Kyle Sandi finds himself in deep trouble after a prank goes badly wrong

Kyle Sandilands breached broadcasting standards by making “offensive” comments about Paralympians, the media watchdog said.

The KIIS 106.5 host must undergo sensitivity training following the “insensitive and hurtful” comments made during a September 2021 segment.

Australia’s Communications and Media Industry released a report on Tuesday that found the radio station had breached the code’s “decency provision” twice.

The first breakthrough came when Sandilands and co-host Jackie ‘O’ Henderson spoke about the Paralympics on 1 September.

“Have you seen the Special Olympics? Some things are terrible,’ Sandilands said.

“A poor guy ran to the high jump and then swerved to the right because he was blind and landed on his butt on the ground.

“When they played football, I thought, the blind, you’re kidding, they throw themselves on the ground like sausages to block the ball.

“And I guess good for you, I like the spirit of the game…but I feel…Jesus Christ…this is a big effort.”

The ACMA report claimed that “the Paralympians involved were mocked by Mr Sandilands, and they were mocked for the techniques used to participate and compete in their particular sport.”

The ACMA believes that a regular listener to the show, while tolerating irreverent presentation styles, will still be able to discern what is generally “acceptable” content and who is likely to be a “fair target” for humor or ridicule in the present will be considered. become Australia. ‘

Sandilands was also summoned to a journalist for comment two days later, on September 3.

The journalist reported on the radio host’s comments about the Paralympians.

“If you don’t have any news, write about someone else who won’t follow up, and look it up and find out what really happened, because I have a lot of time and a lot of money to make things up.” .

“Wake up, leave, find someone who is not capable of ruining your whole life. No, it’s not a threat, it’s a guarantee.”

The first breakthrough came when Sandilands and co-host Jackie ‘O’ Henderson spoke about the Paralympics on 1 September.

ACMA dismissed a complaint that Sandilands had “incited serious contempt and ridicule” in his comments about the Paralympians.

“ACMA believes that the public likely viewed Mr Sandilands’s comments, while highly offensive, as an expression of his own harsh presentation style, and not as an encouragement to others to adopt his views,” the report.

In light of these cases, while the ACMA believes that the licensee submitted material that was offensive and mocked people because of their disabilities, the ACMA does not believe that the high-threshold test of “a reasonable listener” is likely to be “more severe”. .” incitement to ridicule” has been met as required for a violation of this provision.”

HT&E, owner of KIISFM, argued in its argument that Sandilands was simply expressing “genuine surprise”.

“Mr Sandilands uses sensitive language such as ‘poor fellow’ and ‘Jesus Christ, it’s a lot of trouble’, showing a compassionate response to what he saw, as opposed to belligerent or aggressive feelings,” it said.

“They (Sandilands’ comments) were not made aggressively and were not said to provoke others to share derogatory attitudes towards disabled people as a group.”