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3AW drops football commentator Scott Cummings over sexual assault comments

Melbourne-based radio station 3AW has responded quickly to reports that football commentary contributor Scott Cummings joked about sexual assault on his Humpday podcast.

In the episode, which was released yesterday morning, ex-AFL players Cummings and Dane Swan make a series of inflammatory comments around definitions on Urban Dictionary.

When discussing one definition which involves a man performing a sex act on a sleeping woman, the pair, and producer Ralph Horowitz, who was formerly a producer for the Footy Show, laugh. Another definition was described as “not too bad” by Swan.

3AW was quick to act, releasing a statement that said the station would be terminating its relationship with Cummings.

“3AW is disgusted by comments made by one of its football commentary contributors, Scott Cummings, and published within a personal podcast. Although the comments were never aired on 3AW, we believe there is no platform appropriate for such remarks,” read the statement.

“Sexual assault is never a laughing matter. Jokes about sexual assault are never okay.”

3AW is the most-listened to station in Melbourne, according to GfK ratings, holding a 15.1% share in the last survey released in June.

Cummings doubled down on the comments on social media, tweeting that although he does not condone violence against women, he did not think the comments on the Humpday podcast would incite such behaviour.

 

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ICYMI #humpday #scottyandswanny

A post shared by Scotty and Swanny (@scottyandswanny) on

Two hours later, Cummings announced he would be leaving his own podcast.

The post to the Instagram account for the podcast states that it was “fun while it lasted”.

3AW acknowledged the apology from Cummings about his comments, which he posted on Twitter, but said that the fact the podcast was still live shows “poor judgement”.

“As such, we have decided to terminate our relationship with Mr Cummings. He will not appear on 3AW Football again this year,” read the statement.

“We would like to take this opportunity to direct people to Our Watch’s ‘Doing Nothing Does Harm’ campaign — When you see disrespect towards women, do something.”

At the time of publishing, the podcast is still live. Both Horowitz and the Twitter account for the podcast are currently still retweeting support for Cummings and the podcast.

The Humpday podcast team were embroiled in a Twitter scandal last week with the hosts of the Shameless podcast. Swan has since claimed on Twitter that the podcast will be back in a month.

Swan also made headlines late last week for setting up a Go Fund Me to raise $3m so he could party in Las Vegas as a response to Israel Folau’s Go Fund Me efforts being shut down.

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