Shock jock Kyle Sandilands has responded to the backlash over “ableist” comments he made about the Paralympics.
For context, earlier this week Sandilands sparked controversy over several comments he made about the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games during his breakfast radio show with Jackie O on KIIS FM.
“Have you been watching the special Olympics (sic), it is horrific some of the things,” he said during his Wednesday morning show. “I saw some poor bloke who ran for the high jump and veered right because he was blind and landed on his arse, on the ground.”
He continued, “Then when they were playing soccer, the blind people, I was thinking, are you joking? They’re throwing themselves on the ground like sausages to block the ball.”
Elsewhere during the broadcast, Sandilands suggested that ‘Shake It’ by Metro Station should be used as the theme song for the games. He also said that he appreciated the “spirit of the contest” but rejected the notion that Paralympians work harder than Olympians.
He continued: “You can be nice to handicapped (athletes), but you don’t have to compare them to the non-handicapped. You don’t have to lift them up to be better than the non-handicapped.”
Greens senator Jordon Steele-John responded to Kyle’s tirade in a statement supplied to news.com.au, writing, “Kyle’s comments are abhorrent, ignorant, and ableist.”
He continued, “He has a long history of espousing hate and these comments are hurtful to disabled people. He needs to pull his head in and apologize to our athletes and the disability community.
“There is no place for ableism in our community, and these comments are the latest example of why Kyle should be sacked from his broadcasting roles.”
During this morning’s broadcast, Kyle Sandilands dismissed claims that he was getting “slammed” for his comments.
“‘Here’s the lying headline: ‘Sandilands slammed for Paralympic swipe’,” he said. “Now I’m not slammed by anyone except the one Greens Senator that the journalist had asked to comment then sent the Senator the audio so he could comment.”
He continued, “So straight of the bat it’s a bullshit story.”
Sandilands did not claim to have been misquoted, rather that his comments had been taken out of context.
“I said all these things, but I wasn’t negative towards the contest. I just said I saw some stuff and was shocked… it was quite the eye-opener,” he explained. “They make the article sound like I’m very anti-anyone with a handicap.”
Kyle, hun, I hate to be the bearer of bad news but inflammatory comments like that don’t really require a salacious editorial spin.
“No one complained, there was no big outrage, it’s a lying fake-news story right there,” he said. “Fake headline, fake story, fake outrage.”
