Boiled leg of mutton Kyle Sandilands is being forced to complete sensitivity training after he referred to the Tokyo Paralympics as the “special Olympics” and said the games were “horrific”.
The Australian Communications and Media Authority found two episodes of The Kyle and Jackie O Show from September 2021 breached decency standards.
“Have you been watching the ‘special Olympics? It’s horrific, some of the things,” Sandilands asked his co-host Jackie ‘O’ Henderson.
He said a vision-impaired high jumper “veered right” as he approached the bar, and “landed on his arse on the ground”.
As if he couldn’t be any crueller, he then said the song “Shake It” by Metro Station should be the theme song of the 2020 Paralympic Games.
Why is this man still allowed a platform? Can he simply shut the fuck up and stop tormenting people with his offensive and abhorrent comments?
In its report, which was handed down on Tuesday morning, the ACMA said Sandilands and Henderson “expressed some admiration for the ‘spirit of the contest’,” but “it would have been clear to the audience that the Paralympians in question were being mocked” by the shock jock, and that they were “mocked for the techniques used to participate and compete in their particular sport”.
KIIS FM tried defending Sandilands (good fucking luck, babes) by saying he’s “well-known for his turn of phrase, colourful vernacular and blunt manner”.
“The audience somewhat ‘self-selects’ so that those that choose to listen are not offended by this manner,” the broadcaster continued.
“Our expectation is that regular Kyle & Jackie listeners would not have been offended by the Paralympics segment.”
Oh, of course! Because being ableist and mocking people with disabilities is just “colourful vernacular” and it’s OK because the person who said the terrible things has a “blunt manner”. And people can just tune out if they don’t like it. Got it.
The ACMA was like, obvs not, and found “there is nothing … to suggest that the demographic of the audience would have different standards with respect to comments about people with disabilities than a regular cross section of the Australian community”.
In its ruling, the ACMA found Sandilands’ “comments were insensitive and hurtful toward the athletes, as well as being offensive to the average moderate person in the broader community, including the regular audience of the program, who would have been aware of the potential impact of these comments, not only on the Paralympians that were being described in this manner, but on the wider group of people in Australia with disabilities”.
The Kyle and Jackie O Show was also found to have breached the decency code in a separate segment where Sandilands named and threatened a journalist, and said they could “expect a visit from me”.
“Well mate, if I can’t come and see you, I’ll send around one of me […] mates just to remind you of your manners,” he continued.
“No, that’s not a threat, that’s a guarantee.”
Again, KIIS FM tried to downplay the situation and said “the audience would have recognised the commentary was deliberately ‘over the top’ unfiltered showmanship, rather than representing any true threatening statement”.
“If one were truly intending to carry out such a threat, they would not be mentioning it on live radio,” the broadcaster continued.
The ACMA shut down these arguments and said the average listener “would consider the threatening intimidation of an individual to be an inappropriate use of broadcast media”.
KIIS FM now has to hire a second censor, who will help The Kyle and Jackie O Show‘s main censor monitor what’s being said on-air to make sure it’s not flat-out cooked.
Sandilands and Henderson, plus the show’s producers, censor and other relevant staff also need to undertake sensitivity training.
Hopefully it makes a difference but, knowing Kyle Sandilands, he’ll probably just have a big sook about all of this on-air.
