Arbeit macht frei: - Fredrick Töben

2Day FM has issued a statement saying the comments Sandiland made
during The Kyle and Jackie O Show yesterday were ‘unacceptable’.
2DayFM ‘sincerely apologises and regrets any offence they caused’.
The suspension will be in effect pending further discussions involving
Sandilands and station management, 2DayFM said.
Earlier today, Sandilands dismissed his concentration camp jibe as ‘just
one of those things’ amid renewed calls for him to be sacked.
He went on air saying he did not mean ‘to offend her (Szubanski) or
anyone else with those comments’.
He then said he was trying to contact the actress and it was ‘just one of
those things’ - an echo of comments last month from Jackie O, who
dismissed the pair’s earlier lie detector controversy as ‘just one one of
those moments when live radio happens’.
Jewish leaders called last night for his sacking.
‘Why would you want to have anything to do with somebody like this?’
Australian/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council spokesman Jeremy Jones told
the Herald-Sun.
‘To joke about the experience of people who are being starved to death or
murdered ... is quite horrendous.
‘There are people who confuse freedom of speech with gratuitous,
insulting, offensive behaviour. They’re two quite different things.’
Sandilands is expected to face the wrath of advertisers and listeners only
weeks after he and co-host Jackie O sparked a furore over a segment in
which a 14-year-old girl, who was hooked up to a lie detector, revealed she
was raped when she was 12.
Some major sponsors withdrew advertising from the Austereo group, the
owner of 2DayFM, and Kyle and broadcaster Jackie O went off-air for two
weeks.
Szubanski, who is a spokeswoman for a weight loss company, has lost
25kg since she appeared on the comedy series Kath and Kim.
Her family is of Polish origin, a country where many of the worst Nazi
concentration camps, including Auschwitz, were located.
Sandilands joked yesterday morning that Szubanski’s work with the weight
loss campaign was not finished.
‘Magda could have another run out of it,’ he said on 2Day FM.
‘She could get another season out of them, easy ... she’s not skinny.’
Jackie O suggested Szubanski might not be able to lose any more weight
due to her build.
‘That’s what all fat people say,’ Sandilands replied.
‘You put her in a concentration camp and you watch the weight fall, like
she could be skinny.’
Szubanski brushed off Sandilands’ on-air comments, but said they were
offensive to those who had suffered in concentration camps.
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