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[Agdune]

Quick summary - A popular radio show here in Australia was well known for pulling stunts and shocking interviews. A few weeks ago, one interview involved a 14 year old girl who was strapped to a lie detector and questioned about her wagging school and sex life by her mother. She came out with the revelation that she'd been raped 2 years previously. The show was then suspended.

http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/transcripts/s2644599.htm
(Mediawatch coverage of the matter and a bit of a profile of the kind of shit these guys pulled)

Now, I'm not usually one for moral outrage but... holy shit guys. This is the biggest judgment trainwreck I've seen in a long, long time ("underaged girl forced against her will to answer personal questions live on air asked by her clearly near-negligent mother? WHAT CAN GO WRONG?").

Firstly, the rape issue - http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,25889422-662,00.html. This was the unexpected worst case scenario that occured and it quickly became the heart of the matter for suitably retarded reasons. Rape is bad and traumatic, I'm sure having your mother (quite possibly intentionally) prod you on live radio untill you admit to being raped is not exactly going to help all the trauma. Yet as usual, media lets it become the absoloute heart of the matter, as opposed to what I feel is probably the far worse part of the girl's predicament - that her mother admitted to knowing about it and yet still forced her to do the part and still probed her about her sex life. On live radio.. I have tried but been unable to find any mention of child services getting involved here, only the police who have now left the matter alone at the request of the girl.

Clearly the radio station staff were idiots, in every sense. That no-one even had the decency to pull the segment when the girl was claiming "I'm scared this isn't fair" speaks for itself, no-one there should be in any position of responsibility again and the organizers should be hit with the full extent of the law. There's this thing about teenagers, how they're all emotionally unstable and almost, to a person, insecure etc. I've said words to the effect a few times now but with this in mind, it was fucking abuse! *Longwinded, increasingly angry rant omitted*

As the mediawatch link so well points out, this kind of stunt is(was) pulled off quite a bit on the show, though usually with far less explosive results. Humiliation and suffering are great attention-grabbers and the show is aimed at the younger, stupider demographics who eat it up happily.

So... I know I had some discussion points here somewhere but in my vitriol I've gone and forgotten them. How could anyone get on a popular radio show and still be so retarded to think this could in any way turn out well? In order to stop this kind of thing, tighter controls on media in general would be needed. While it would be nice to get fuckers like this out of their jobs pre-emptivley before they go and cause long-lasting damage to anyone, this would inhibit quite a number of other, less negative freedoms. Think this case and others like it should just be shrugged off as 'well, I don't listen to that crap, why should I care?"

Also, try to avoid witty one-liners. They're (occasionally) witty but mostly just derail. Not saying you can't, but unless it's a golden gem from valhalla that just fell in your lap, maybe they'd serve their purpose elsewhere.

[Cheeetar]

Kyle Sanderlands (the one who thought up the thing) was sacked and lost all his endorsements, as well as his co-host 'Jackie O'. Which is good.

[Broose]

Kyle sounds like some kind of badass. Too bad he probably won't be able to do any more.

[ChairmanPoo]

Frankly I dont like reporters pulling out that kind of bullshit. (or any of the other kind of bullshit the media is prone to pull). It's even worse that they did it to a poor kid.
Why the mother forced her to undergo this I can't fathom.

In order to stop this kind of thing, tighter controls on media in general would be needed.

Depends on what you mean. I would argue that perhaps they should be forbidden to get minors on-screen (or on-air. whatever), or if they do, do so under very determinated circumstances.

[Ampersand]

Do you actually believe reality TV, or in this case Reality Radio is in any way a reflection of actual reality? These sorts of stunt shows, like Jerry Springer and the like here in the US are entirely scripted.

Also, this stuff will only stop being sold as a kind of entertainment when people stop buying it.

[Jackrabbit]

Kyle Sanderlands (the one who thought up the thing) was sacked and lost all his endorsements, as well as his co-host 'Jackie O'. Which is good.

QFT. I hated the show.

[Leafsnail]

It's abusive, for sure, but it's no more abusive than a lot of other reality TV shows.  The thing that highlighted the abuse on this show was the fact is was a child and her past.  This sort of thing could happen on a lot of other similar shows.

Jeremy Kyle is the UK equivalent of JS, but it's not scripted.  It's just an excuse to watch poor people losing their rag at each other, while the viewer at home feels smugly above them.  It's sickening.

[Vester]

Oi.

Can't stand "reality tv" in general, but this, this is just wrong.

[Ampersand]

Like I tried to say, don't blame the people who are just giving the unwashed masses what they want.

[Jackrabbit]

Like I tried to say, don't blame the people who are just giving the unwashed masses what they want.

But we hated it, unanimously, and they were fired for it.

[ChairmanPoo]

This time. Others it was loved.

This stuff wouldnt happen if there wasn´t a demand for it.

[Jackrabbit]

Oh you little pessimist you.

[Muz]

It sounds like a whole lot of bad luck. I mean, seriously, who'd have thought it'd lead to that? I know one radio station that did a lot of lie detector stunts, it was rather amusing. Nothing went wrong at all.

What annoys me about the whole thing is that most companies are more than happy to find some scapegoats and then pretend it never happened. They did it! It's all their fault! We fired them and beat them up! Now back to our regularly scheduled broadcast...

[Zangi]

She came out with the revelation that she'd been raped 2 years previously.

News Article:
But the girl informed police within hours that she was withdrawing her complaint - leaving officers no option but to drop the investigation. Police would not comment on why the complaint was withdrawn.

So... its ok to get raped, but not ok to point the finger at the rapist and send that bastard to jail or whatever justice there is?

Cause thats what I'm getting here...

Its pretty much reinforcing the green light for guys: Its ok to rape because the girl I'm raping won't say jack about it and if they do, they won't want to go after me.

And for girls, reinforcing the stigma to not talk about or report it to authorities. 
"I don't want to rock the boat."
"Its too embarrassing/shameful to talk about."


And yet, people here are moaning about the radio show people? 


And agreed with Muz, one thing led to another.... and shit hits the fan.  Doesn't help that they do it live, otherwise they could have just not aired that at all. 
Either way, I don't know how things work over there and wonder why they are even doing sex talk...

Many things can be said about the mother, I'm sure I don't have to repeat it.

[Ampersand]

I don't know. I have some doubts as to the event ever happening. Perhaps because I need to believe that if the Mother knew she wouldn't subject her child to this, and both were just conspiring to get on the radio. Of course, I could be completely wrong, but the frequency with which it happens on American TV has left me cynical, I guess.