Kmart has been slammed for a 'double standard'. Photo / Newscorp
Kmart has been slammed for a 'double standard'. Photo / Newscorp
A Christian was outraged by an "error" on photos he printed in Kmart for his church group. Now a Sunrise host has angrily weighed in.
A Kmart photo kiosk ban on the words "God", "church", "Jesus", "Jewish" and "bible" has been blamed on a software issue, but not everybody is buying it.
A quirk in the system emerged when shoppers tried to add captions to their photographs on Tuesday.
Shoppers Anthony Dorsett and his wife Marelynda were stopped from captioning photographs with the words "church" and "Jesus", the Daily Telegraph reported.
An investigation that followed revealed a perceived bias. Words like "Islam", "Allah" and "Koran" were all permissible.
Kmart responded to the story by denying the ban was intentional. A spokeswoman said it was a "system error and it will be updated overnight".
"It in no way reflects our views as a business," she said.
"At Kmart, we support diversity and inclusiveness irrespective of race, religion, age, gender, ethnicity, ability, appearance or attitude and we want our teams and stores to reflect the communities in which we operate."
The word 'church' was banned from captions while the word 'Mosque' was allowed. Photo / Newscorp
Sunrise host Sam Armytage fired up at Kmart over the incident. Photo / Newscorp
But Sunrise host Sam Armytage called that excuse "rubbish" and her guest, social commentator Jane Caro, said Kmart should apologise.
"They just need to say 'Wow, stupid, sorry. We've fixed it. We didn't mean to give anybody offence'."
Sky News panellist Daisy Cousens took it a step further, calling it a "huge double standard".
Marelynda and Anthony Dorsett said they were "offended" when Kmart photo kiosk banned the words 'Christian', 'God' and 'Jesus'. Photo / Newscorp
The couple were in Kmart printing photos for their church group when the "error" occurred. Photo / Newscorp
"Fair dinkum. What do you say to that? It's like something out of a kind of South Park parody of social justice," she said.
"It's like it's a joke. Sure, they've blamed it on a software error but isn't that what you blame everything on when something goes wrong that's somewhat controversial? This is just unbelievable. It's such a huge double standard."
Dowsett told The Daily Telegraph he was trying to print photographs for his church group.
He said his wife was "offended" and she "thought it was disgusting".
"She is not a snowflake or anything, she doesn't get offended by much but this offended her," he said.
