Before reading this go to the background of the story here.
There are few things that get me more angry than rape, particularly rape of a minor. Sexuality is absolutely precious in the sight of God and the idea that someone would sully it for this girl at such a young age (12 for goodness sake!) should bring tears to our eyes. But the thing that also bears mentioning in this discussion is that the girl is 14, technically still below the age of consent. Thus in the eyes of the law any sex she has had with someone above the age of consent is rape – paedophilic rape at that. When Kyle and Jackie O found out the subject matter of what was going to be spoken about, this should have sounded alarm sirens. Sadly I fear the reason and decency valve has rusted over in the minds of the 2Day FM breakfast crew.
I am really saddened for this family. What a tragedy that things have deteriorated so far that the mum thinks it is easier to use a LIE DETECTOR ON RADIO rather than, you know, talking to her daughter like a normal parent. I used to be a high school teacher so I get that teens can be difficult. Hell, they can drive you to distraction sometimes. But the mum is an adult. She had been told about her daughters rape and yet she still asked her daughter, a minor below the age of consent, if she had ever had sex on syndicated radio. This is utterly dispicable. The daughter even expressed unease before the segment started (and who wouldn’t… I wouldn’t want my mum talking about my sex life on radio and I’m 26 and married with nothing to be ashamed of!)
But in addition I’m saddened for the Kyle and Jackie O listenership. Perhaps its just me but I feel like the kind of sexualised, shock radio that Kyle and Jackie O have on any given day has been grooming it’s audience to find this kind of thing entertaining. By stupifying the listenership by exposure to this kind of crap and creating a lie detector segment like this in the first place 2Day FM took a crowbar to the tracks and created this trainwreck.
Why Part 1 I [pretend to] hear you ask? Well I’m sure they’ll do something equally as dumb next week and I’ll be writing about that too.
The Box Pop 
Wow, that poor girl. That breaks my heart.
I think a lot of the blame should also be put on the mother for not protecting her daughter. She found out a couple weeks beforehand and still went ahead with the interview?! You go to a counsellor, not a bloomin’ radio station.
Of course, Kyle is known for being a fool on radio to everyone including Jacki O at times so it’s no surprise there.
The young girl has got be going through a horrid time right now and for a long time to come.
There’s so many good reasons not to listen to that show. You can’t listen to it and feel edified. Let’s just can Kyle and Jackie O, and put Hamish and Andy on in the mornings too! Trouble is, we’d have to get them broadcasting on two different stations!
Or just listen to Triple J. They can’t afford lie detectors anyway 🙂
it looks like there might not be a part two to this series:
http://www.theage.com.au/news/entertainment/tv-radio/articles/2009/08/02/1249152508643.html
(well at least not for a little while)
I think that FULL blame should be put on the mother. What kind of parent, puts a child through that. As a parent myself I cannot ever imagine not protecting my child from even more hurt and embaressment than they ahve already suffered. The poor girl should be takena way from a mother like that in my eyes. And as much as I dislike Kyle and Jackie O, if they weren’t told about this, or lied to about it how can it be their fault? Both sounded like they were about to drop dead from shock. And yes, Kyles comment afterwards was very insensitive etc I believe he was just shocked and trying to do what he could (in his own dickhead way)
Hi TK thanks for your thoughts.
I’ve found it really interested to listen to the blame portioning over the past week and a bit.
I’m not convinced the blame can lie squarely in the lap of the mother. Don’t get me wrong – it was gross negligence. I hope my original piece didn’t sound like I was squaring the blame entirely on the shoulders of Kyle and Jackie O. But they must take a slice of it.
There were several points at which everyone involved with the 2Day FM breakfast programme should have realised that this was not subject matter that should be talked about on breakfast radio (like… say… when the girl said she didn’t want to do it and that she was scared). They pushed ahead anyway. I know hindsight is 20:20 but, as I already mentioned above, minors having sex with people who aren’t minors (and this was what Kyle and Jackie O were told would be the subject matter of the test) it is paedophilic rape.
Sure Kyle’s comments immediately afterward were probably spoken in shock and he was just saying the first thing that came into his head. Laying to one side that I’m flabbergasted that this would be the first thing that would come out of anyone’s mouth in this situation, that he would in the hours and days after the show go on to defend the segment is reprehensible.
What do you think TK?
There was a time where 2Day FM had the slogan “Better music and more of it.” What’s more, they had some damn fine disc jockeys providing such tunes. In particular Mike Hammond and Keith Williams. Ron E Sparks was good too, but then again he’s considered a legend in Aussie radio.
Then in 1995 they decided to hire fools like Ugly Phil, Dave Rhymer and of course Kylie and Wackie Hoe. Once they did that, the wheels started fallin’ off the wagon. It all started with the inclusion of hip hop and r&b tunes, which, I don’t mind a bit of every now n’ then, but to me it just seemed weird that 2Day FM was suddenly playing rap tunes.
Also Mr Rhymer once pranked a high school student and told her that she’d failed her HSC when she had in fact passed with flying colours. He later got sued by the girl’s father. Yeah, really intelligent, mate.
Of course at this point in time, 2Day FM has become possibly the most classless radio station in Australia. Just take a look at their website. Absolutely disgraceful!
I grew up listening to this station and was very proud to be a 2Day FM listener, but I pretty much stopped listening in 2003 thanks in part to the way in which they treated their newsreader just because of his sexual preference. They’ve made this poor fella suffer! “Ok, mate, read the news…..hold up, we’re gonna hypnotize you now so you can read it in Japanese…or what you think is Japanese.”
So, in my eyes, it’s not just a case of a mother being irresponsible enough to get her own flesh & blood to admit to being raped on a public radio show, it’s also a case of these fools having no respect at all whatsoever. I think they need to be pulled off the air for good. Forget about that 2 week suspension crap.
These days I only listen to what’s in my collection.
Like Michael Franti said: “Disregard the mainstream!!!!”