Sam Newman-gate: More Calls For Sacking, No More Coming On

After “accidentally” saying a female MP was “worthy of coming on” on last week’s edition of The Footy Show, the calls for Sam Newman to take a permanent holiday from the AFL chat show are growing louder.

I think we can safely say, however, that the surprise in this instance is not that such words could accidentally tumble out of Newman’s mouth, but more that he is still on-air in the first place!

Federal Minister for the Status of Women Tanya Plibersek said Newman’s comments were offensive to women.

“No matter what women achieve, some people apparently still see them as sex objects,” she said. “The public response to Sam Newman’s latest outburst shows that most people appreciate how stupid and shallow his comments are.”

And Victorian Workforce Participation Minister Jacinta Allan called on the network to take Newman off air. She said: “Sam operates outside the boundary of good taste. Like most people I find the comments highly inappropriate.”

Public Transport Minister and Western Bulldogs’ No.1 woman ticketholder Lynne Kosky said she had stopped watching The Footy Show because of Newman’s behaviour. Ms Wriedt was a personal friend, she said.

“Paula’s a fantastic person and she just doesn’t deserve it,” she said.

Melbourne Demons board member Karen Hayes said people would hold Newman accountable based on his track record.

“It’s not funny any more,” she said.

While I’m inclined to believe that Newman didn’t actually mean to say he wanted to give Wriedt a pearl necklace, there is such a thing as a Freudian slip and the fact that a) Newman said it and b) his co-panelists heard what they wanted to in what he said suggests that the climate at the Footy Show studios isn’t exactly reconstructed.