Tuesday, July 28, 2009

What kind of society are we becoming?

The Bolter is absolutely right in my opinion. This radio "entertainment" was wrong even before it went wrong.
 
I'm just going to reproduce his entire post. Read and wonder:
 
Please, is there some way of holding not just the mother and the (alleged) rapist to account, but Kyle Sandilands as well?
 
The girl, 14, was peppered with questions about whether she had ever had sex before she broke down on the 2Day FM radio station hosted by by Kyle Sandilands and Jackie O, revealing the rape ordeal she endured at the age of 12…
 
Under pressure from her mother to reveal if she had ever had sex, the girl broke down and revealed she had been raped.
 
Sandilands’ first response to the horrifying revelation was, “Right, is that the only experience you have had?” The segment briefly continued with the girl’s mother admitting she knew of the rape before Jackie O intervened and shut the segment down.
Vile, vile, vile. If the police aren’t speaking to the mother already, what’s keeping them? As for Sandilands and his sidekick, sack them, ban them, whatever. The station is aying the stunt went wrong, but in what possible way could it have gone right?
 
And for God’s sake let the authorities get the help to the girl that she so badly needs.
 
UPDATE
 
Listen to the audio (first link) to hear just how gross - how utterly barbaric - the segment was even before it went “wrong”. First, the girl’s mother, sounding excited, says she has brought in her daughter for the lie detector test to check if she’s telling the truth about “drugs and sex”. She “might have had sex before”, mum tells the world, and she’s “smoked marijuana”. Already the segment has gone way, way over the line.
 
But the girl is hooked up to the detector, monitored by a man called Charles. Then this:
Jackie O: All right, we have her hooked up to the lie detector.
 
Sandilands: Awwww.
 
Jackie O: She’s not happy! I just saw her listening to that replay.
 
Sandilands: How are you, Rachel?
 
Girl: I’m scared. It’s not fair.
 
Jackie O: It wouldn’t be fair on any kid, I tell you, I sympathise with you
 
Sandilands: Is that true, Charles, is that true?
 
Charles: That is true.
 
Sandilands: She is scared, everyone, yeah.
 
Jackie O: Yeah. Mum, you have a series of questions you’re going to ask your daughter, and, Rachael, you reply either yes or no and then it will be picked up on the lie detector whether you are telling the truth or lying.
 
(Rachel is asked whether she’s wagged school. She denies is, and the lie detector registers a lie. The girl protests she’s telling the truth.)
 
Jackie O: OK, what’s your next question, Mum.
 
Mother: OK, Have you had sex?
 
Girl: I’ve already told you the story of this… Don’t look at me and smile because it’s not funny. (Shouts:) Oh, OK … I got raped when I was 12 years old.
 
(Silence)
 
Sandilands: Right. (Pause.) And is that the, er, is that the only experience you’ve had?
 
Mother: I only found out about that a couple of months ago. Yes, I knew about that.
 
Girl: And yet you still ask me the question.
 
Mother: I was, the question was, have you had sex, other than that.
 
Jackie O: Rachel, I’m really sorry, we didn’t actually know that that was the case, and I think we might actually abort this segment.... I’m really sorry. We’ll just let you off the hook.... You just take a breather… Have you had any counselling over this issue?
 
Mother: No, she has not.

Posted via email from Garth's posterous

No comments: