Entertainment Trauma Value

Posted byGlen Fuller 21 Comments on Entertainment Trauma Value

So we’ve had shock jocks for some time. Now we have trauma jocks.

AUTHORITIES are investigating a radio stunt which saw a young girl strapped to a lie detector before revealing she was raped.
The girl 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 Michelle to reveal if she had ever had sex, Rachel broke down and revealed she had been raped.
Sandiland’s first response to the horrifying revelation was, “Right, is that the only experience you have had?”
[…]
The 104.1 2Day FM breakfast hosts heavily promoted the segment which aired just after 8am this morning.
On their website, the station boasts: “Cheating, drinking, lesbian marriage – we’ve revealed it all as we strap Sydney into the dreaded Lie Detector.”
The segment has also seen people are hooked up to the machine, while their partner, friends or family quiz them on masturbation, threesomes and STDs.

2DAYFM gets 10% share, 60,000 people per day in Sydney. Audio. Be warned that it is traumatic to listen to as well, particularly when you have the foreboding sense of what is coming.

I really did not want to listen to it, and it has made me feel sick. Kyle Sandilands demonstrated a lack compassion by zeroing in for the ‘killer question’. It would’ve been perfect had she been a politician telling lies about something, not some messed up kid. The trauma of rape and sexual assault is a heavy burden to bear and puts a massive strain on families.

The way the girl blurted out the confession makes me think it was the sort of disclosure you make when backed into a corner when you’re 14 years old and in an inappropriate position like this kid was. 14 is pretend grown up, at 14 years old girls and boys don’t have the skills to comport themselves in socially acceptable ways under duress.

The mother is going to cop a lot of criticism for this. Clearly she needs to have a hard look at herself. It is unfortunate that she believed this excercise could end any other way. Trying to control a child that is perceived to be out of control through a confessional mode of parenting is not uncommon and could’ve been born of the trauma from discovering her child was raped. To get a child to admit to minor acts of delinquency as a way of confronting them and gaining power over them is tragically misunderstood as gaining power over the situations in which young people become victims. When you are a victim of sexual assault, you are a victim. You can’t control the situation. The confessional mode of parenting doesn’t ward off bad things happening and it doesn’t give the child the necessary common sense adult skills to avoid everyday misfortune, let alone situations created by others where the child is the victim. Instead of confessions there should be frank discussion.

The bigger issue is one of dignity. Violence should not be a solution to teaching Sandilands a lesson, even though my first response was that I wanted to beat Sandilands to a fucking pulp I suggest others do not go to town on Sandilands’s person. Victims of sexual assault work hard to find some dignity. Part of the work of family members and those that care for people who have been victims of sexual assault is to help and support victims find this dignity again. Sandilands is clearly a person who knows exactly what dignity is because he works extremely hard to take it away from people with such media stunts. Sandilands is therefore one of the most unethical people in the Australian media today. Do not reduce yourself to his level.

Lodge a complaint by downloading this form, printing and faxing off.
Reference the commercial radio code of practice or here for this clause for “program content and language” regarding “sex and sexual behaviour”:

1.5 (a) All program content must meet contemporary standards of decency, having regard to the likely characteristics of the audience of the licensee’s service.

I hope the advertisers of 2DAYFM pull their ads, I hope the listeners stop listening, and I hope someone sits down with both the mother and the child to help them get some perspective on what is yet another trauma.

21 replies on “Entertainment Trauma Value”

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  11. LOL. Once again, another article that completely misses the point. The issue here is the mother’s treatment of her daughter, not the means with which it was revealed.

  12. Fiona,

    Do you usually comment at sites such as news.com.au, for example?

    You’ve completely missed the points outlined above. Perhaps re-read the entry and then try to join the dots.

    Kind regards.

  13. Fiona, of course you are from fucking Toorak.

    The issue is a horrific radio station with celebrity talking heads known for their disgraceful behaviour. The ethical question is whether someone like Kyle Sandilands, who is not a stupid person, should prey on the abject stupidity of people. The ‘money shot’, to use a cinematic term, for Sandilands in almost everything I have been unfortunate enough to see or hear him do is when people realise they have just lost all diginity.

    Sure there is a market for reactionary popular culture that makes the weak-willed sheep feel better about themselves because they watch or listen to others being humiliated. Kyle and JackieO have 370k odd followers on twitter, and every single one of those followers should have a hard look at themselves and this goes for the listeners of their terrible radio show. I can’t believe advertisers think it is a good idea to be associated with this shit.

    If you find any of this LOL then you are a heartless piece of shit that should fuck off back to Andrew Bolt’s blog. It is a sickening affair.

    Thanks for leaving a comment though and please come again.

  14. @Fiona

    There is nothing to LOL about – rape is about as serious as it gets in our society. It isn’t entertainment.

    The issue isn’t the mother, rather the person that broadcast it to the entire world (yes – it’s going global). Not that the mother can’t take some responsibility but Fiona you are the one the one missing the point.

    many people are now looking to Boycott the advertisers of the show to get rid of him (and it can’t come soon enough).

  15. The thing that really took the cake was Kyle’s follow up question. If ever you needed evidence of how appalling this show is it was that. For that alone thinking an apology or an excuse about blaming the mother is sufficient is bullshit. Who on earth can seriously say that (whether on radio or anywhere) having a 14 year old say they don’t want to, then making them say it, and then asking a second question about their sexual experience after stating they have been raped is OK? It shows such extraordinary contempt for the individual.

  16. Fiona – I think you really missed the point of the initial posting. Both should get the sack.

    Adrian I agree with your comments.

    Of course the Mother and daughter need help.

  17. Glen

    The real tragedy and disgrace is your own stubborn (denial?) inability to see the culpability of yourself in this – far from tawdry – common garden variety play of popular culture.

    If you focused on real people and the reality of today’s world, rather than mediocre dead French male poseurs, maybe you could be proud of sending a different calibre of citizen from the academy out into the world.

    Alas…………

    My dear, the Culture Studies vanguardist doth proteth too much. 😉

  18. JG,

    Good effort on the trolling.

    However, I’d rate it about 2/10. Firstly, you underestimate how futile it is to provoke me when it is obvious I am being provoked. I laughed out loud. Secondly, your remark about ‘sending out citizens’ indicates you have no idea what I do for a job, do you?

    So my advice to you so you can become a more worthy troll invovles two main points. 1) Find out what I actually do and then attack that somehow. 2) Care enough about what you write to make actual logical connections in your argument and I’ll bother replying.

  19. Ahaha!

    JG, maybe you could you learn to join the logic dots, and then explain them to Fiona?

    Kind regards.

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  21. I note that some companies have withdrawn from advertising on the radio station. Also note that the two have been taken off air. I am glad the station realized how serious this situation was. It is a timely reminder to all media personnel to lift their performance.

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