deal with Mr Sandilands' contract summarily and exclude him from its stable of "personalities". Currently he is disgrace to himself, Channel 7 and to public life in this country and needs (strictly private) anger management therapy in a big way.

Yes of course KS is a fool. Why bother to write anything about him? It only encourages him.

But now you're out there-
Why is there a National Centre for Excellence in Islamic Studies which this author is part of? Who funds it?

Who judges the excellence of the research? Are non- Muslim views allowed?

How many other religions have Centres of Excellence publicly funded?

I don't think Muslim men are known for their enlightened attitudes to women, to lesbians, to gay men, or anything much. They go out and do whatever they like, including calling young Australian women in bikinis "sluts" and similar.

If the hardcore Muslims ever get their way, women like this author will be swept back to hide in the home of a suitable male relative.

Bronte,

I don't know about "Centres of Excellence", but the Catholics have two entire universities - the Australian Catholic University and University of Notre Dame.

I think we're all pretty familiar with the Catholic Church's spectacularly unenlightened attitudes toward women, lesbians, gay men, contraception etc. - it wasn't so long ago that they were making their nuns get about in hijabs. They go out and do whatever they like, including harassing young Australian women attending abortion clinics.

There's a lot more Catholics out there than Muslims, and you don't want to know what this country would be like if the hardcore Catholics got their way.

So before you start worrying too much about the towel-heads under the bed, I advise you to apply the same yardstick with which you judge Islam to other faiths. I suspect you'll realise that your paranoia is a little bit silly: Islam is no more a malevolent cult than Roman Catholicism.

...We must remain alert not to discriminate against the mentally ill. God bless you “Kyle”!

Hi Loudmouth, We have laws to protect people from those that go around slandering. If Sandilands defames then he should be prosecuted. If those that pay his wages don't like what he say's and/or it costs them money when advertisers pull the plug, seems many have done just that,or listeners tune out, then their course of action is clear.

"I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it."
Voltaire

I'm not as noble as Voltaire by any means but that's about how things should be. He could have been talking about Sandilands. Although I'm not sure even the great Voltaire would have given up his life so KS can say MS is fat

Like a few other 'shocks jocks', they are mostly big bags of hot air.
Freedom of Speech and the Press is good, but reporting the truth is better. Sandilands has run his race and should just go somewhere else and annoy other people. Maybe for Christmas Santa should take Kyles' ego and put it in a sack and whisk it off to the north pole...for ever.
NSB

Yes of course KS is a fool. Why bother to write anything about him? It only encourages him.
Bronte,
Exactly, what is it that makes media get sucked in by such morons. Don't give them any exposure, that'll make them sweat more than anything. If it were up to talent to get somewhere none of them would be known to us.

There is a place in the commercial media for people like Sandilands. They appeal to a section of the population, and I say a fairly large section at that judging by their ratings. People like the titillation these 'personalities' cause, something akin to the pleasure 13 year old public school boys got in the 1960's peering at bare breasted woman from Africa in old copies of National Geographic mags.
Sandilands could be replaced by extracts of the Bavarian Philharmonic playing Tchaikovskys #1 piano concerto in D minor. Somehow I don't think the Bavarian's would attract a very large following and alas no sponsorship from the Holden Racing Team. But it would make a micro section of the community feel good.

I've never listened to this guy or his ilk, and it seems that a whole raft of companies have now withdraw their advertising dollars from his shonky bandwagon.

It's interesting that the modern media has become so engrossed with presenting programs where "contestants" are habitually denigrated and humiliated. The telly audience love these shows as their ratings demonstrate. Obviously passively absorbing anothers' discomfort and humiliation appeals to a somewhat latent sadistic strain of satisfaction in the viewing public. It's also the reason why shock-jocks rate so well...it's the airwave equivalent to pitchforks and burning torches.

Fascinating species, humans....

Poirot, one of the reasons the authorities in England back in the 19th century moved public hangings to behind prison walls was they were too popular with the masses. The often drew huge crowds with a carnival atmosphere. I think channel 17 may be toying with the idea of producing a Celerity Your Hanged Show. Each week a panel of 3 judges will vote a contestant to be hanged on prime time telly. The would be a nice lady judge who would say "I think you are so sweet, I pardon you. An middle judge who says " I don't care if they hang you or not. And a meany judge who says "hang the fat bitch, the so and so etc etc. The first 2 judges have been found but who could be the meany judge? A failed radio moron perhaps.
p/s bloody wet day in Sydney, nothing to do, might go down to the public stocks and throw rotten fruit and vegs at some hapless soul. What's changed.

Personally, I think Kyle Sandilands is the best thing that has happened to the radio. He isn't afraid to express his opinion. If people don't like what he is saying, then why contemplate giving him the sack now? They may as well have sacked him years ago! If you don't like what he is saying, then simply don't listen. He doesn't aim to please everyone. 2Day FM will be nothing without him. It would be like one of those boring radio stations that sounds like a robot is talking, it would have no humour at all, and then you people would be complaining that it is boring! Obviously Kyle was offended by what Alison Stephenson had said; we all get angry when people offend us. If Kyle and Alison were just two normal people, it would be perfectly fine, but because they are celebrities, people expect them to be perfect. Well I'm sorry to say this, but no one is perfect, not even Kyle. I look up to Kyle, I would love to be able to be able to express myself the way he does, but I'm too scared to. Kyle is fearless, and that's what makes him different to the other radio stars, that's what makes him him.

Amie, very courageous of you to admit you like Sandilands. I think Sandilands is a kind of radio version of junk mail, no one wants to admit to liking it but plenty read it when they get inside. I've not seen much of Sandilands only briefly on telly and judging by his appearance he has the body and 'good' looks that are well suited to radio. Why does he insult others about their appearance, me thinks a case of the pot calling the kettle black.

Amie,

"Personally, I think Kyle Sandilands is the best thing that has happened to the radio."

ROFLMAO.

"He isn't afraid to express his opinion."

True... but his opinions are neither as insightful as the noises made by a sick donkey, nor as amusing.

"He doesn't aim to please everyone."

So far as I can tell, he doesn't aim to please anyone - except people who really like listening to tools.

"It would be like one of those boring radio stations that sounds like a robot is talking, it would have no humour at all, and then you people would be complaining that it is boring!"

It already does. It sounds like they've employed a result of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation's GPP (Genuine People Personalities) technology. In this case, the robot has obviously been given the 'immature twat' personality. As such, there is no humour at all - the 'immmature twat' considers childish abuse to be the pinnacle of wit. I don't know whether or not it is boring - the music they play on that network is bad enough without having to put up with another shytty prototype from SCC, so I listen to decent stations or my own extensive musical library.

"I look up to Kyle, I would love to be able to be able to express myself the way he does..."

Like a retard? Don't you have better things to aspire to in life? For example; not expressing yourself like a retard?

"...but I'm too scared to. Kyle is fearless, and that's what makes him different to the other radio stars, that's what makes him him."

Too much of a pussy to be yourself, huh? I hope you grow out of it soon... pretending to be who you're not will ultimately make you miserable. In the meantime, why not look up to a better role-model than that dick? There are plenty of people in this world who are capable of expressing themselves not only fearlessly, but with eloquence, charm, erudition and wit - methods of self-expression that Kyle Sandilands could never dream of mastering.

RE: Thursday, 24 November 2011 12:35:16 PM

Strewth AR, you could back an A380's worth of baggage carts down a Fitzroy dunny man's alley without touching the sides.