Racial vilification on commercial stations
As government attacks on the ABC grow, what are the authorities doing about racial vilification on commercial radio?
Earlier this year (2005) The Australian Broadcasting Authority made a formal finding that commercial broadcaster Festival City Broadasters ( Radio 5AA in Adelaide) broadcast a program, in the Bob Francis Show “which was likely to have incited or perpetuated hatred against or vilified Aboriginal people on the basis of their race”.

In this program one of the guests said that if he had been a policeman present at a riot by Aboriginal people in Sydney which followed the death of an Aboriginal teenager, he would have emptied his gun into the crowd and would have made sure he did not miss. More recently a guest on the Howard Sattler show (6PR in Perth) complained that the treatment of Aboriginal offenders was too soft, and then said “Nigger, nigger pull the trigger”. This comment resulted in general laughter from participants in the program.

The statements on the Howard Sattler program were exposed on the ABC’s Media Watch on 15 August. However the incidents on the Bob Francis program have received little reporting in the mainstream media. The Advertiser, the only daily newspaper in Adelaide, the home town of Bob Francis, carried a short report, but gave no details about the contents of the program.

The Advertiser article quoted Francis as saying “there’s no way that I’m a racist”. I suggest that readers should make their own judgement about that claim. The full text of the ABA report can be found on the ABA site but this summary will give readers a good idea of the content of the program.
The program in question related to a riot by Aboriginal people in Redfern following the death, in controversial circumstances, of Aboriginal teenager TJ Hickey, 17. There were allegations that police was pursuing him at the time of his death.

According to the ABA report Bob Francis introduced the issue like this:

The Aboriginal elders – have a listen to this;listen, listen, sit and listen; put your ears close to the radio – the Aboriginal elders in Sydney have called the riots in Sydney a ‘display of grief’. [Blows a ‘raspberry’] How dare you call it a display of grief? Your dirty, rotten bastards. Getting out there and fighting the police in a situation like that, and calling that a ‘display of grief’? It was a display of the worst type of behaviour I’ve ever seen occurring in Australia here. If you’re a member of an Aboriginal community, give me a call and let’s have an argument about it.

Shortly after Francis related a comment from a listener. The listener, according to Francis, had said:

You ever noticed how the police have to talk to leaders of the Aboriginal community after periods of trouble involving Aborigines? Yet if white Australians were involved, do police talk to leaders of the white community? Seems odd to me, what do you think?

Francis responded:

Steve, you’ve got me, you smooth-talking devil. I can’t believe that, it really bugs me. People are so bloody nice, we’re getting so bloody do-goody-goody. And we need to stick it right up them as far as I’m concerned.

The presenter invited listeners to phone in, and later the following exchange took place between listener Keith and the presenter:

KEITH: They should just demolish it (Redfern, where the riot occurred) and relocate the people.
BOB FRANCIS: The do-gooders would move in and say, “Where do you put those people?” I don’t care!

According to the ABA report Francis again referred to the alleged description of the Redfern riot as a display of grief by blowing another raspberry and saying “Display of grief! In your bum!”

In an exchange with another caller, Michael, Francis supported statements from Michael to the effect that Aboriginal people were reluctant to work.
When Michael referred to the highly respected Aboriginal leader Charles Perkins, Francis commented “Pig’s bum”.
Another caller, Gary, suggested that Redfern should be bulldozed, and remarked that if he, Gary, had been a policeman on duty at the riot he would have emptied his gun into the crowd. Here is the ABA’s account of the exchange:

GARY: Bob, on the ferals of Redfern, mate, let me tell you if I was, or if I or yourself were in power in New South Wales, those undesirables would be locked up, no doubt about it.
FRANCIS: The whole of Redfern -
GARY: Should be bulldozed.
FRANCIS: Should be absolutely bulldozed. And I want to hear from all the do-gooders who say, “Oh, goodness me, what would you do with all the people who live there?” Bloody stiff cheese!

Later in the conversation

GARY: You and I pay taxes and our tax goes to people like them, OK? That aren’t prepared to work. They’re not prepared to work.

Francis later commented that he felt “sorry for the poor bloody police” and Gary commented:

GARY: I tell you what, mate, if I was a copper over there and had emptied a few – er – few rounds of my firearm, mate, let me tell you, I wouldn’t have missed any of them.
FRANCIS: Well, mate, you see, the point is, you can’t do that. Everything is so touchy in situations like that.

Another caller, Anton returned to the allegation that Aboriginal people are lazy.

ANTON: These hapless, useless, lazy people, if they don’t like the system which supports them, which gives them medical health, which gives them education, which gives them housing, gives them all the facilities all we taxpayers take for granted, if they don’t bloody like it, why don’t they go back to the bloody bush!
FRANCIS: Well, you see, that would be classified as being very – ah – very racist, but I’ve allowed you to say it, because I know that the majority of people in Australia think exactly the way you do. And I’m sick of people being so bloody kind, and nice, and pleasant, and being, you know, politically correct about the whole situation.

In deciding whether to not the broadcast was likely to incite racial hatred the Australian Broadcasting Authority found that:

• The presenter deduced from the Redfern riot a generalised disgrace pertaining to all Aboriginal people.
• The broadcast suggested that laziness was characteristic of all Aboriginal people.
• The broadcast suggested that Aboriginal people were undeserving of sympathy. For example, Francis repeatedly said that he did not care what happened to Aboriginal people if their Redfern homes were demolished.
• The use of pejorative terms and coarse language, while the language in itself may not have offended the programs intended audience, contributed to a highly-charged emotional atmosphere and was a factor contributing to the likely effect of inciting hatred against Aboriginal people.

The ABA found that not only had the station broadcast material that was likely to have incited racial hatred, but that had also failed to respond to a written complaint from a listener who wrote to the station.

What was the punishment for these breaches? The ABA has taken no action, except to find that there were two breaches of the Code of Practice, and to note that Bob Francis, and others will be given “training and assistance” by station 5AA, and that the station will monitor its program output.

In March of 2005, shortly following the broadcast, 5AA topped the radio ratings for Adelaide.

Over in Perth it seems that Howard Sattler  has something of a record when it comes to applauding the death of Aboriginal offenders.

Back in 1990 the then host of Media Watch, Stuart Littlemore reported that six Aboriginal children were joyriding in a stolen car which crashed when being chased by police. All were aged between twelve and fifteen. Three were killed. According to the Media Watch program broadcast in April 1990 Sattler commented:

Well, I say good riddance to bad rubbish. That’s three less car thieves. I think they’re dead and I think that’s good.

In his program broadcast on 2 August 2005, according to Media Watch, Sattler was co-hosting a regular talk back segment with Hughie the cabbie when David phoned in to complain that the law was too soft on Aboriginal offenders. David claimed that he was in a wheelchair and had been speared by an Aborigine who had been sniffing glue. He claimed that the man who speared him had only been sentenced to 100 hours of community service, with no jail time.

On the face of it that is a very light sentence for what appeared to be a serious assault. After Sattler and his co-host agreed with David that the sentence was too light, the Media Watch program quoted David as saying:

Just too soft mate, nigger nigger pull the trigger, far as I’m concerned.

How did Sattler and his co-host respond to this suggestion? The recording played on Media Watch indicates all round laughter and a few “oohs”.

Sattler and his co-host made it clear that it was the guest, David, who made the trigger comment, and not them. However as an experienced and highly paid broadcaster Sattler would have been aware of the effect of the general laughter that was the response to David’s comment. He would also have been aware that he had control of a “dump button”, a 10 second delay system which permits the host to cut off comments of that nature.

The next day Sattler made his excuses. He said that he “inadvertently” allowed the call to go to air. He said that “on reflection” it “could have offended members of the Aboriginal community”.

However it should have been instantly apparent, requiring no reflection at all, that the comment would have, and not could have, offended all decent listeners. Sattler also claimed that neither he, his studio guest or the station supported the callers comments.

Media Watch questioned the credibility of Sattler’s statement, with Liz Jackson asking, after she had re-played the two co-hosts response to David’s comment:

Would you call that support, or just indulgence? It’s certainly not a rebuke.