Why So Surprised?

Or, Obligatory Kyle Sandilands ’blog

That Kyle Sandilands is an idiot and a creep is beyond question.  It’s a truth self evident.  Therefore, it’s somewhat curious that we are still shocked when he offers more evidence.  It must take a special kind of talent for a known prat to find new and shocking ways of being a prat.

As far as I can work out, Sandilands first came to national prominence when he replaced Ian “Dicko” Dickson as judge on Australian Idol.  Dickson himself had been cast as the Simon Cowell character on the judging panel* - the mean one who tells the contestants exactly how crap they are.  When Dickson left, it became Sandilands job to make the contestants cry.  He is literally a professional arsehole.  So why are we so shocked when he does what he was employed to do?

Apparently, he’s done it again, saying nasty things about a journalist who bagged his latest television venture with his ever-present sidekick Jackie O (or Henderson, to her family).  Compared to some of his other stunts, it’s pretty mild.  The most notable thing about it, ought to be the irony that a man who made his name telling people their acts are shit should throw such a hissy fit over someone telling him that his act is shit. 

I watched all of twenty seconds of his show.  I switched over out of voyeuristic curiosity and switched off as soon as he said Justin Beiber would be coming up to the sounds of obviously canned applause.  So, Sandilands and “O” hosted a shit show, journalist says it’s a shit show, Sandilands chucks a tantrum, move on.

Maybe it’s because he attacked a journalist in the employment of News Ltd that Sandilands is copping just as much abuse for being who he is as he did during the infamous, “lie detector” segment when a teenage girl was hooked up to a lie detector on live radio and quizzed by her mother about her sexual experiences.  When she revealed that she had been raped, Sandilands broke the uncomfortable silence with, “Right… is that the only experience you’ve had?”

I’m going to be controversial here and give Sandilands a pass on that particular incident.  Why?  Because it is absolutely impossible that he could have been solely responsible for that stunt.  It would have to have been approved by the show’s producers, the co-host, Miss O, who inexplicably goes uncriticised in all of this, the station and network’s legal departments, not to mention the girl’s own mother.  The outrage is that such an idiotic stunt ever got as far as it did.  I’ll forgive Sandilands for that stupid follow-up question because it’s entirely understandable that a person like he is, would react to the realisation that he’d bitten off more than he can chew by vomiting all over the desk.  The fact is that Sandilands is employed to be who he is.  Blaming him for being a dickhead is like blaming a dog for wagging its tail.  The real culprits are his enablers.

Two questions have come up both then and now:

Why would anyone employ him?
Well, duh!  He rates!  So long as he rates, he’s going to have a job.  If media outlets only employed people who made a rational and responsible contribution to public discourse, three quarters of the media would be unemployed.  The station doesn’t care if people tune in because they hate Sandilands, just so long as they are listening and hearing the ads the station is paid to play.

Why does anyone sponsor his show?
Duh! See above.  Holden and The Good Guys have so far pulled his ads from his show.  Mind you, Qantas pulled their ads after the lie detector but Sandilands and “O” (who, it must be remembered, is every bit as responsible for the content of the show as Sandilands) still have a show that is popular enough for them to try and make the crossover to television.

Sandilands and “O” do what they do for the same reason Alan Jones does: it pulls the punters. 
If you have to blame someone, don’t just blame Sandilands for behaving the only way he knows how, blame those who encourage it by producing the show or by listening to it. 
Also, ask yourself how disgraceful the program has to be before Miss O’s self respect finally kicks in and she decides she’s better than that.


* I’ve never watched the horrible show, but you just can’t help learning these things sometimes.