Backlash over DJ’s sexist tweet
Coast, Joel North part ways
Michelle Hall says she thinks Coast 101.1 did the right thing in parting ways with the DJ who sent a sexist tweet to her daughter on Twitter.
Michelle Hall says she thinks Coast 101.1 did the right thing in parting ways with the DJ who sent a sexist tweet to her daughter on Twitter.
Sarah Hall, 21, sent a tweet inviting people to watch her play a video game on Twitch this week; former Coast DJ Joel North responded “you’d get more viewers if you were stripping.”
She showed the tweet to her mom, who was shocked.
“She’s not a huge Twitter user, and what she tweets about generally are video games, cosplaying, right? So that was the last kind of reaction that she expected to happen,” said her mother.
“I was floored. Absolutely floored. I mean, you see a lot of things on Twitter. You see a lot of things said. But to see that, I was actually floored. So I immediately went and tweeted him, but of course he immediately went and blocked me.”
He sent her a tweet apologizing if her daughter was underage.
“What does her age got to do with anything? Sending a tweet like that is not acceptable no matter any age,” she said. “Yes, it’s worse if she’s underage, but it’s not acceptable for any age,” she said.
Hall said North seemed to revel in the backlash, and even used the attention to promote his podcast, the website on which Joel says he will give a statement early next week in a live podcast.
Hall said in talking with others, she discovered that her daughter isn’t the only one who’s received tweets of the sort from North.
“So the mama bear in me kind of thought, ‘OK, well not only for my daughter’s sake, but for all these other young girls out there who may not be the type to come and show their mother this, or to call him out on it themselves, or to have a mother to call him out on it — I need to at least email the manager of Coast and say, ‘Are you aware of this? Is this condoned?’”
She said she did not ask for North to be fired.
“But apparently my daughter is not the only one, and others then subsequently emailed Coast as well, I found out later.”
She received a response from Coast Friday saying the matter had been dealt with through an internal human resources process, and “the individual in question is no longer employed by Coast Broadcasting Ltd.”
Hall said whether that means he was fired or chose to leave, his actions cost him his job, and she hopes he learns something from the situation.
She said she wants young girls to know they don’t have to accept messages like that.
“You never have to go along with that. You could just ignore that person, you can block that person, you can report that person, but you really have to be able to know within yourself that you’re better than what this person is asking you to do or telling you to do,” she said.
“As for people who make comments like that— why? You’re that desperate for attention?”
North’s Twitter account has since been deleted, but Hall took screen grabs to save the conversation.
She said she would still like to see an apology from North.
“A sincere apology. Not an apology that just says the words, but an apology that he’s actually learned a lesson from this and realizes just how inappropriate it is.”
In an open letter to the St. John’s Status of Women’s Council/Women’s Centre, Coast 101.1 said it had investigated a complaint through internal human resources procedures, and the individual was no longer employed there.
“Coast 101.1 is a community minded radio station and is proud to be part of the lives of those in Newfoundland and Labrador as they listen to our station. An incident occurred which breaches our core values. We acted quickly within our own employee conduct policies and the individual is no longer with the company,” wrote Coast Broadcasting Ltd. president Andrew Bell. “As the owner, I personally apologize to the person who this disrespect has been inflicted upon. We will continue to do our very best to treat people like our neighbours. That’s the Coast way.”
North is expected to make a statement on his podcast early in the week.