True but we know this girl is involved in drugs…it all just seems to suggest that something not so good. If she were sixteen or seventeen, maybe more appropriate, but I wouldn’t publicly ask a fourteen year old.
And the fact that her mom was smiling is nauseating. Who does that?
If this were a court case, I’d get an objection for assuming facts not in evidence but…
Justin_Bailey’s correct. I also think the rapist is the boyfriend or stepdad (assuming there is one). Why? Because of the smile.
So the girl told the mom and, typically, mom didn’t believe her or thought the daughter must have done something to seduce him.
Cut to two years later. Mom hooks her daughter up to a lie detector and sees this as a perfect opportunity to grill the daughter. “So…have you had sex before?” she says smugly knowing she’s either about to catch her daughter in a lie where she admits she made up the whole thing or be able to further ask questions to her on just how this alleged “rape” occurred. But, alas, the plan got foiled.
FTW. In fact it wouldn’t surprise me in the least if this was her central motivation for getting the kid on the air in the first place… to catch her in a lie, disprove the rape, and ease her own guilty conscience.
That makes the most sense of any scenario presented, and is also the most horrifying. That mother, and any boyfriend or stepdad, should be closely questioned, and prosecuted as possible. The poor girl should be rehomed, preferably with someone who has experience dealing with rape/molestation victims and the destructive behavior they often participate in when they aren’t taken seriously and helped. The drug problem may be more related to escapism from the rape and not being believed than to “I like getting high because it’s fun.”
News: The radio show has been put “in recess” (aka suspended). And Kyle Sandilands’s role as judge on Australian Idol has been ended.
I’m not sure if the Australian Idol move is an overreaction or not. But it mirrors the Russell Brand/Jonathan Ross situation, over in the UK, so it’s not unprecedented.
Considering that those boot camps for troubled teens don’t work*, yeah, I’d say it is wrong. Minors should not be exploited for entertainment and that’s all any of that is.
*Cites available upon request, but it’s well known in the field.
I just went back and reread both articles, but couldn’t find where it said that she was doing drugs, just that she was on the show to be questioned about doing drugs and having sex. Do you have to listen to the show to hear that she’s been using, or did I miss it somewhere in the articles?
Before they put her on the machine the mother told the hosts that the daughter had admitted to smoking dope.
The two bits that I thought were the worst about this were the mother smiling when she asked the question and the male host piping in with “Is that your only experience.”
I’m putting this more on the mother than the hosts, but they seem to have a show where this sort of thing is bound to happen.
So no one liked my theory?
Could someone post a direct link to the audio file? I can’t seem to find it on either of the OP’s links.
I don’t characterize that as exploitation. I think its perfectly fine to drag a kid to a studio and make him answer questions in front of an audience. If he doesn’t want to answer, fine, he can throw a fit or stay silence.
Well, if his parents are telling him he pretty much has to, he might just go along with it, not realizing how badly it’s going to turn out. He doesn’t have the ability to just leave the studio the way an adult does.
For anyone still interested, here is Kyle’s response.
And here’s an articlefrom the BBC with lots of talking heads commenting.
A kid’s parents can tell him whatever they want, they still can’t physically force him to talk. Kids throw tantrums and rebel all the time, I don’t see how this case is any different. I feel for the kid, but she didn’t have to blurt out anything about a rape and she is free to make up any lie she wants, just like any kid that age is capable of doing. Sorry, I just don’t see any exploitation here
It’s a matter of debate whether being raped = having sex. If someone were truly asking about their daughter’s experience with sex and drugs, they’d be asking about what the person chose to engage in. The question of rape/molestation is a different one.
Just in case people are interested in seeing more about this:
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) runs a show every Monday evening called Mediawatch. It’s a 15-minute program that offers critiques of journalistic and media ethics. I think it’s one of the best shows on TV, and is a credit to the ABC.
Anyway, Mediawatch’s main story this week was about the incident being discussed in this thread. They also go into some detail about a previous segment of the show which was manipulative and plain fucking awful.
If you want to watch the segment in your browser, you can go here and click on the Flash player segment “Fun - Kyle and Jackie O style.”
Or you can download the show directly using these links: