★★★★★ 0/5

Sam Newman slapped for racist remark

Sam Newman is in trouble with the industry watchdog again, this time over a racist remark made on The Footy Show.

19
Leave a comment

Sam Newman is in trouble with the industry watchdog again, this time over a racist remark made on The Footy Show last September.

During the “Sam’s Mailbag” segment, Newman commented on the marriage of a Malaysian man to a much older woman. On several occasions he likened the man to a “monkey” and said he was “not long out of the forest.”

The Australian Communications and Media Authority found that Newman’s comments were likely to have provoked severe ridicule and breached the commercial television code. It ruled that his repeated references were serious ridicule and did not apply as satire.

Nine has agreed to pay $200,000 to charity in the event of any future breach by Newman.

“Nine’s offer of an enforceable undertaking, whereby it would pay $200,000 to an agreed charity for any future breach by Mr Newman of the code provision, confirms both the seriousness of the breach and the seriousness with which Nine is approaching future compliance,” said ACMA Chairman, Chris Chapman.

“Ridiculing or racially abusing dark-skinned people by comparing them to monkeys has recently received much media attention in Australia, particularly in and around the sporting arena.”

“We believe a sporting commentator such as Mr Newman would have been aware of these incidents and should therefore have been aware that using the word monkey in this manner would be likely to provoke severe ridicule.”

ACMA says GTV Nine also agreed to significant senior management overview of the materials to be used by Newman and a broad-ranging reporting regime and training obligation.

In mid 2009 ACMA instructed Nine to inform it of any complaints it received about the AFL Footy Show or Sam Newman for a period of six months after his 2008 stunt involving a mannequin.

19 Responses

  1. Sam i cant wait to see you run from channel 9 studio in a Collingwood jumper to geelong so you can tell them how shit they are ,im guessing it will take you a couple of weeks to run that distance.

    Good Luck sam

    Cheers Michelle ,B

  3. This Is all quite silly , alot of you folks make him out as a criminal or something , he Is just a TV personality , and what victims ? whatever happenend to freedom of speech ? and quite frankly If you don’t like Sam nor the show just don’t watch .

  4. i agree.. No Sam means no footy show for me.. they tried giving billy brownless the role when sam went through his surgery but it fell flat and was very much pitched towards a G rated family type version of the show.. with sam you get a more spotaneous show bordering on a R rating which is why the majority of its audience want to see how or if he slips up.

  5. Is it possible for many of his victims to sue him, why not.?

    Its disgusting, bulling in all forms. Any one that likes this guy need to have a long hard look at them selves. No wonder footballers are out of control, look at what they look up to.

    Roxy
    Brisbane

  6. Nice to ACMA quick ruling.
    Why does it take so long ?
    Isn’t it about time that the punishment reallt hurt the network – block/ban them for using advertising during primetime. Hurt them in the hip pocket and maybe, just mabe they will cut out the crap (the premeditated crap too)

  8. @Judith , I pointed out No Sam , No more Footy Show because many people love watching and wondering what Sam will say next ( even If we choose not to admit It ) I personally think at times he brings a much needed dose of life to aussie TV with his dry humour ( but hey that’s just me ),

    Garry lyon and James brayshaw are the ones that need to go , they don’t know how to control Sam If he does at times go too far and that’s half the problem with the show , and this Is also why Eddie Mcguire was good as the host cause he knew how to deal with Sam.

    I agree ( this could be a ratings ploy) that more people will watch this week to get Sams reaction to this , ( the ones that love Sam and the show and … the ones that claim they never watch it .

    Oh and Judith It would be a bad thing If there was no Sam or The Footy show ( come on admit It , you like many others who claim your dislike to It would then be complaining that It’s not on anymore ) .

  10. how is this any different to when he calls jason dunstall a gorilla all the time. like usual political correctness has reared it’s ugly head and this happened last year and this mob bringing up stuff that has happened in the past. if they were so offended by this at the time why didn’t they fine fine them than

  12. Sadly, this is more publicity for the footy show. The ratings will probably rise this week. It says a lot about the mentality of the viewership of this show.

  14. Every time a Sam (insert name here – Ben, Matty etc) is signed for a multi million dollar fee we know how hypocritical the network is. Is racism, sexism and misogyny all they have to offer in light entertainment? Apart from being offensive, it’s just plain boring. Muat try harder to find talented, intelligent, humourous presenters.

  15. Shannon Butler says:
    September 7, 2010 at 12:18 pm
    What ever people think of Sam Newman , the bottom line Is , No Sam , means No Footy show .

    And that would be a bad thing why??????

  19. If you want to see what ABC’s Media Watch had to say about it: bit.ly/mHMyp
    That was four days after that episode of ‘The Footy Show’ aired.
    ACMA’s ruling comes two weeks short of *one year* since that episode aired.
    I hope they’re much more swift if Sam re-offends.

Leave a Reply