Last Thursday night an AFL-loving, Footy Show watching friend sent me a text. Forget about Kyle Sandilands, he said, Sam Newman’s just done something so amazingly offensive tomorrow’s papers will explode in an orgy of finger-pointing and hand-wringing. Impressed by his ability to fit all that into a text, I said back and waited. And then… nothing happened: Kyle Sandilands retains his title as Australia’s current King Pratt. In fact, if it wasn’t for Media Watch I never would have found out what it was that Sam was supposed to have done on The Footy Show. It turns out he made various racist comments that the rest of media didn’t bother reporting; sad to say, as far as stirring up controversy goes it looks like Sam Newman is past it.
To be fair to Newman, this was the same week that Sam gave an on-stage profanity-packed spray to the AFL Media Association for being foolish enough to give him a life membership. But even that barely made the sports pages. Maybe no-one cared: only members of the media copped Sam’s spray. Then again, Kyle Sandilands’ on-air concentration camp “joke” about Magda Szubanski’s weight was technically between members of the media too, and that earned Kyle his second suspension of the year. And unlike Sam’s reported comments to the AFL Media Association, Kyle didn’t even tell her to “get f***ked”.
How different things were barely a year ago. Then Kyle was just a boorish, ill-tempered slob diss’d and dismissed by all as just a louder than usual media pratt who couldn’t even replace Gretel Killeen without getting Big Brother axed. Newman, on the other hand, was actively dangerous, having manhandled a lingerie-clad mannequin with a rival sports journo’s face stapled to its head in an on-air Footy Show “stunt” that earned him a suspension (officially to recover from surgery) and sensitivity training. Later that year another off-colour comment towards a Tasmania MP stirred up a brief flicker of outrage, but even then Sam’s shock status was slipping. This year, a road rage incident aside, he’s barely caused a ripple. The media has returned the favour; Sam Newman being shocking might still shock my texting mate, but it’s no longer treated as news.
Kyle, on the other hand, seems to have learnt from Sam’s mistakes when it comes to fanning the flames of media attention. Lesson number one: when you say or do something offensive and get suspended, don’t come back a changed man – say something just as offensive the first chance you get. How long Kyle can keep this up is anyone’s guess, but it’s not like he has a choice. While Newman’s media profile rests (partially) on being an ex-AFL footballer, which supposedly makes him knowledgeable about the game (if not gender issues). That gives him a back-up career saying non-offensive football-related things once the media loses interest, while Kyle’s skill set starts and ends with being offensive. He’s taken Sam’s crown because the media took it off Sam: while shock jock Kyle twists in the spotlight, as far as the media’s concerned Sam is once again just a plain old jock.
By Anthony Morris