Paul Henry jumps before pushed
Henry resigns after meeting TVNZ chief
Paul Henry's racist comments finally caught up with him yesterday when he resigned from TVNZ after meeting the state broadcaster's chief executive.
He jumped. When the Saturday Herald reported that Rick Ellis wasn't certain about Paul Henry's future at TVNZ, that was the signal that the week long fiasco had been decided on high that Paul's leash had been left far too slack and the vet was coming over to help him sleep.
The family had decided their favourite puppy had to be put down as he now had a taste for blood.
Paul's comments on the GG were compounded by TVNZ's absurd cut and paste justification they used to defend him and the resurfacing of his mispronunciation of an Indian name (which had aired the Friday before the GG comments) sealed Paul's fate after a long history of comments offending minority groups.
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for offence, but it is about who you are offending. The powerful should be offended, but offending minority groups on the State Broadcaster says what?
As the Public Broadcaster, TVNZ has a responsibility to uphold standards that go well beyond a mere commercial operation. Radio LIVE's Michael Laws made derogatory comments about the GG as well last week, but it is his companies fear of commercial backlash that will decide Micheal's fate, the Public Broadcaster however has broader concerns than simply ratings.
Those considerations in a Democracy won out yesterday and Paul Henry knew it. The sad thing is the guy did have a gift for broadcasting, was at times very funny and could hold the powerful to account, yet he squandered that gift by showing us all what a narrow perspective he honestly had when articulating that only white people could be real New Zealanders.
No amount of cheekiness could forgive that. I said good day Mr Henry.
posted by Bomber @ 7:46 am
9 comments
9 Comments:
I saw a teary-eyed Rick Ellis being interviewed on the breakfast show this morning. Great news that Henry jumped before he got pushed.
Paul Henry seemed to revel in being able to shout the word "Shit" as if he had some kind of permission to be crass while insulting the name of an indian woman.
The horrible expression on his face, and the top row of his teeth protruding as he said those words looked like some weird caricature come to life.
TV3 news put together a great, humiliating, montage of Henry's "greatest clips" that they played over and over, now that was good to watch!
So the solution is very simple. Sell TVNZ. The public broadcasting model is outdated - we dont need one. With the new media, internet, blogs every group seemingly having a voice, why do we need a state broadcaster?
Paul Henry will pick up a gig, in much the same way as Tony Veitch is.
"Don't get me wrong, I'm all for offence, but it is about who you are offending".
In other words Bomber; you can offend whom you like but will judge all others. Ahh... I see how it works now.
In other words Bomber; you can offend whom you like but will judge all others. Ahh... I see how it works now.
Silly, silly Anon, the function of public broadcasting is to hold the powerful to account minus the influence of advertising, this is what a functioning democracy requires, so yes, the powerful should be offended and offended often.
Scott - ditto. The mass increase in new media does not replace the need for public broadcasting.
Bomber, if we accept your point as being true (and I dont necessarily), why then does the state own tv2?
We should just sell the lot to Rupert, he does a good job of informing American's. I'm sure that's a model you'd support Sdm?
Now that there's going to be a substantial amount of money left in the salary pot, can we have some new "expert" talking heads in the msm please? And if there's enough left over from Henry's demise at TVNZ, can they shovel a bit Jim Mora's way too? If there isn't, maybe another pop idol could be sacrificed. That other Paul fella maybe.
What they actually should be doing is cleaning out the overpaid idiots who presided over paul henry and his litany of oafish nonsense. Who exactly is the producer of the "Breakfast" programme , and why didn't they say a bloody word during all this ?? I bet they are paid HUGE amounts to churn out their crappy little show each week - but it seems their large salaries don't extend to controlling the talent.
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