2SM faces backlash after John Laws tells child sex abuse victim to go ‘have a beer’
Radio broadcaster 2SM is again facing a public backlash after Mornings show host John Laws told an 80-year-old man, who had told him he was a victim of child sex abuse, to ‘go and have a beer’ and not be a ‘wet blanket’.
In an 14 minute phone call on-air Laws spoke to caller ‘Brian’ about his experience of abused as a child in the 1940s, at age 11 in Goondiwindi in Queensland and then when he was 14.
Over the course of the interview Laws recommended he “go to the pub and have a lemonade”, after the caller informed the host he did not drink alcohol and concluded the discussion by forcing the clearly distraught man to thank him for taking the call.
Isn’t it lucky no one listens to Laws any more.
How pathetic that you decline to comment, you might as well just say that you are proud of what this imbecile says on your radio station. Take a stand, don’t worry about how many listeners you might lose, and think of the respect you might gain from people around Australia that feel deeply about the issues that John Laws thinks are not worthy. Spare a thought for the man that worked up the courage to phone this idiot, to pour his heart out about the horrid things that happened to him as a young man, all to have someone ridicule and embarrass him on national radio. What would he have thought about himself after hanging up that phone? Do you think he felt great? Or pleased that he shared such a deep secret? Meanwhile John Laws probably got pats on the back for having a “great show”. Don’t be frightened of this poor excuse of a human being and sack him. I’m sure he wont have to live in a caravan and be frightened to talk to other people. But geez, it might make him think a bit of how he can be a better human!
Dan – sadly not true, the old dinosaur still rates #1 here in Newcastle on 2HD, which is a very poor reflection on the idiots here in Newcastle.
You should be ashamed of yourself. What type of a horrible person says the things, you said to this man who was abused as a child and then asks for thanks? Things said like that can drive an already unstable person to breaking point. Had this of been a family member or friend of yours, would you have said the same thing? I hope your proud of what a pig you sounded like, as your words may have damaged him just as much as what he had already been through. A young child is an innocent, and can be to scared to fight back, freeze up with fear and should not be questioned with there response to these situations, as they are still to immature to handle a situation that an adult would even struggle with.
I have never responded to anything like this, but I was so overwhelmed with absolute anger to your lack of judgement and humanity. If you truly can’t see what a horrible thing you did, there is no help for you. I pity anyone who has to tolerate you in there life.
Most disgusting conversation I have ever listened to – surely no one can continue to employ this man
Like a time-warp worm hole, Laws provides a perfect example of WHY victims of abuse decades ago did not speak out or report the offences. Back then the Laws world view and attitudes were pretty much all pervasive.
Really feel for the man who made this call. How sad that once again he has been betrayed and his suffering dismissed. While what happened in the 1940s cannot be undone, surely now in2015 there is some better way of assisting this person other than being offloaded to the ministrations of Laws “handmaidens” (and why don’t these employees have a job title commensurate with their responsibilities at a professional leading radio station? )
There is just so much wrong on so many levels……..
Hopefully there is someone in that radio station with some degree of awareness of the crippling nature of the subject matter and some degree of humanity and has sought to get professional help for ‘Brian’. At 80 and according to the information he gave the moron with the microphone, he has no capacity to source help himself. Laws has no doubt just added another layer to ‘Brian’s’ misery. One of those stories that is traumatic to read knowing the effect that this level of ignorance brings and that in this day and age, people as advantaged as Laws and radio executives still feel comfortable in airing such shite. Shame on all involved. Best wishes ‘Brian’ – it was never your fault.
I missed his ‘handmaidens’ update – “We took care of him as best we could’ – no you lot didn’t! Get off you arses, go and have a cup of tea with him in his caravan and offer him your heartfelt apologies for being an ignorant, cruel asses.
John Laws you are a disgrace to the human race. Your treatment of this man was little short of abuse. How dare you. What sort of a person are you?!
2SM you should be absolutely ashamed to call this person your employee. Your sponsors should take a good look at who/what they are endorsing. I certainly will be boycotting any products and services from these businesses in future.
Why is John Laws still relevant to today’s radio culture and overall society?
Answers on the back of a postcard….
2SM Super Network? Ah, I don’t think so. John Laws was a nasty person decades ago and just keeps getting worse, what the hell is wrong with the “listeners” he continues to drag with him from network to network? Disgusting.
Be ashamed be very ashamed what you lot have done! Disgusting absolutely despicable by both john and the radio station!
Child abuse is a highly emotional issue, so it’s difficult to offer a view contrary to those above, but I think a lot of people are missing where Laws was coming from. You have to listen to the full 14 minute conversation to get the context. If you rely just on the media reports of the conversation, you will immediately wish to denounce Laws.
The way I heard it, Laws was reacting to the old man’s current predicament and attempting to offer some practical suggestions. The old man is 80, has led a miserable life, never had a girlfriend (or any intimate relationship), lives as a hermit in a caravan in the bush, and hates everyone.
Laws took the controversial approach of asking the man to assess why he didn’t have any friends (he’s a wet blanket – i.e. no fun to be around – he hates everyone, he doesn’t want to get out and meet people) and challenging him to do something about it (stop being a wet blanket, loosen up, smile a bit, go to the pub and mix with people).
The lemonade comment only came out in reponse to the man’s excuse that he couldn’t take the advice of going to the pub because he didn’t drink. The “say thank you” comment was made in response to the man’s beligerent attitude and refusal to respond to Laws’ questions. He was just trying to wrap up the call after 14 minutes, realizing he wasn’t going to get anywhere.
Tough love is a controversial approach in counseling. It has its adherents and detractors. The man rang a radio station, not a sexual abuse hotline, so you have to keep this in mind when you assess the reception he received. John Laws is an older man himself. His own life hasn’t been a bed of roses and he’s from the old school of knuckling down and getting things done rather than having group hugs.
In short, he was trying to focus on a solution going forward, rather than dwelling on the past. A sexual abuse counsellor would no doubt say that you can’t move on without first addressing the past and validating the victim’s feelings, but Laws is not a counsellor.
According to Laws, the show’s producers did put the man in touch with the Salvation Army and Bravehearts off-air.
The tragic thing is that this interview clearly shows how a life can ruined by abuse that happened decades before, yet Laws failed to see it at all. To ask whether he ‘kicked and screamed’ at the time, a poor frightened little kid of 11 years and again alone and isolated on a farm at 14 years was the most outrageous comment I have heard in a very long time. This interview left me in total disgust.
Helen, you may not have heard the part where John Laws revealed that when he was 10 years old he was in a public toilet and a man was about to sexually attack him. He screamed and yelled and the attack was averted – hence his question to the caller.
For information re John Law’s (Radio 2SM, own shock exploits in past suggest reading Author Tim Hall’s Biography wriiten in the l980’s… “Life by Misadventure!” ..Misadventure!!!