Hard News by Russell Brown

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Hard News: Veitch

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  • richard,

    "If I did anyone wrong, I'm sorry".

    He all took a leaf out of the OJ playbook and said he was going to devote himself to find the "real abuser".

    I wonder if he is really willing not just to threaten legal action, but to take the stand?

    Not looking for New Engla… • Since Nov 2006 • 268 posts Report Reply

  • Hadyn Green,

    He wasn't a very good broadcaster, can we use that to ban him? (joke, please don't sue)

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 2090 posts Report Reply

  • Tristan,

    The more I watch Susan Boyle the more I get the nagging feeling it was staged...

    Paul Potts was on DWTS this week and I watched his clip again a few days ago...


    with this performance they spent more time getting sneering crowd shots and judges reactions before hand...they also started appluding almost as soon as she started sining rather than waiting for a few bars in shocked silence like they did with paul.

    I get the feeling that the produces knew how good she was and told the judges to ham it up and as for the crowd shots, they could have been taken at anytime...

    Do you think the producers of Britan's got talents would set up another 'paul potts' moment for ratings? Well the fact that I can't write that off tells you all that needs to be said about reailty TV

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 221 posts Report Reply

  • BlairMacca,

    and I still find it moving

    I think reading her story makes it even more amazing and poignant.

    Of course on Breakfast yesterday morning (why do I watch it) Paul Henry cued in with his now standard character assassination along the lines of" she's unemployed, well she must be if she looks like that." Honestly how is this vile man still on television?

    Wellington • Since Apr 2007 • 208 posts Report Reply

  • BlairMacca,

    The more I watch Susan Boyle the more I get the nagging feeling it was staged...

    Probably true, but I think she (and Paul Potts) deserve to milk it for all she can get rather than the usual assembly line of reality stars

    Wellington • Since Apr 2007 • 208 posts Report Reply

  • ScottY,

    He all took a leaf out of the OJ playbook and said he was going to devote himself to find the "real abuser".

    Maybe like OJ he'll write a book. He could call it "If I Kicked Her." Because he doesn't appear to have taken genuine responsibility for the appalling thing he did. That speaks a lot to his character.

    My other objection to Veitch is that he's a boofhead. Probably not relevant to the debate, but a good reason to keep him off the telly.

    West • Since Feb 2009 • 794 posts Report Reply

  • Public Servant on a tea-break.,

    I will be very interested to watch the discussion page on this matter.

    Yesterday, I held my nose, and checked the NZ herald's 'Your views' thread on this subject. There seemed to be a number of commentators on that thread who said essentially 'I don't watch sports, or Veitch, but he has done his time, and now should return to broadcasting'.

    http://blogs.nzherald.co.nz/blog/your-views/2009/4/16/would-you-see-tony-veitch-return-television/?c_id=1501154&objectid=10566929

    The comments seemed almost as if they came from the same PR office, they were so similar, striking the same core message.

    I'm wondering if the same will happen here.

    Wellington • Since Apr 2008 • 67 posts Report Reply

  • ScottY,

    Honestly how is this vile man still on television?

    Because he's so vile. I have workmates who love him because he's so utterly offensive.

    West • Since Feb 2009 • 794 posts Report Reply

  • LegBreak,

    And it’s interesting that Graham Henry has come out praising Veitch for not climbing into him after the World Cup failure.

    Probably not relevant to this debate, but it shows he’s rubbish as a journalist too.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 1162 posts Report Reply

  • Gareth Ward,

    The more I watch Susan Boyle the more I get the nagging feeling it was staged...

    Yes, very true. I think everyone bar the judges had already had a "taste" to get her on the stage (I doubt anyone that wants to can just rock up and sing/yell/swear without a producer-filter). The views that this woman somehow wouldn't be able to sing because she looked, well, pretty average really seems overly managed to replicate Potts as well.


    Re Powershop, Russell perhaps you should suggest to your Pioneer partner Mr Farrar that he should disclose his involvement in promotional activity before writing a glowing, seemingly-independent blog post. Just for his own credibility.
    Powershop are also doing this - presumedly that may preclude involvement in your promotion but pretty damn worthwhile.

    Auckland, NZ • Since Mar 2007 • 1727 posts Report Reply

  • geoff wood,

    Must be a dilemma for the Sensible Senticing dudes, given that most are rednecks themselves, or religo fundies who think it's OK to whack the missus anyway, 'cos the bible says so.

    geoff

    Porirua • Since Apr 2009 • 2 posts Report Reply

  • FletcherB,

    My other objection to Veitch is that he's a boofhead. Probably not relevant to the debate, but a good reason to keep him off the telly.

    You cant use that against him, I thought you had to be a boofhead to be a sports broadcaster?

    West Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 893 posts Report Reply

  • Simon Pound,

    the 'your views' are fascinating - and as terrifying as ever

    As far as I can see there are two ways Veitch could have handled this - he could have come out and said:
    "A terrible thing happened and I am sorry. I pleaded guilty because, although I didn't mean for it to happen, a terrible thing did happen and I do regret it."

    Or - he could come out, like he has, and said that
    he was forced into it by her actions and it was so hard on him, and he is going to sue the media and he had heaps of evidence on her and he wishes he could tell his side of the story and he is so angry and had such a hard time oh and "I had to put my fingers in my ears." ...

    To me - one of these approaches is the one that a man who realised it isn't ok to break a woman's back would take, and the other, well the other is not how any man I would respect would act.

    MFAK • Since Nov 2006 • 20 posts Report Reply

  • Damian Christie,

    I agree, the main message I got from watching the Close Up interview last night, was that he wanted people to find an excuse for, rather than excuse him for, his actions.

    He seems unable to say "I did wrong, sorry" and leave it at that. I remember his first media conference where he said something along the lines of "there is no excuse for what I have done" before listing about half a dozen supposedly mitigating factors, "I was tired, I'd been working too hard" etc. Shut the Fuck Up.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 1164 posts Report Reply

  • Steve Barnes,

    Paul Henry cued in with his now standard character assassination along the lines of" she's unemployed, well she must be if she looks like that." Honestly how is this vile man still on television?

    Maybe like OJ he'll write a book. He could call it "If I Kicked Her." Because he doesn't appear to have taken genuine responsibility for the appalling thing he did. That speaks a lot to his character.

    Tony Veitch and Paul Henry in the same thread, again I suspect.
    So, when Tony writes the book about how much he has suffered. He'll rock on up to Breakfast and Paul Henry will slap him on the back telling him how he understands what men have to put up with and that "The B***ch" deserved it for being so pushy.
    And then we get to see the back of the two biggest jokes on TV.

    Peria • Since Dec 2006 • 5521 posts Report Reply

  • Stewart,

    Re Veitch... The point that I found most compelling was when his victim indicated that he had expressed plenty of remorse, but that the remorse was for the negative consequences the whole sorry affair had had on him rather than remorse for what he did to her .

    He gets no sympathy in our house.

    Te Ika A Maui - Whakatane… • Since Oct 2008 • 577 posts Report Reply

  • ScottY,

    Must be a dilemma for the Sensible Senticing dudes

    No dilemma, Geoff. We aren't allowed to suggest there were three "strikes".

    West • Since Feb 2009 • 794 posts Report Reply

  • Danielle,

    I think everyone bar the judges had already had a "taste" to get her on the stage

    That's how all those shows work. I remember reading that American Idol contestants, for example, are weeded into three groups before the judges even lay eyes on them. The middle group - the unexceptional ones - never see the judges at all, while the other two groups - 'good singers' and 'deluded/crazy/taking the piss people' get to go to the audition room we see on the telly. In some cases, the producers use what I call The Old Switcheroo Effect - someone you think is going to be part of the deluded group actually turns out to be pretty fabulous. The Old Switcheroo Effect makes more sense in a Britain's Got Talent scenario (although in the latest season of American Idol a comedian who was clearly taking the piss made it all the way to the top 24 - he was a good singer, oddly enough).

    In sum: I know I was manipulated out the wazoo with that clip of Elizabeth Boyle, but I still bawled. :)

    Veitch: ick. (Is that slanderous?)

    Charo World. Cuchi-cuchi!… • Since Nov 2006 • 3828 posts Report Reply

  • simon g,

    Two thoughts:

    He (or his lawyer) lost me when they wheeled out the celebrity whanau. Once upon a time you called on the parish priest or your old school teacher for a character reference. But I'm really not inclined to doff my cap to the opinions of people who happen to make a living from the telly or sport instead of plumbing or dentistry.

    Second: Now that our broadcasters have conducted extensive, probing interviews with the two protagonists, is there any chance they could start doing the same thing with our politicians?

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 1333 posts Report Reply

  • Jean Hughes,

    well Mr Vile veitch has gained online immortaity in the Urban Dictionary - will he also sue them?
    link text

    hope this posts.

    Mangere • Since Nov 2006 • 89 posts Report Reply

  • Public Servant on a tea-break.,

    "To me - one of these approaches is the one that a man who realised it isn't ok to break a woman's back would take, and the other, well the other is not how any man I would respect would act."

    Entirely right Mr Pound. My impression is we have seen a PR campaign to protect a media asset. And a vicious campaign, in which Veitch's victim, who seems to have been left with ongoing suffering, has been roundly attacked as part of the plan to protect Veitch.

    I'd hate it to happen to someone I cared about. I hate to see it happen to anyone at all.

    Wellington • Since Apr 2008 • 67 posts Report Reply

  • James Littlewood*,

    Phrase of the day around my workplace:

    "It wasn't me. And it never will be me."

    Well la-de-fucking-da. If it wasn't him, after a guilty plea and all, then who the hell was it?

    On t'other hand, my colleague copped one glance of the Herald lying on the smoko room table and jabbed her finger down hard on his mug, shouting "hate!hate!hate!" For a moment, I felt the same twinge of sympathy that I felt for Sherman McCoy, Tom Wolfe's Wall St character, who experienced a global media network coursing throught the very fibre of his central nervous system.

    His media minders have a record of doing great work for genuine media victims, people who've awoken to find themselves far from the spotlight and little to leverage. But this time, with celebrity endorsements masquerading as character witness reports, it seems his friends are doing him a profound disservice: helping him believe the greatest untruth of all:

    "It wasn't me, and it never will be me."

    Given a motivated and emotioanlly well adjusted subject, self-insight can still take years.

    Auckland • Since Mar 2008 • 410 posts Report Reply

  • B Jones,

    To me - one of these approaches is the one that a man who realised it isn't ok to break a woman's back would take, and the other, well the other is not how any man I would respect would act.

    Almost. I think the way this one goes is that "of course it's not ok to break someone's back, but I'm an ok person, therefore I must have either had a good reason or it wasn't me (in the sense that I'm not myself when I'm enraged)". Thus an abusive but morally aware person talks themselves into treating their victim even worse in order to protect their vision of themselves as a moral person.

    Not how anyone I respect would act, but it's common as hell. A lighter version is skewered by the Conchords - "you're so hot, you're making me sexist. Bitch."

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 976 posts Report Reply

  • philipmatthews,

    Those were perfectly pitched interviews by John Campbell. To me, the saddest moment in them was Kirsten saying she had been misdiagnosed at the hospital because of the lie she had to tell to protect Tony. Tragic and appalling. "It was about power and control," she said. Still is, perhaps: his answers, years later, are full of language about how he "reacted", was "allowed" to behave like this, directing us to shift the blame to some other entity.

    Christchurch • Since Nov 2007 • 656 posts Report Reply

  • Alastair Jamieson,

    I was astonished by the downplaying of the injuries that were inflicted as well as the tone of comments made by Veitch's lawyer Stuart Grieve on Checkpoint last night, after the court hearing (audio here):

    We were ready to brawl... we would've been brawling next week... there would've been blood on the carpet

    With such a blithe and totally inappropriate attitude from the defence, there's clearly a frighteningly long way to go in accepting and understanding that violence is not OK in some quarters.

    On a happier note, thanks to all concerned for the PA Social last night - great to meet some of you at last....

    Auckland • Since Jan 2007 • 99 posts Report Reply

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