"Makes me sick": Amanda Keller weighs in on Marty Sheargold controversy
Amanda Keller has unleashed on Marty Sheargold, calling out his "embarrassing" comments about the Matildas.
The radio host reacted to the news that Sheargold has been let go by Triple M after his comments about women's sport caused a wave of backlash online.
Addressing the controversy on her own radio program, Keller took aim at Sheargold and the state of radio in Australia.
“This embarrasses everyone who works on radio because it gives everyone a chance to say commercial radio is filled with old dinosaurs,” Keller began.
“This thinking, this way of thought is so privileged, outdated and boorish.”
She noted that Triple M has honed a reputation as being a home for both sport and comedy, saying, “Well, he’s pissed over both. He really has. And he’s punched down at women.”
She called his comments “outdated, dumb, disrespectful and incorrect,” and noted that while radio hosts are paid to voice their opinions on-air, “if our network or if our audience say too far, then they’re the arbiters of what we do. And people here have said too far.”
Keller further slammed the industry model, “particularly at Triple M”, of pairing “boorish” male comedians with female co-hosts “whose job it is to say, ‘Oh stop it.’ That is so boring.”
She went on to remind viewers of Sheargold's previous program with Fifi Box, and how Marty admitted himself that he had become "a giant A-hole" on the show.
“He said, ‘I battered that woman down. Show after show. And I don’t blame Fifi for wanting to get out.’ This is what he said at the time,” she claimed.
“And here we are again. How many chances do these men get? I’m hoping that the tide has turned. The outpouring of horror has been so loud.”
Later on in the show, Sheargold’s former colleague Gus Worland joined Amanda to discuss the scandal, praised Triple M’s decision to part ways with the presenter.
Worland, who worked Triple M’s drive shift for three years before Sheargold replaced him, said the comedian had skirted “close to the line many, many times” over the years.
“Firstly, he was wrong yesterday in the information that he gave out. Secondly, the way that he did it made us all feel really, really sad. And I’m glad that they [Triple M] made the decision to give him the flick. The apology was never going to be enough, and we just need to change the way that we look at things at Triple M,” he said.
Image credits: Triple M / Instagram