Since I generally only watch morning or daytime television as some sort of misguided experiment for the edification of the fine people who darken Tube Ray Army's virtual doorway, if something interesting happens at that televisual time of the day, you can be pretty certain I missed it.

So it was yesterday, when I was driving along with my family and Gold FM replayed Kerri-Anne Kennerley's comments about Peter "Spida" Everitt's comments (comment comment comment) regarding the alleged sexual assault on Grand Final weekend.

Presumably they were having Spida on because of his storied and thoughtful commentary on modern sexual politics:




If I could drive, and had been behind the wheel, I likely would have pulled a handbrake turn and gunned it all the way to KAK's front door.

For those who missed it, an 'edited highlights' version can be viewed here.

The pair waffled for some time but it can effectively be boiled down to Kerri-Anne's comment, "They put themselves in harms’ way by picking up strays… Girls have been throwing themselves at famous sports people for years."

Does that remind you of anyone?


"If you take uncovered meat and put it on the street, on the pavement, in a garden, in a park or in the backyard, without a cover and the cats eat it, is it the fault of the cat or the uncovered meat? The uncovered meat is the problem."

But the hits kept coming from team Nine!

After a storm so predictable (and understandable) you could have set your watch by it exploded, Nine went into damage control and issued a statement via a spokesman for Kerri-Anne.

Except, hang on...

"In relation to the 'stray' term used, responsibility cuts both ways with these sort of things, and not with just the one party. What she was speaking to Spida about was the fact that not one party can be blamed for this. The responsibility lies with the girls as well as with the guys when you're talking about alcohol-fuelled situations at three o'clock in the morning."

WOW THANKS FOR THE LESSON IN PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY, TEAM NINE!

All this time I thought it was the man's responsibility not to rape the woman, but apparently it's her responsibility not to get raped, too!

If I had a fax machine, I would have sent a copy of this to Nine HQ post haste:


(Click to enlarge)

Within a few hours, however, Nine realised that whichever work experience kid dispatched that statement from Rape Apologists Incorporated needed to be locked in the dunnies and set on fire, so they released another statement:

This morning on Kerri-Anne, a comment was made referring to women who go out late at night with AFL players as “strays”. This was in a conversation between Kerri-Anne Kennerley and Peter “Spida” Everitt. A statement was then issued after the interview in which a spokesperson for Kerri-Anne said: “Responsibility cuts both ways with these sorts of situations, and not just one party. We should always hear both sides of the story before we form an opinion.” The above statement was by no means meant to play down the very serious allegations of rape and domestic violence. It was in reference to a small segment of the conversation between Spida and Kerri-Anne.

Well, Nine, I'm here to tell you - again and again and AGAIN - that it's too little too late.

There is something deeply rotten at the core of the network's sexual politics. How many reprieves has Nine granted Sam Newman all the way into the 21st century? How many more seasons of The Farmer Wants A Wife will we have to sit through? Why was Spida allowed free reign to spew his hateful rhetoric all over Kerri-Anne?

Kerri-Anne is ostensibly a 'women's show' - all morning television is, it's designed to ensnare the bored housewives of the world in send-no-money-now deals for ab-sculpters and stay-sharp knives.

Thus, the insidiousness of this rape-apologism being broadcast from within Kerri-Anne is doubly worrisome. Perhaps it would be less surprising if it came from The Footy Show, or Melbourne's dread MTR (Melbourne Talk Radio, or Men Talking Rubbish), but to have a woman effectively telling women it's their fault? The terrorists have won.

Then again, the morning/midday realm is not exactly a stranger to female-led shoddy rhetoric. Remember this?



Thanks to Whoopi for reminding us that drugging a child and sodomising her isn't "rape-rape".

I'd love to see Kerri-Anne providing an apology from her own mouth rather than filtered down through the Nine chain of command, but I'm pretty certain that would be like expecting Spida to start volunteering at an abused women's shelter.

Instead I'm going to return to the blissful silence of 6am to 12pm in my household, shut my eyes as I look into the sunshine, and feel safe in the knowledge that if I don't watch this shit, it doesn't exist.

It's the only way I can think to bear it at all.