Oh cmon. The mother is much more to blame than Kyle and Jackie O. Yes I agree that Kyle's comments on air about "was this your only experience?" were... insensitive and ill thought out. But people dont always response appropriately under pressure like that. And youre right, he has made a name as a shock jock. But I dont believe he was being ... malicious. You make one f*ck up at work, noone notices. He f*cks up at work and half of
As regards to the relevant legislation - you know my feelings on that. I still think we should lower the age of consent, and have a system much like
Given that counselling has only recently been included on Medicare, it is quite possible that the girl had not sought help due to the cost of counselling. If that IS the case, could you not argue that if TodayFM pay for it, then SOMETHING good has been salvaged from this horrible situation? Even more so, obviously the mother knew about the rape... (continued) but for some stupid reason had decided her daughter didnt need counselling?! Honestly! At least this brought it to her attention.
"Irrespective of what transpired during the interview, that young woman should not have been strapped to a lie detector test and asked questions about sexual activity in a public forum."... well if the mother and daughter didnt want to go on air, they shouldnt have applied. They went through the relevant screening. No red flags appeared. cmon ppl apply for jerry springer!!!
As for this being a "clear act of exploitation for adult entertainment purposes", i would first argue that TodayFm is not really adult entertainment - just like Big Brother is not aimed at adults. The teenage market are the biggest consumers of this service...i really think if the 14yr old didnt want to be on radio, she wouldnt have consented to being driven to the station and put on a lie detector and shoved in front of a mike. She's not 6.Parents cant make teenagers do what they dont want to. hence the friction and problems with parenting teenagers.
Thanks L. We also have R, who responded with:
I'm with you Kate. these 3 adults should have prevented this poor child from being exploited this way. She has not reached the age of consent and that is even more important in this forum than in her own private sex life. Excuses that her parent gave consent do not wash...you cannot give consent for your child to be abused...it is illegal! Someone should have flicked the switch and taken this off air the minute this girl started to disclose.
Then we have Dawg, who chimes in:
This all boils down to three stupid adults and one very unwise little girl who only wanted free tickets to a PINK concert or something like it.
Then we have my dear sis:
The blame's sitting squarely with the mother in my opinion. And yes, I use the term "mother" loosely ...
Then we have T:
Well written Kathryn but Kyle & Jackie O are paid to entertain/be listened to and that is exactly what they are doing well.
The hosts of any radio show rarely have creative control over their program, here the blame should lie directly at the shows producers and the legal team at Austereo.
You can criticize Kyle for his reactions, but it was not him who put this girl on air. I don't like the guy (I like her even less), yet here I feel he has copped a lot of flak over one stupid reaction. ... Read More
Leah summed it up perfectly with her first paragraph.
Firstly, I really love having debate on issues such as this. If anything, I am more pleased that people have actually got involved in discussing this issue with me than I am actually getting comments that it was well written. If there is any gift I wish to bring to this world, its to open people's minds up to different views and ways of thinking. So, I applaud anyone that is willing to get into the boxing circle with me and want to go nine rounds with me on an issue like this.
One thing I have noticed with many of the respondents is that, while their responses were valid, they have missed the critical point here. I did not fail to lay blame on the mother's shoulders. Rather, I just avoided it. I did not focus my article on the mother. There are clearly issues there and it is clear than any mother that puts her child through this says to me that there is more to the story.
Instead, my article chose to take the angle that this kind of dialogue (whether it was with these two particular people, or another two) should never have occurred in the first place. Jackie O and Kyle Sandilands have been pushing the boundaries for a long time and as far as I am concerned, it was an accident waiting to happen. I think that Jackie O and Kyle Sandilands have been allowed to continue to push the boundaries so far that even they have lost sight of what those boundaries are. So, in many respects, I think "T" (one of the respondents) was correct in saying that the producers (not so much the legal team) should bear some responsibility for this issue. The producers should have stepped in with these two radio announcers a long time ago. Either that, or the producers have their own issues as to what is right and wrong. I do not agree that Kyle and Jackie O have no creative control over that programme. They are not puppets. They are controlling the creative content just as much as the producers are.
All I am saying is that if you play with fire, you are going to get burnt.
In this case, when it comes to Kyle Sandilands, who has behaved so poorly AFTER the fact, we should let him burn.
Just saying!
K
You go girl.
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