Posts by Matthew Poole
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57/43, if memory serves. John looked a bit stunned.
I'm not surprised. Must be quite a shock to such a liberal presenter to discover that he's got such a non-liberal following.
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Gio, of course it did. But that's not why the cynics are cynical about it.
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If Brotherston's email and subsequent leaking thereof were meant to be a PR gloss-over, she or whoever wrote it needs to find a new line of work. Offering to fall on one's metaphorical sword when the principal offender has made no such offer doesn't deflect attention, or turn down the heat.
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I'm going to be completely cynical, and suggest that Andi's "resignation" and "leaked email" are carefully designed to take some heat off Paul. I bet it's all done with a wink, wink, nudge, nudge, "good girl, here have some more money" from the higher ups. She's the faux fall girl that they hope will shift and abate the debate.
I suspect that that probably out-cynics the vast majority of the professional cynics who people these boards. There actually are some honourable people out there, and Andi Brotherston appears to be one of them.
If one wanted to take the heat off Henry, that email won't come close to doing it. If anything it'll crank up the heat, because the principal offender will now be expected to at least offer to fall on his sword; if it's good enough for a senior PR Manager who didn't commit the original offence, it ought to be good enough for PH. -
I put that question to an acquaintance, and it turned out she "watches" Breakfast much the same way I listen to Morning Report -- most of the time, it's just white noise
So long as it's white noise, PH will be happy. He'd be most unimpressed to be non-white noise :P
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NZ research shows a job application by someone with a name like Anand Satyanand is much less likely to result in a job interview than an identical one by someone called John Smith or similar. That's without clapping eyes on the person or hearing their voice.
A friend - New Zealander of Indian extraction (looks Indian, sounds as "Kiwi" as I do, bro) - changed his name from the Indian one his parents gave him to the nicely generic Sunny Andrews because he was having difficulty getting job interviews. Response rate went up dramatically, and because he sounds more Kiwi than Paul Henry it wasn't a problem to get past the phone interview stage. Once you're in someone's office and talking to them about fush and chups it's a bit more difficult for them to dismiss your potential purely on grounds of race.
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Its a bit stink, but I suspect he feels he's probably got enough support that he can get away with this sort of thing
Holmes doubtless would've had similar levels of support - his radio and TV shows both remained high-rating after the CD comment - but he still offered to resign.
Much as I disagree with Holmes on many things, that's a level of class to which Henry can only aspire. -
Oh, you mean like she did with a certain cheeky whitey who happened to host the top-rating breakfast radio show in the country?
Refresh my memory, was Clark on air and being interviewed at the time the infamous comment was made?
Also, I don't recall Holmes being routinely subjected to upheld complaints about his on-air utterances. It's not like Henry's a first offender who should be given the benefit of the doubt.
Apart from that though, yeah, totally similar situations.
He won't get the boot. He is an employee and has rights, one of which is due process. That is, he f'd up and he has been formally censured and warned. If/when he f's up again then he can and will be fired.
If TVNZ haven't given him warnings before, then that says far, far more about how they view his behaviour than any public statements they may make. At some point repeated complaints sustained by the BSA has to count for something.
And you're assuming that the next time will see him sacked. If this couldn't be argued as serious misconduct (and if it affects TVNZ's bottom line then that's about as serious as it gets, short of indecent or violent behaviour against co-workers/guests) then I cannot see what he could possibly do that would qualify. Well, OK, I can, but I don't think he'd actually quite go there.As a comparison, Holmes offered to resign over his comment. Henry lacks the spine and sense of honour required for a similar course of action.
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And for the record, I reckon Clark would have a) declined to be interviewed by that particular twat and b), if forced for some reason, would have reacted with instant and sharp condemnation of his blatantly racist, stupid and obnoxious comment.
I think that Helen Clark would've ripped PH a new one, live and in colour, had he said something like that while interviewing her. Poll-following shrinking violet she is not when it comes to matters like overt racism, and I imagine the phone would've been glowing several shades of incandescent rage by the time she finished telling Ellis just what she thought of TVNZ's continued employment of such an obnoxious twatcock.
Hopefully some advertisers will threaten to pull their slots if Henry doesn't get the boot, because that's what it'll take to get rid of him. Holmes' "cheeky darky" comment cost TVNZ a seven-figure sponsorship deal with Mitsubishi, and that was more of a brain fart than the continued rantings of an unashamed hick bigot. Once Henry's a bottom line liability, his utility is done.
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What particularly pissed me off was the implication from TVNZ that Henry speaks a) for me, and b) for a lot of the country. Do we want to be that country? It hardly fits with our "fair suck at the sav" self-image, that's for sure.
To suggestions that Breakfast would go under if Henry left, well, sorry, but tough shit. If your survival hinges on a racist bigot who's given a long leash, you deserve to go down. Nothing against Pippa, who seems like a genuinely decent person from how she reacts to some of Paul's mouth-o's, but if you wallow with pigs you'll get stood on eventually.