#1. He is not funny or entertaining. He has no personality, no talent, no style, no looks and no intelligence.
#2. He is arrogant, insensitive, disrespectful and adds nothing to TV or radio. Every time he makes the news for another 'head stuck up his bum' incident, we hope and pray that it will be the last that we hear of him. Like herpes, he resurfaces, more painful than ever.
#3. I am ashamed to be associated with him as an Australian. He is an absolute embarrassment, and it is a sad reflection on our society that he is still a public figure and role model despite his continued indiscretions.
Let's look at some of his behaviour in recent years....
* The latest incident in which he said that about a journalist who gave his new (crappy) TV show a negative review: “Some fat slag on the Telegraph website, sorry, the news.com.au, has already branded it a disaster...What a fat bitter thing you are, you deputy editor of an online thing. You’ve got a nothing job anyway. You’re a piece of shit... you little troll... You should be fired from your job. And your hair. Your hair is very 90s. Yeah, and your blouse. You haven’t got that much titty to be wearing that low cut a blouse. Watch your mouth, girl, or I will hunt you down."
This is ongoing, and he has made matters worse by refusing to apologise, and continuing his despicable tirade. This is his supposed "apology": "If you took a personal offence to it Ali I'm sorry, but maybe you should think again before you start going (against) different people. If they say I can dish it out but I can't take it, I never ever dish it out first. I only ever retaliate to someone else's crazy allegations."
* He commented on air that Magda Szubanski, who publicly battled to shed weight, would lose more "in a concentration camp". Szubanski, whose father was a Polish freedom fighter who hunted down Nazis, said Sandilands' remarks were "abhorrent".
* In 2009, a 14 year old girl admitted on air that she had been raped when she was 12 years old, during a lie detector segment. Kyle's reply? "Right.. is that the only experience you've had?"
* After being fired from Australian idol, he called Ricki-Lee Coulter a "bitch" with a "then-fat mouth" on air in reference to her publicly agreeing to the decision to fire him. This aggressive response to criticism is a continued theme.
* In 2010, he interviewed 3 of Tiger Woods’s former mistresses, asking one of them in reference to the size of the star's genitals if he was a ‘‘
massive donkey’’. When she responded with yes, he asked her: ''
Were you surprised, [saying] 'Man, you're half Asian, half black, obviously the half black is what's going on downstairs'?''
* In 2006, Sandilands called a heavily pregnant journalist, Fiona Connolly, a ‘'fat toad'’, ‘'fat lying mole" and a ‘'little cretin'’, after a column she wrote about faked phone calls on The Kyle and Jackie O Show. He also said he would hire a private investigator to film her and her family "then I'm going to put it on a website and I'm going to show everyone what members of her family do that are dodgy".
* In 2007, Kyle was a guest on Big Brother. He went crazy when denied coffee in the house, and one comment made to Big Brother was “This might work with your little peasants you’ve got in here, but this is a different story dealing with me. When I am speaking you will shut your pie hole.” Kyle then refused Big Brother’s request to remove his hat as part of the rules for being in the diary room. A 15-minute stand off ensued as Big Brother refused to talk until Kyle removed his hat. The shock jock demanded to be released from the room and repeatedly bashed a microphone stand against the door.
* He spent 20 minutes threatening violence and yelling at the guys from Australian band Frenzal Rhomb because they mildly insulted Jackie O. This was in response to Jackie O turning up at 8pm to MC a music festival, when she was scheduled to start at 11am (only 9 hours late). The band started playing music over Jackie O's drivel - the festival was already running late, and the band had to play to a reduced set time. Later that night at the after party, Jackie O's personal bodyguard confronted the boys and threatened violence. On air, Kyle told them "if it was me up there, it would have been on for young and old from the start". When the band asked Jackie if she endorsed her body guard threatening them, Kyle jumped in and said "Yes, well I do" and continued to say they would never have their songs played on the network etc.
* Threatening violence is quite a theme. On TV, he said he wanted to punch comedian Dave Hughes in the throat. He has also told journalists he'd "punch (them) in the face" if they invaded his privacy. Another quote: "Lot of dirty, filthy, rotten, disgusting tricks from a lot of media companies and I'll never forget who they are and one day I'll be in a position to seek some sort of revenge... I've got a list and I will slowly weave my way through it". Yes, sounds like a psychopath.
* He made these comments about Geoff Field, a newsreader on his Breakfast show: “he's closer to dumb than most people think” and “like a step child you can't get rid of.” He went on to say, "He was running off down to HR . . . bitching and carrying on . . . I told him you can argue back . . . but you are never going to win . . . Geoff's an older gay man, easily offended.”
* He forced one staff member “to masturbate in the Black Thunder one night because he'd done something wrong”, while another staff member verified it. “It took him about eight songs to do it,” Sandilands recalls.
* The most deplorable? In 2009, a young Cambodian-Australian woman, whose family were refugees from Pol Pot’s regime, entered a competition to bring the aunt she had never met to Sydney from the US. When the plane landed, they were told of the‘‘twist’’: the aunt would be concealed behind one of three doors and unless the niece chose the right one, the aunt would be flown back home immediately. The niece chose the wrong door. For eight minutes they cried and pleaded, even falling to their knees. After news and ad breaks the aunt was finally allowed to stay.
Those are some of the main incidents that made the news, but there are way more.
Apart from "Vile Kyle", there are others to blame.
(1) Jackie O, who continues to work with him for her own personal gain. She agrees with most of what he says and doesn't ever criticise him, just laughs along like a dumb floozy. She obviously has no morals, and is equally despicable. If Kyle finally gets the boot over his latest incident and she survives, that is not a proper outcome.
(2) Fox and Austereo, for continuing to bankroll him despite his continued bad behaviour. Obviously the "personal counselling" that he has undergone to keep his job has not helped. Good try!
But who is the most to blame?
THE AUSTRALIAN PUBLIC... for continuing to listen to him, ensuring that his show has high ratings so that immoral, money grabbing executives and his co-star continue to support him. If he didn't bring in money, no one would employ him.
I have never liked him, but I also have not made a conscious decision not to listen to his show until now. After all, Canberra has seriously limited radio options and the Take40 show plays good music and interviews good bands. That means that until now, I have contributed to this problem. I urge you all to reconsider your support for Kyle's radio shows and change stations if you hear his voice!
To paraphrase Shakespeare, "The fault lies not with the stars, but with ourselves"
