A Sad Affair

Whilst I'm sure everyone is sick of hearing about Kyle Sandilands and the 2DayFM lie-detector stunt, I just saw (on the late channel 9 news) a 'story' about the so-called family of the young girl at the centre of the scandal featuring on A Current Affair and basically 'outing' the girl as a liar.

So I went to the ACA website and saw the video of the story - which I decided not to embed here because it is ludicrous and wrong in so many ways. Basically the girls bogan aunts and cousin (who all have fake names and their images distorted) call the 14-year-old girl a tramp and a liar. They insist that any sexual activities the girl has been involved in have been consensual. ACA then showed footage from the channel 9 program Missing Persons Unit which featured the girl and her mother (previous to the radio incident) when the girl had run away.

I have to ask ... What the hell is ACA doing? Last week when the story broke that the girl had chosen to withdraw her complaint to police I wondered; 'why do we need to know this?' and 'how is this in the public interest?' - but this ACA story takes the cake.

From what I can tell it seems ACA is wanting to clear Sandilands of any wrongdoing by trying to put the blame not only on the mother but on the (may I repeat) FOURTEEN YEAR OLD CHILD.

Here's the thing channel 9 - it doesn't matter if, how, with whom or under what circumstances the girl had sexual relations - Austereo and the producers and announcers of the 2DayFM breakfast program ARE TO BLAME for the innapropriate use of a child in an on-air stunt.

The public does not and never did need to know anything about this girl - so why is her privacy continually being breached?

It's difficult for me to be shocked by current affairs programs, but considering even Today Tonight chose to feign disguist at ACA's story - surely that indicates that it's out of line.

Afternoon News

Channel 9 is spruiking its new afternoon news program This Afternoon, starting next Monday, 4:30pm weekdays. Hosts Andrew Daddo and Katrina Blowers will be taking a look at news and current affairs with live interviews, news bulletins, and panel discussions. Channel 9's weekend news reporter Mark Ferguson will be in the mix too along with a team of reporters nationally. It's an hour-long program so it will be interesting to see how many stories are doubled-up with other channel 9 current affairs programs 60 Minutes and ACA.