Generally, when a politician gets banned from prime-time Radio it is not often a good thing.
Francis Underwood from House of Cards used to say “A politician would drown a litter of kittens for 5 minutes of prime-time television.”
But when you are banned from the ethics committee’s newest member in Kyle Sandilands then I don’t think it is necessarily a bad thing.
Kyle Sandilands bans NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet
I had to chuckle when shortly after the New South Wales got a new Premier the so called ‘flagship’ program “The Kyle and Jackie O” sensationally banned him from their program just a day into the job.
What makes the whole thing even more amusing is they were talking to a “celebrity Psychic” when they made the call.
I have always wondered why Psychic’s don’t win the lotto every week so I am a little cynical when it comes to that medium. I am now even more cynical when it’s used to refuse the leader of the State Government being able to talk to voters on a high rating program.
But to give this a little context, Kyle and Jackie were speaking to a celebrity psychic when they discussed the Premier’s conservative views.
Psychic medium Georgina Walker called him a “strong leader’ before predicting he was not likely to be popular (Best not to upset both sides of the audience eh?)
Kyle who is an overweight 50-year-old with grey hair trying to ‘get down with the kids”, then said ‘he did not like his vibe’ and that he was ‘never allowed on the show’
He continued, “He’s not allowed, I don’t want that rubbish.”
Given Kyle’s rap sheet
I found this statement pretty surprising given the rubbish we have seen Kyle dish out over the years.
In 2007 he stated ‘smoking was not as harmful as institutions would lead people to believe’ and that statistics presented by institutes such as The Cancer institute New South Wales were ‘falsified’.
In 2009 he interviewed a distressed teenager about her sexual history in front of her mother, the girl confessed “She was raped when she was 12” which Kyle rather then cut that disgraceful segment short then rather insensitively asked “Is this the only experience you have had?”, charming!
In 2012 he called a child with a disability a “spider baby”
Of course, in 2019 he commented that the Mother of Jesus was a “liar who got knocked up behind a camel shed”, he is a peach isn’t he?
So what is his problem with the Premier?
With Kyle now deciding he is going to be ethical and not tolerate any rubbish you would think that maybe his program will perhaps be more responsible with their platform and maybe even ‘family friendly’.
So why draw the line at Dominic Perrottet?
Is it maybe no politics on the show?
Well, the segment was clearly political in nature so that can’t be the reason.
Maybe it’s more to do with the personal views of the new Premier.
It is well known that Dominic Perrottet is a conservative Catholic with 6 kids.
His social issues include valuing the sanctity of life and he believes a child should not be denied a mother and a father based on the choices of their parents.
Given Kyle’s tendencies to allow rubbish such as harassing rape victims sharing misinformation about smoking, mocking the disabled and Christianity, yet refusing to allow a man with strong family principles who leads the state on the show; Then I think it is safe to presume that if you are banned from The Kyle and Jackie O show you are not such a bad fella.
Ben Kruzins is the Campus Pastor of The Hub Baptist Church in Ocean Shores on the North Coast of New South Wales. He is also a Journalism graduate who has written articles in The Canberra Times and The Sydney Morning Herald.