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Studio 10 racism row fires up between Yumi Stynes and Kerri-Anne Kennerley

Yumi Stynes was set to appear on Studio 10 after her racism row with Kerri-Anne Kennerley, but said she had good reason to cancel.

Nick BondNick Bond
@bondnickbond
8 min read
January 30, 2019 - 1:06PM
Yumi Stynes and Kerri-Anne Kennerly argue after "Invasion Day" protests

Yumi Stynes has said she refused to appear on Studio 10 yesterday, after her fiery clash with Kerri-Anne Kennerley, as it “would have been walking into a trap”.

“I was all set to go in, and then (on Monday) night I was just reflecting on the people they had booked to come and talk, most of whom were quite right wing, and I just felt like I would have been, by going along to that, I would have been walking into a trap,” Stynes said on her KIIS FM show The 3pm Pick Up yesterday afternoon.

The race row between Stynes and Kennerley began on Monday when the panel was discussing the weekend’s “Invasion Day” protests, in which thousands of Australians took to the street to call for changing the date of Australia Day.

Kennerley asked whether any of the protesters had “been out to the Outback, where children, babies, five-year-olds are being raped? Their mothers are being raped, their sisters are being raped. What have you done?”

Stynes said her statements were “not even faintly true” and sounded “quite racist”.

“Keep going then, because every time you open your mouth you’re sounding racist,” said Stynes.

Studio 10 then tried to hose down the racism row by enlisting two prominent indigenous community leaders to join the debate yesterday, all while protesters gathered outside Ten’s Sydney headquarters calling for Kennerley to apologise.

One of the signs was emblazoned with the words “Kerry Anne KKKennerley”.

Kennerley blasted Stynes for her “unprofessionalism” for failing to turn up to Studio 10 yesterday. Instead, Stynes appeared on The Kyle and Jackie O Show later that morning and on her own radio show in the afternoon.

Stynes used her radio show to claim Kennerley made an “insensitive” call about Indigenous people that never made it to air on Monday.

“I was calling her out on that and her discussion of things like humpys and she muttered — it’s not in any of the tapes — but she did mutter it on the show that Indigenous people just need to get over it instead of protesting Australia Day, which I thought was spectacularly insensitive,” Stynes said.

Stynes also claimed Kennerley had “a bit of history on this stuff” and needed to reflect on her views.

“I think she’s a lovely person, she’s a legendary presenter but her views need to be updated, it’s like the people who honestly didn’t believe that gay marriage would happen,” she said.

Stynes said the media attention and trolling around her comments to Kennerley had been “quite stressful,” but she stood by what she said.

Yumi Stynes has claimed Kennerley had ‘a bit of history on this stuff’. Picture: Studio 10
Yumi Stynes has claimed Kennerley had ‘a bit of history on this stuff’. Picture: Studio 10

“The fact is I’ve looked back at that tape of my appearance on Studio 10 yesterday and I’m pretty happy with what I’ve said,” Stynes said. “I think I could have been a bit more articulate but I don’t think in any way that anything I said was wrong.”

Stynes has copped plenty of criticism, receiving disgusting death threats from social media trolls.

“Fun times,” she captioned a photo, showing an anonymous troll telling her to “promptly kill your self.”

‘NO SARAH, LET ME SPEAK’

Greens MP Lidia Thorpe and Alice Springs councillor and Country Liberal Party candidate Jacinta Nampijinpa appeared on yesterday’s show discussing the issues raised on Monday.

Ms Nampijinpa was live in the studio and Thorpe via satellite from Melbourne.

It was a tense and lengthy debate as the pair butted heads on a range of issues, and Kennerley chastising host Sarah Harris when she attempted to enter the fray.

“No Sarah, let me speak,” she said, asking Ms Thorpe to give her a practical plan to help remote indigenous communities. Ms Thorpe called on Kennerley to “give up her white privilege” during the tense encounter.

Meanwhile, a group of protesters gathered outside Ten’s Sydney studio yesterday morning:

Protesters outside Channel 10 this morning.
Protesters outside Channel 10 this morning.

In vision, obtained by news.com.au, an indigenous protester can be seen speaking passionately to the crowd via megaphone at the front steps of Ten’s Pyrmont offices.

“(Kennerley) is in no position to make comments like that about our people. It’s culturally inappropriate,” she says, to cheers from the crowd.

Studio 10 racism row

ROUND 2 ON RADIO

After Stynes had cancelled yesterday’s appearance on Studio 10, she appeared as a guest on Kyle and Jackie O’s KIIS FM radio show to address the controversy.

Stynes said she didn’t think the fallout would hurt Kennerley.

“She’s been around forever. She’s like a cockroach, she can’t be extinguished. I mean she’s invincible; she’s an Aussie TV legend,” she said.

She said the pair’s stoush “sounds more scary when you read it in the paper later; it sounds more intense and personal than when you’re face-to-face.”

Kyle Sandilands then called Kennerley’s mobile number — and despite being midway through filming today’s episode of Studio 10, she answered.

“I am still deeply offended by being called a racist, which is completely untrue,” Kennerley told Kyle, Jackie O and Stynes.

“Yumi, what the heck are you doing there and why aren’t you in here? I thought you wanted to stay in bed,” she asked, referring to Stynes’ cancelling on Studio 10.

That’s when the conversation got confusing for listeners. As Stynes and Kennerley started to talk over each other, each restating their arguments, listeners heard a series of long beeps, their debate censored.

“You’re saying those people shouldn’t be protesting. It’s an insensitive thing to say. Drawing on your own past as a daughter of migrants is a really wack thing to say,” Stynes said at one point.

“I am very sorry Yumi that you didn’t come in to be part of this, because it is an important debate. I was highly offended and hurt by it, but I’m probably way too sensitive,” Kennerley said, before abruptly hanging up to return to her on-air duties.

“Hey Kyle, do you know what I love? White people telling me about racism,” Stynes quipped after Kennerley was off the call.

Jackie O apologised to listeners for the disjointed interview: “There’s quite a few things we had to beep out there … sorry guys.”

‘I WON’T BE COMING IN’

Yumi Stynes on yesterday’s program.
Yumi Stynes on yesterday’s program.

Posting to the Instagram account for her cookbook Zero F**ks Cooking, Stynes revealed that she was booked to appear on the show today — but had given herself a day off.

“I was booked come in to showcase a recipe from one of my cookbooks … INSTEAD, I decided to give myself the day off. This is not because of what happened today between Kerri-Anne and I. I am feeling stable and calm and like I’m on the right side of history. Everything is OK. I’m not coming in because I really urgently want to lie around and do nothing. It’s very important,” she wrote.

“I told the new producer Tamara that I won’t be coming in tomorrow. I also gave her the number of my good friend James Mathison who kindly offered to fill in for me as he is available and has done the show a bunch of times and therefore I would not be leaving the hardworking team in the lurch. I have no idea if she will take me up on the suggestion and it’s not my problem.”

Host Sarah Harris addressed Stynes’ absence from the panel, saying they “wanted her here” and explaining that the panel would delve further in to the issue later in the show — this time with indigenous voices leading the discussion.

Kennerley delivered a message to the absent Stynes.

“Yumi, I respect you want to lie around and do nothing, but not turning up for work when you’ve been booked is seriously unprofessional. I have, in my 40 or 50 years of television, twice in all those years not turned up because I was flat-out sick. I just don’t get people who don’t turn up.”

Kennerley then addressed being labelled a “racist” by Stynes.

“Throwing words around can be dangerous and very hurtful. More importantly, it is detrimental to solving this horrible issue.

“I am, always have been, and always will be, Australian.”

Former Studio 10 executive producer Rob McKnight and host Sarah Harris.
Former Studio 10 executive producer Rob McKnight and host Sarah Harris.

‘THIS IS WHY I NEVER LET HER ON STUDIO 10’

Former Studio 10 executive producer Rob McKnight has come out in support of Kennerley in an opinion piece published overnight titled Today is exactly why I never let Yumi Stynes on Studio 10. In the piece, McKnight acknowledges that he has never met Stynes but reveals he “never allowed her” to appear on Studio 10 during his four-year tenure as EP.

He accused Stynes of throwing her co-star “under the bus” — “and that’s not cool”.

“Labels like (racist) have the ability to damage a career and it looked like Yumi just didn’t care,” he writes, declaring that he’d “always had a bad feeling about a personality like Yumi’s being on morning television.”

McKnight’s views were met with a mixed response on social media.

‘I STATED A FACT’

Kerri-Anne Kennerley. Picture: Justin Lloyd.
Kerri-Anne Kennerley. Picture: Justin Lloyd.

Kennerley hit back at the criticism, telling Ben Fordham yesterday on 2GB that her comments about sexual abuse in outback Aboriginal communities had “nothing to do” with racism.

“I can only assume that Yumi doesn’t know it is a fact of life because I never made a racist comment,” she said.

“I don’t think I’m superior, I don’t think anyone else is inferior, but I just stated a fact.”

After doubling down on her comments, Kennerley went on to say she was still offended by Stynes’ accusations she had sounded racist.

“I’m still offended by it, because that sort of headline you and I both know being in the media we will see that again and again, and as soon as you Google something Kerri-Anne’s a racist,” she said.

“I do take very big personal exception to being called a racist.”

Kennerley dodged Fordham’s question on whether Stynes had apologised after their confrontation.

“I’m old enough to know, we’re big girls, we can get on with it,” she said. “I haven’t spoken to her about it because work finishes off you go and you get on with our real lives.

“But I do feel concerned that somebody won’t read it, won’t hear it, won’t understand what the discussion was about.”

DEBATE RAGES

Kerri-Anne Kennerley during yesterday’s episode.
Kerri-Anne Kennerley during yesterday’s episode.

The disagreement between Kennerley and Stynes spilt over to the final segment of Monday’s episode, with host Sarah Harris attempting to play peacemaker between the pair.

As the episode ended, Harris addressed the earlier “fiery” conflict, saying they “make no apologies for it.”

“Yumi and I had a difference of opinion, but that’s called a mature society where you can have different opinions without name-calling. It’s called TOLERANCE,” said Kennerley.

Harris and Joe Hildebrand both repeatedly stressed that they were “all friends”, before Kennerley called on Stynes, who had remained silent.

“Yumi, I’m looking for a comment back here.”

“Well, you did say name-calling …” said Stynes.

“You called me a racist,” said Kennerley.

“And you are implying that I did the wrong thing by saying that to you,” Stynes continued — promising they would continue the debate in the next episode, and even offering Kennerley a sarcastic-sounding “love you” through gritted teeth.

Studio 10 addresses earlier conflict

After the episode, debate raged on social media:

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Original URL: https://www.news.com.au/entertainment/tv/morning-shows/yumi-stynes-cancel-studio-10-appearance-not-my-problem/news-story/630554e40289b4e0e82ced293361dbf7