Kyle & Jackie O

I've been meaning to get back into this blogging thing and I've had lots of ideas of things to write about, but I just haven't had the time. Normally its the other way round. I have lots of dead time to kill, but can't think of anything to write about. Either way, I have a few posts ready, but I thought I would hit this one first because its "topical".

If you aren't aware, Kyle & Jackie O have a breakfast show on commercial radio in Australia. I don't listen to it and don't really know much about it, except that in all their advertising (billboards, TV etc) that I DO see, they both seem like total douches. So my opinion is probably already biased against them, but I think that even if I could be completely objective and impartial, I would conclude that they ARE total douches.

Here's what happened:


They got a mother and a 14yo girl in on their program and hooked up the 14yo girl to a lie detector, because the mother suspected her of using drugs and having sex. The mother asked some fairly innocuous questions before asking her daughter if she had ever had sex. The girl said she was uncomfortable, before revealing she had been raped when she was 12yo and that the mother already knew that. Kyle then asked if this was her own sexual experience.

There has been a huge amount of media comment about this incident and the comments on each of these news stories online have fallen into two main categories - people condemning Kyle & Jackie O, and people defending them and saying that the mother was the only one at fault.

What the hell is going wrong?

The mother IS at fault. How can anyone bring up their child's rape on national radio? What was she thinking? She admitted that she did already know about her being raped, yet continued to ask her about her sexual experiences. What a freaking idiot.

And then Kyle somehow managed to brush past the rape and try and dig more out of her about her sexual experiences. How incredibly insensitive to CONTINUE to ask those questions when she has just been absolutlely humiliated on air. She just admitted to being raped and he just wanted some more hot, juicy info.

BUT WAIT!

The reaction of the radio "celebrities" was to blame it all on a media beat-up and say that while they were sorry to the girl, they had no previous knowledge that the girl had been raped and they were therefore not at fault.

But they (and their producers) were asking a 14yo girl (ie a minor) about their sexual experiences, which by definition in child protection legislation is rape, no matter whether the act was consensual or not. PLUS they hooked up a 14yo girl to a lie detector, who stated that she was uncomfortable and felt that it was unfair that she had to do the interview.

There is a news article saying that they have been taken off the air indefinitely. Which sounds like they have taken annual leave and will be back in 2 weeks to bring their brand of wacky zaniness back to hundreds of thousands of radios across the country. Hopefully it doesn't happen.

Kyle and Jackie O. Total douches.