Four months ago, live on 2DAY FM, breakfast radio’s out and proud bad boy Kyle Sandilands verbally attacked News Limited online journalist Alison Stephenson. For commenting on his new poorly rating television show A Night with the Stars, Sandilands let forth with:

Fat slag, bitch, troll, ugly, piece of shit, not much titty.

“Watch your mouth girl, or I will hunt you down”, he threatened.

There was an outcry.  A petition at Change.org set up by Melbourne law graduate Emily Hehir, called on sponsors to pull their advertising from the Kyle and Jackie O show, which provided a platform for “bullying, abuse, and misogyny’.

To date  34,525 people have signed. More than 100 sponsors have pulled out, losing Southern Cross Austereo an estimated $10 million.

On Tuesday, after a two month investigation, The Australian Communication and Media Authority (ACMA) found Sandilands comments breached the commercial radio industry’s code of practice.

“The Authority found the comments by Mr Sandilands deeply derogatory and offensive and in all the circumstances a licence condition is the appropriate response,” said ACMA chairman Chris Chapman.

So what is Sandiland’s penalty for intimidation and harassment? Nothing. He gets a slap with a wet lettuce leaf.

Sandilands pays no personal cost for threatening Stephenson.

As comedian Chas Licciardello tweeted: “Ouch! Kyle’s punishment for breaching ACMA standards? He’s now banned from breaching ACMA standards! This changes everything!”

While powerless to issue fines or penalties, ACMA has imposed a licence condition on 2DAY FM, which means that for the next five years the station can’t broadcast any indecent content demeaning to women and girls. (I’m not sure what happens after five years). If it does it could have its broadcasting licence suspended or cancelled.

But Southern Cross Austereo bosses have taken affront, saying they will fight it.

Sandilands may have shown “a flagrant disregard” for the guidelines on the portrayal of women on commercial radio. But he’s also a cash cow for the network. And you wouldn’t want to let decency get in the way of that.

Avoiding content that “offends generally-accepted standards of decency, demeans or is likely to demean women or girls, places undue emphasis on gender, uses overt sexual references in relation to a woman’s physical characteristics, and/or condones or incites violence against women” is “onerous” and “unworkable” according to Southern Cross Chief Executive Rhys Holleran.

Quick, get this guy a copy of Sexism for Dummies.

Offending women and minorities seems to come with the job. Just ask Kyle and Jackie O’s guest and talent producer Bruno Bouchet, who was exposed recently for a vulgar comments on a personal website (since removed) called Brunolovesboobs.org.

The blog included a photograph of a man dressed as a giant, used sanitary napkin.  His site also included racist comments including against US President Obama.

The Sack Vile Kyle blogspot contains a history of Sandiland’s appalling behaviour from 2000 to the present. Remember the shocking 2009 incident with the 14-year-old girl strapped to a lie detector test and interrogated about her sexual history? She revealed she had been raped.

Reading this history you can’t help wonder why he still has a job and how his employers have the gall to fight a ruling that says he needs to stop vilifying women.

It doesn’t seem to matter what Sandiland’s does, the rewards keep flowing. Soon he will be promoted a judge on Channel 7’s Australia’s Got Talent. Female contestants be warned.

Austereo likes to trumpet its popularity among young women listeners. Encouraging them to accept their own objectification and messages which contribute to the second class status of women is not doing them or anyone else any favours.

Young male listeners receive a message that this is all done in the name of entertainment: that violence against women is just a bit of fun and we should all laugh along. And that if you engage in it you will attract fame and fortune.

The mistreatment of women and girls is a blight on our country. Austereo and Sandilands are contributing to this. No more excuses. It needs to stop.

As published in the Sunday Herald Sun April 1, 2012

Sack Vile Kyle campaign grows in strength

On 16th January 2012 Kyle Sandilands returned to his radio program, the Kyle and Jackie O show, which airs during the much coveted breakfast period reaching millions of Australians on a daily basis. His audience includes young children and teenagers getting ready for school. These impressionable young minds are regularly confronted with discussions on sex acts, murdering transsexuals, as well as Kyle’s insults directed toward any female who is carrying extra weight (including his co-host).

In November 2011 these young minds were also subjected to Kyle’s rants against an online journalist which included the threat “watch your mouth girl or I will hunt you down”. This is not the first time Kyle has threatened a female journalist. In 2006 Kyle stated that he would hire a private investigator to film a pregnant journalist’s family and post it on the Internet. Further to this, in 2007 during an interview with Andrew Denton, Kyle stated he wanted to punch a certain Australian comedian “in the throat”. Kyle Sandilands has a continuous history of verbal assaults and threats of violence against people HE sees have done him wrong.

After the November verbal assault and threats and the December 2011 discussion on “killing the trannie”, a dedicated group of Australians came together and decided enough was enough. We no longer want our kids to be around other kids who think it’s ok to call someone fat and threaten violence. We do not want our daughters dating boys who think it’s ok to “hunt you down” if our daughters disagree with them. We do not want our sexually and emotionally developing teenagers to think that there is anything wrong with being lesbian or gay, we don’t want them to judge bisexual or transgender people, we don’t want them to think that it is okay to “kill the trannie”.

In the past two months the SACK VILE KYLE campaign has been contacting Austereo’s sponsors and we are pleased to announce that 100 businesses have now withdrawn all financial backing of the Kyle and Jackie O show. The SACK VILE KYLE campaign has persuaded them that advertising on the award winning, popular radio program (and therefore contributing to Kyle’s multimillion dollar wage) is not ethical business practice. These companies understand that by advertising on the Kyle and Jackie O show they are supporting this behaviour. They have chosen not to.

Recently the following companies have been contacted via email, twitter and Facebook, and have confirmed that they do not support Kyle Sandilands behaviour and have withdrawn advertising:

Ancestry.com.au

Carnival Cruises

Dede’s Venues

DeBra’s

Flight Centre

Interflora

King Furniture

Kmart Tyre and Auto

Name Necklace.com

Stockland Residential

Vitamin King

Statement from Sack Vile Kyle blogspot

See also: Why does Kyle Sandilands still have a job? , MTR blog

Austereo: Villifying and threatening women fine with us, MTR blog

Kyle Sandilands to stay on

According to a report in the Daily Telegraph today, Southern Cross Austereo has no plans to move Kyle Sandilands on from his slot with Jackie O on 2DAYFM.

This is despite widespread condemnation of his recent on-air abuse of a female News Ltd journalist in which he threatened to hunt her down and 26 advertisers pulling out of the show resulting in an estimated loss of $8million.

If the report is true, it means Southern Cross Austereo has no issue with Sandiland’s public vilification, insults, threats and bullying of a woman who disagrees with him. He can call a woman a ‘fat slag’, a ’piece of shit’ who doesn’t have ‘enough titty’ and who he will hunt down if she doesn’t ‘watch her mouth’ and continue to be enabled to do so by his employers. I wonder what more does Sandilands have to do to warrant dismissal?  Reports that Sandilands was secure came after earlier reports that Austereo was surveying listeners seeking their views on whether Sandilands should be fired.

A spokesperson said they survey was being conducted out of ‘due diligence’. Asking die-hard Sandilands fans their opinion is hardly ‘due diligence’. Due diligence would be taking a zero tolerance approach to the misogynist and bullying behaviour of an employee. Austereo has essentially broadcast a message to its listeners that it’s acceptable to verbally abuse  women and that you won’t be punished for engaging in it.

One positive in all this is the extraordinary response to a petition targeted to sponsors, launched on Change.org.

Here’s an update from Change. Note the sponsors who have not resumed advertising for 2012. Especially note those for whom it appears to be business as usual.

More than 26,000 people have signed Emily Hehir’s petition calling for 2Day FM advertisers to withdraw their support of Kyle Sandilands. Your support has sent them a clear message that it’s unacceptable to financially support a radio host who uses phrases like “fat slag”, “you’re a piece of sh*t” and “I will hunt you down” to attack a journalist.

The media storm and consumer backlash has resulted in up to 60% of advertisers on the Kyle and Jackie O show withdrawing, at a cost to Austereo of $8 million. Despite this, Sandilands and his employers are breathing a sigh of relief — Sandilands is off air for summer and they’re hoping attention on Sandilands will fade away and allow advertisers to return next year. But Vodafone, Blackmores, and McDonalds have committed to not advertising on any radio show hosted by Kyle Sandilands in 2012 — can you help other petition signers build pressure on other major advertisers to follow Vodafone and rule out advertising on Sandilands’ shows in 2012? There’s also a group just started by one Change.org member for people to take regular and ongoing action on this issue — you can join by signing a pledge here.

Here are the brands that haven’t ruled out a return to Sandilands in 2012, and their facebook details in case you want to leave them a message:

Blackberry: http://on.fb.me/taEhjY

Harvey Norman: http://on.fb.me/t5yWvQ

Woolworths: http://on.fb.me/sM4khe

Car History.com.au: http://on.fb.me/rt66Mi

Dick Smith: http://on.fb.me/rA86nc

Piazza D’Oro: http://on.fb.me/uvObh7

Westfield http://on.fb.me/umSTVE

Samsung: http://on.fb.me/umSTVE

Goldmark: http://on.fb.me/u728bZ

Pepsi: http://on.fb.me/u5zpPV

Holiday Inn: http://on.fb.me/vz8VeY

Olympus: http://on.fb.me/unOvpD

TPG: http://on.fb.me/vIa32i

Clean and Clear: http://on.fb.me/rB64ZZ

Toys R Us: http://on.fb.me/tvetSZ

Commonwealth Bank Australia: http://on.fb.me/rM64CO

iSelect: http://on.fb.me/vCEIfd

Fitness First: http://on.fb.me/rDnb7J

Big W: http://on.fb.me/ukPs0U

ING: http://on.fb.me/tWYjUH

Kia Motors: http://on.fb.me/ukatkU

Here are the brands that have committed to not advertising on shows hosted by Kyle Sandilands in 2012. Find out exactly what the companies had to say in the petition updates here.

Holden ✓

Vodafone ✓

Myer ✓

Blackmores ✓

Coles ✓

McDonalds ✓

Ford ✓

Bunnings ✓

GIO ✓

Beaurepairs ✓

Amex ✓

Tourism New Zealand ✓

CUA ✓

NIDA ✓

Libra ✓

University of Western Sydney ✓

Lexus ✓

Mazda ✓

Mitsubishi ✓

The Good Guys ✓

Volkswagen ✓

Virgin Mobile ✓

Spotlight ✓

Macquarie University ✓

Nissan ✓

Crazy Johns ✓

Telstra ✓

While brands were quick to withdraw ads supporting Kyle Sandilands a few weeks ago, Austereo will be hoping that they can talk them around to returning in 2012. If you’re interested in taking regular and ongoing action on this campaign, one Change.org member has started a select group for people to organise together — you can join by signing a pledge here.

Sandilands: offensive, and more

Helen Pringle in On Line Opinion

Kyle Sandilands has received a trouncing over the last few days for being rude and offensive. But criticisms of his behaviour on the grounds of offensiveness miss the mark in regard to the latest incident involving him and his chef de claque. Sandilands certainly takes delight in trying to give offence, although when called out, he excuses himself by saying that he is just doin’ what comes naturally. But giving offence is not the same as practising discrimination, and that is what should be the focus in the current controversy.  

Various corporations have withdrawn their advertising from Sandilands’ program on 2Day FM. This is likely to have the same effect as the last time they withdrew their advertising in 2009. At that time, Sandilands was taken off air by the umbrella company Austereo, which announced that it was conducting ‘a review of the principals [sic] and protocols of our interaction with our audience’. Review concluded, Sandilands and Jackie O simply picked up where they had left off, and the advertisers returned.

Along with his old tricks, Sandilands resumed making his tired old excuses. In response to criticism of his recent intimidation of Alison Stephenson, for example, Sandilands fell back on the well-worn cliché with which many Australians defend or excuse racist and sexist behaviour.  Read more

Please sign the Change.org petition!

See also: ‘Why does this man still have a job?’

Promoting violence for White Ribbon day

This week radio host Karl Sandilands called a female journalist who had written a piece about his poorly rating TV show a ‘fat slag’, ‘piece of shit’, with ‘not enough titty’ who should ‘watch her mouth’ or he would ‘hunt her down’. The words are distressing enough to read. But hearing him speak his vilifications and threats live to air is even more chilling (Jackie O provides the laugh track):

Sandiland’s on-air attack, in which he spewed forth his intimidation and threats against the News Limited journalist, were perfectly timed for the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against women and White Ribbon Day.  Sandilands probably hadn’t heard of either. Not that it would have made any difference to his behavior.

How is it that Austereo continues to employ a man who has made a direct threat to a woman (after a long history of disgusting behaviour, recall the 14-year-old rape survivor and the lie detector test).   What more does Sandilands have to do to lose his positions with 2DayFM and Fox, which provide him platforms of significant influence?

Here’s what I said on Melbourne’s 3AW yesterday afternoon. (click on image)

Yesterday Holden announced it would no longer sponsor the program. Vodaphone pulled some ads. Then the Good Guys recognised Sandilands wasn’t one and dropped its sponsorship. This morning Blackmores also decided threats against women weren’t consistent with its corporate values and pulled the plug on the show as well. Mazda and Telstra also pulled advertising today.

But other sponsors appear to be holding out. Fantastic Furniture appears to think Kyle is fantastic. Adrenaline gets a rush whenever it hears his voice. And has there ever been a greater mismatch in the history of corporate sponsorship than the Aeroplane Jelly and Kylie Sandilands love in?

Our fellow activists over at Change.org have launched a petition to pressure the remaining sponsors to think again. In the meantime we at Collective Shout will be boycotting them. Please sign and circulate the petition here.

See: How Kyle Sandilands was humbled by Twitter and Kyle Sandilands to journalist: Sorry if you took offence – maybe you’ll think again before criticising next time as posted on Mumbrella.

See also: Don’t blame Sandilands – blame those who fill his pockets as posted on The Age/National Times.