Kyle Sandilands has declared himself and Karl Stefanovic “two failed media giants” in a 35-minute pity party podcast held in what he described as a “tin shed”.
Sandilands was a guest on Stefanovic’s podcast show, where both men discussed being sacked from their well-paid hosting gigs, with both working hard to pull at the heartstrings.
Sandilands said he doesn’t feel as “bad as I would have imagined” after he was dumped from the top-rating Kyle and Jackie O Show in March. He said he had been subject to death threats at the time of his exit.
“There are people rejoicing and stamping all over the death and the ashes of both of us, that’s for sure,” he told a nodding Stefanovic.
“I was one year into the 10-year plan and then, due to someone’s bad mood, that all fell apart. I’m not sure why. We still don’t know the real reason. I won’t speak to Jackie until she’s finished with her court proceedings.”
He claimed everyone from the prime minister, the premier and Pauline Hanson called him to offer support. He also claimed he got a call from “Alan”, which we assume is Alan Jones here, because Sandilands added that he “hadn’t hit rock bottom yet, so I haven’t gone over. But he’s been lovely.”
Sandilands then went on to lament the money he’s paid lawyers as part of his settlement over his contract, finding in Stefanovic a gentle and supportive interviewer.
“Who would have known that 10 years ago, this is what we’d be doing: sitting here in some f—ing tin shed, putting some podcast together on a shoestring budget with two failed media giants,” Sandilands said, to a sniggering Stefanovic.
“I can’t imagine being failed with anyone more than you, my friend,” Stefanovic said.
Sandilands goes on to call himself a “little person” battling a corporation in court, declared that the legal system is “not fair” and that he would “bash” anyone who spoke ill of him in the press.
Stefanovic was very receptive to all this. Beyond giggling at Sandilands’ obscene jokes, he offered the idea of starting a “little fund for media people who just get f—ed over”.
“Just media people?” Kyle responds, laughing, perhaps the first moment of self-reflection in the episode.
“Well, we’ll start at media and then we’ll branch out to other areas,” Stefanovic responds sheepishly. Maybe they weren’t on the same page after all.
Catholics miss Reformers
Despite intense media interest in the NSW corruption watchdog’s inquiry into a group of young Catholic political apparatchiks allegedly funnelling money from Catholic Schools NSW to their factional group, the Reformers, via sham invoices, the church’s very own newspaper, The Catholic Weekly, didn’t see what all the fuss was about.
While other newspapers – this one included – splashed stories about the ICAC’s inquiries across their front pages, the Catholic Weekly’s top stories on Sunday included the tale of Archbishop Fisher’s papal award recipients, a story on a men’s support group at St Michael the Archangel in Belfield (where LGBTQ activists were pelted with stones a few years ago), and a piece about artificial intelligence and evangelisation in Manila.
But no mention of the Reformers, whose activities were inspired by a series of culture war defeats, including the legalisation of same-sex marriage and the introduction of safe access zones around abortion clinics. As far as we can see, it has not covered the hearings at all.
But there are weeks of the inquiry still to be heard, so perhaps the Weekly will find an angle soon.
Lindsay Fox and his big boys toys
Billionaire trucking boss Lindsay Fox has a new toy.
Fox, the founder of the LinFox Group of companies, put through an order for an Airbus H160 helicopter last year and now the whirlybird has arrived.
The impressive piece of aviation mastery, described online as one of the world’s state-of-the-art twin-engine helicopters, is the first Airbus H160 in Australia, and it settled into its new home at Essendon Airport in Melbourne late last month.
It is not difficult to spot, the tail number is VH-Fox, and it has sent the aviation geeks into a lather.
Just what the sparkly new flying machine cost is unknown, so CBD took a surf around Google and it looks like the H160 model has a base price of $US14 million ($19.9 million) and ranges up to $US22 million depending on customisation.
Mostafa Rachwani is a Parramatta reporter at The Sydney Morning Herald. He was previously the Community Affairs reporter at Guardian Australia.Connect via email.
Fiona Byrne is the CBD columnist for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via email.From our partners
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