Clipshow – Paul Henry: we all pay for his unending bigotry

Written By: - Date published: 10:23 am, December 28th, 2010 - 49 comments
Categories: clipshow, racism, tv - Tags: , ,

New Zealand’s most infamous anti-Ambassador Paul Henry has shamed us all once again. On TVNZ’s Breakfast this morning, Henry asked John Key (at 6’30” into the interview) of our Governor General “Is he even a New Zealander” (Satyanand was born in NZ) and could the next GG be someone who “looks and sounds a bit more like a New Zealander”.

I am utterly sick of TVNZ continuing to provide a platform for such a bigoted prick. We’ve now had Paul Henry call Susan Boyle “retarded”, ridicule a woman for having facial hair, go into paroxysms on air calling the Indian Minister of Sport “Mrs Dickshit” (a mispronunciation of her name), and now he’s suggesting our Governor General Anand Satyanand is not really a New Zealander because of his skin colour and accent. That is really offensive, especially on the back of a lot of racist commentary about India from TVNZ’s Paul Holmes.

What does this say to the international community about New Zealand – as a diplomatic entity and as a tourism destination – to have comments like these from TVNZ staff broadcast on our state owned broadcaster? Paul Henry is damaging our international reputation for the sake of a few revenue dollars for TVNZ.

Not only is it morally offensive, it doesn’t add up economically. And then of course there’s the ongoing humiliation and degradation he causes to New Zealanders that Henry doesn’t seem to think deserve any respect. Maybe his bigotry could be defended on free-speech grounds on a shock-jock talkback slot, but not on our state owned national broadcaster.

Of course Henry is a pathological attention seeker so don’t ever expect him to change. He likes and needsto offend people. The people really responsible for this ongoing disgrace are the gutless few at TVNZ, who continue to employ him. When Paul Holmes called Kofi Annan a “cheeky darkie” on his radio show, TVNZ eventually pulled Holmes – but only after Mitsubishi withdrew their sponsorship for Holme’s TVNZ show. Now it’s time for TVNZ to do the right thing and move Henry on. Either that or an organized campaign to petition and boycott companies that advertise during and sponsor Breakfast.

TVNZ said at time of writing that they hadn’t received any complaints and that “[t]he audience tell us over and over again that one of the things they love about Paul Henry is that he’s prepared to say the things we quietly think but are scared to say out loud”. Well TVNZ, I’m happy to say this out loud. HENRY IS A DISGRACE TO TVNZ, ITS ADVERTISERS AND ITS VIEWERS. CONTINUING TO EMPLOY HIM NOT ONLY DEMONSTRATES THAT TVNZ MANAGEMENT DO NOT GIVE A SHIT ABOUT QUALITY BROADCASTING OR RESPECTING THE BASIC RIGHTS OF NEW ZEALANDERS, BUT ALSO THAT THEY WILL CONDONE ONGOING BIGOTRY FOR A FEW RATINGS POINTS.

If you don’t love what Paul Henry says, here are the contact details for TVNZ and the Broadcasting Standards Authority.

DimPost offers sound advice on some other forms of direct action.

—————————————–

Note to interviewee John Key: I know you’re pretty relaxed about racism, seeing’s how you can’t even remember if you were for or against the Springbok Tour, but did you agree with Henry’s racism towards our Governor General? Because you didn’t take any exception to his statements or try pulling him up on his racism. And do you condone a State broadcaster making racist comments, let alone about our Governor General? Because you didn’t take any exception to a TVNZ representative’s statements or try pulling him up on his racism. You just laughed and glossed over it.

UPDATE: Ben Gracewood, Breakfast technology commentator, has resigned in protest at Henry’s ongoing disgraceful behaviour. Good on him for having the guts, I wonder how many others involved with the show will have the same integrity?

UPDATE: Boycott TVNZ until they fire Paul Henry Facebook page

49 comments on “Clipshow – Paul Henry: we all pay for his unending bigotry ”

  • Comments are now closed

  1. higherstandard 1
    28 December 2010 at 10:48 am

    He was the best thing that ever happened to breakfast TV in NZ – good for a laugh and always quick to shock – exactly what he was paid to do.

    Isn’t he a good mate of St Helen ?

  2. george 2
    28 December 2010 at 11:16 am

    Paul Henry is the most powerful and intelligent interviewer that TVNZ ever had.

    Here is an example were he makes mincemeat out of the previous housing minister,

    • Tigger 2.1
      28 December 2010 at 2:12 pm

      No one is disputing that. He’s also a bigotted narcisist who undercuts his own talent by his deep need to be the centre of attention.

    • bbfloyd 2.2
      28 December 2010 at 4:25 pm

      george…. you show an example of a card carrying member of the national party conducting a purely political witchhunt. only by completely ignoring the reality of tens of thousands of state houses sold off in the nineties can such blatantly populist drivel be indulged in…

      henry uses the oldest nat trick in the book,.. namely, blaming the people with the responsibility of repairing the gaping holes in our safety net for not being able to do it fast enough.. a truly disgusting, and politically self serving pr exercise.

      the sad fact is that there are people around so lazy minded that this shallow dishonest pap passes for reality.. shameful.. this is how we lose what we once prided ourselves on…….. our humanity.

    • Tanz 2.3
      28 December 2010 at 9:47 pm

      Breakfast is now infinately boring without him, he said what he thought, which is unusual in PC, cowardly New Zealand. For crying out loud, the man apologised, he should not have lost his job. No wonder Australia looks upon us as a country of beatniks. Just so sad that he lost a job he was very good at, all because he made a comment. Ten years ago it would have been shrugged off, now he almost got hung for it. The left loathe him because he is a right wing Act supporter, and outspoken, and honest. Really sad what we’ve become, eh what. An exellent showmam was silenced, but I suspect, he will be back. Hope so, for the sake of some balance.

      • Colonial Viper 2.3.1
        28 December 2010 at 10:05 pm

        For crying out loud, the man apologised, he should not have lost his job.

        Good riddance to insincere racist shit. Now all we need to get rid of are the meely mouthed apologists and lame excuse fabricators for the insincere racist shit.

        TVNZ senior management, you are next.

        • Tanz 2.3.1.1
          28 December 2010 at 10:13 pm

          that’s mealy mouthed, not meely mouthed, CV. Can you fnd no forgivness in your heart? Have you never stuffed up? Are you perfect? TVNZ should have stood by their man. Just daft. And India has a squeaky clean repuataton, does it? Such hypocrisy, anyway.

          • Colonial Viper 2.3.1.1.1
            28 December 2010 at 10:22 pm

            Hey Tanz, he made his call, he made a tonne of money from it, and he owns the consequences, frak him the racist little shit.

            What more apologetics are you going to come up with for him?

            PS thanks on the correction, appreciated.

            • Tanz 2.3.1.1.1.1
              28 December 2010 at 10:27 pm

              No problem. He didn’t make his own call though, he was pressured and pushed, by PC’ness basically. I could cry for our country and our meek we’ve become. He said a few words, but harmed no one. People should grow up, ‘sticks and stones…’ . School yard stuff, laughable really.

              Happy New Year, by the way.

              • Colonial Viper …
                28 December 2010 at 10:43 pm

                He said a few words, but harmed no one.

                You gotta be kidding. Just like making Blacks sit at the back of the bus didn’t really harm anyone either.

                You too mate 2011 is a big year.

                • Tanz …
                  28 December 2010 at 11:21 pm

                  With National losing the election, maybe? Or the world cup? And no one was harmed, my point is, they’re just words. Words. Harmless words. We are talking about adults here, and not children. Just words. We’d all be wobbling jellies if we rolled over every time somone spoke meanly to us!

                  • Colonial Viper …
                    28 December 2010 at 11:48 pm

                    “Just words”, you mean like nigger, or chink, or homo, or darkie or c*** are “just words”?

                    You don’t believe in the fact that words convey subtle things like ‘meaning’ or ‘intent’ or ‘feeling’ then?

                    Oh yes in that case, lets promote sympathies for Mr Henry, after all he said he was sorry for being a divisive racist git, insincere as the apology sounded, or was it just that he was sorry for losing his $300K/$400K/$500K p.a. job?

                    I was never quite sure you see.

                    By the way, he said it, he wore the consequences for it, you should let him take responsibility for his own frak ups instead of being his apologist.

                    • Tanz …
                      29 December 2010 at 11:16 am

                      No, but I think it’s sad that robust debate has been lost to the evil of PC’ness. Once a place of robust debaters, NZ is now a simpering ghost of what we were. Scared of our own shadows, not allowed to speak up, and I still stand by what I said, whatever the word, they are just words.

                      Breakfast is a left-wing farce these days, and I don’t bother with it. It’s absoltouely PC and no fun at all! Shame on TVNZ for cowering to a bunch of over-reacting killjoys and for having no backnone when needed!

                    • Colonial Viper …
                      29 December 2010 at 11:52 am

                      You return to a theme of NZ having become a weak willed “simpering” country not willing to speak its mind.

                      This is not true. Make no mistake, people spoke out and they spoke out loud and they spoke up strong. They stood by their values as New Zealanders. Quite the opposite of what you imply. And Henry is gone as a result.

                      Job well done.

                    • M …
                      30 December 2010 at 1:51 am

                      ‘“Just words”, you mean like nigger, or chink, or homo, or darkie or c*** are “just words”?

                      You don’t believe in the fact that words convey subtle things like ‘meaning’ or ‘intent’ or ‘feeling’ then?’

                      Precisely CV, such words are meant to be daggers at the heart of a person, to wound with intent. From what I have read verbal abuse nearly always leads to physical abuse and worse. One only needs to look at the Third Reich to see where the casual jokes about the Jews led to …. the gas chamber.

  3. kriswgtn 3
    28 December 2010 at 11:25 am

    He was on tv the other day gettin interviewed by some ozzie tv show- maybe he’ll move there
    good fukn riddance i say

    rascist homophobic twat is wot he is

  4. felix 4
    28 December 2010 at 11:26 am

    btw where is The Sprout these days?

  5. Deadly_NZ 5
    28 December 2010 at 1:24 pm

    A nice Rant. What a pity it’s two months late, or are we that bereft of topics this rotten wet day???

  6. Nick C 6
    28 December 2010 at 3:13 pm

    “We all pay for his unending bigotry”

    No we dont. TVNZ is an SOE, it makes a profit. The government hasnt given TVNZ a cent for many years.

    • Marty G 6.1
      28 December 2010 at 3:23 pm

      More ways to pay than with money champ

      • Colonial Viper 6.1.1
        28 December 2010 at 3:31 pm

        Money is the only thing which counts in life, no? All those other “qualitative” aspects are bunk, surely.

    • jcuknz 6.2
      29 December 2010 at 12:39 pm

      We pay by TVNZ not making so much profit as it could to be returned to us ….we pay through advertising rates being so expensive which we pay if we buy the advertised goods … we pay in the way Marty suggests too …. Yes we pay OK, no question about it.

  7. hobbit 7
    28 December 2010 at 8:02 pm

    Excellent to see that, even after some months, Henry still manages to upset the fringes of society.

    >>> [TVNZ] “it makes a profit”

    I’m guessing not for long. The effects of leftist freaks screwing with it during the Clark years have set in, unfortunately.

    • Eddie 7.1
      28 December 2010 at 8:25 pm

      your homophobic, racist hero was beaten. This post is just a re-run of one from that victory for the Left. Crying about it won’t bring your racist, homophobic hero back.

  8. hobbit 8
    28 December 2010 at 8:38 pm

    >>> “victory for the Left”

    Guess you little guy’s need something to cling to, eh.

    Ironic anti spam word: STRAIGHT.

    Perhaps someone should remind the techie to use leftist-friendly words only 😉

    [lprent: so not only do we have the tealeaves looking for patterns in randomness, we also have a shortarse RWNJ with hairy feet advocating making a random system non-random. Of course this is a rather rightwing trope. You only have to look at Rodney Hides attempt to gerrymander the supercity to find another hobbit with the same idea. ]

    • Zorr 8.1
      28 December 2010 at 9:47 pm

      lprent… I think hobbit is attempting to refer to you…

      Can we get a teaching mallet over here stat for calling on the almighty admin…

  9. Jum 9
    29 December 2010 at 6:50 pm

    Breakfast is just as rightwing as it has been all through 2008 and beyond with Henry in the silly seat. Anyone who calls it leftwing is wrong. Wetzell and Co are just as bad as Henry. Interesting someone else sees him as Act-compulsive considering he was a failed Nat.

    The only reason the righties on here are acting up about him is because they had him lined up for the soft-soaping of Kiwis in the next election, as he was such a lap-poodle for JKeyll the other closet Act supporter. Watching Henry interview JKeyll each week was like an exercise in lap dancing by Henry, but they do say that homophobics are always afraid of their own feelings. Such syrupy behaviour towards the person who is supposed to be called to account on his leading of New Zealand was extremely damaging to the operation of democratic government. All media who suck up to JKeyll and NAct should be held to account for the loss of democracy, the current unemployment surge, lower wages as JKeyll promised, the deliberately huge increase in underemployment and more disempowerment for women’s rights to pay equity, as, because of their lack of journalistic ethics, Kiwis are not being fully informed unless they visit sites like The Standard to get the other side of the story.

    Good on The Standard; keep up the reporting and the uncovering of the truth that JKeyll and Hide’s lot are trying to hide about their agenda for selling off New Zealand and New Zealanders.

    • Tanz 9.1
      29 December 2010 at 7:16 pm

      Who may I ask is Jkeyall? Breakfast is ardently left wing, as is all the other MSM in this country. National have refreshed this country and made it worth living in again. JK will probably get a Knighthoot, now that they are back. How very fine. Celebrity politics rules the day, and the people love it. Happy New Year.

      • felix 9.1.1
        29 December 2010 at 7:38 pm

        But Tanz we’ve already established that you place the political centre somewhere near the Nazls (oh let me guess, they were left wing too, right?)

        If you can’t show some examples to support your contention that “Breakfast is ardently left wing” then it will look as if you simply yearn for the return of Henry’s racism and cruelty.

      • Jum 9.1.2
        29 December 2010 at 8:27 pm

        Tanz,
        Check your spelling and your thought processes; what do you call a male who hides his real agenda in a fake persona. He has no loyalty to this country or most of the people who work for the ever-decreasing wage. Who has been acting out JKeyll’s real personality? Hide of course.

  10. hobbit 10
    29 December 2010 at 7:22 pm

    Breakfast itself does not seam to have too much of a left-wing political leaning to. It can’t; it’s something people who go to work watch 😉 Whereas the Good Morning show has it’s fair share of leftist freaks on it; got to keep the unproductive members of society amused somehow 😉

    • felix 10.1
      29 December 2010 at 7:33 pm

      Using smileys doesn’t stop you looking like a prick you know 😉 Reminds me of that inbred CLInt Heine 😉 He thinks it masks the vile nastiness and hateful bigotry of his words 😉 Is that how you think it works too, fuckwit? 😉

    • Jum 10.2
      29 December 2010 at 7:48 pm

      It’s interesting that you think women at home with children who pick up all sorts of information from the Good Morning show on cooking, advice on bringing up children, etc. are unproductive. you fuckwit.

      • Jum 10.2.1
        29 December 2010 at 8:04 pm

        captcha: apology

        Hey hobbit; I’m talking to you! Apologise to the women and some men at home raising the country’s children to have better manners than your moronic blogging chuckups have proved to have. You misogynist. I can see why you’re a NAct supporter; you have all the right’s destructive viruses.

  11. hobbit 11
    29 December 2010 at 8:14 pm

    >>> “women and some men at home raising the country’s children”

    How are they being productive?

    smile felix 😉

  12. Jum 12
    29 December 2010 at 8:57 pm

    You have a point there you little ‘hobbit’ you.

    Because women and some men are not paid to raise children they are seen as unproductive in the National Accounting and so policy makers do not consider either the parent or the child when they make their funding decisions.

    Paid hobbits are more important than unpaid mothers and fathers; no wonder NZ is going down the tubes thanks to fuckwits like you.

    Don’t smile Felix. There is enough to worry about without intelligent people like you turning to the dark side.

  13. Drakula 13
    29 December 2010 at 10:23 pm

    I am not suprised that Paul Henry is nat/act supporter I hope he does go to Auz preferably the Simpson desert.

    TVNZ would do very well to stop pandering to the lowest common denominator, that appeals to the mob, or the bigoted, racist lynch mob.

    When I was in Queensland a few years ago I was very impressed with the standard of state TV (it may have changed now) and there were a number of reasons for that (1) well researched documentaries (2) no advertising (3) programs well slotted eg. films that started at about 8pm instead of 9.30r 10pm.

    Hence the focus was on information rather than cheap, gutter humour, informercials, and reality TV.

    Let’s have something intelligent and informative; lets create the prevailing zeitgiest that educates and inculcates high values and creative inspiration to the next generation.

    Could this be achieved by an ACT govt.? or the kind of journalism that Henry practices?

  14. hobbit 14
    29 December 2010 at 10:39 pm

    You’ve still got to make your point as to how parents who stay at home are being productive, Jum.

    Less of your nasty little temper, more reasoning [if possible], would be nice..

    • felix 14.1
      29 December 2010 at 11:56 pm

      Jum already made that point in a round about way above by asking you why in your paradigm raising children is non-productive. You made the claim, the onus is on you to explain your position.

      And don’t try to police the language & tone of other’s comments. Yours are quite fucking disgusting to date you repulsive worm.

    • Jum 14.2
      30 December 2010 at 2:11 am

      Stop being precious, ‘obbit. ‘Nice’ isn’t a word that suggests you are (if possible) capable of reasoned comment.

      NActors have no respect for anyone who works in unpaid positions, whether it be mothers at home or volunteers helping people that NAct have deliberately engineered into unemployment or, far more sinister, underemployment.

      I can only assume from the ‘obbit’s surmising that JKeyll as a moneytrader who produces nothing is unproductive, but because he gets PAID to make damaging and costly speculative runs on the NZ dollar, e.g., that makes him productive; now that is a nasty little world the ‘obbit wants to push.

  15. pundit X 15
    30 December 2010 at 11:31 am

    If Henry wanted a governor General who looks like a Kiwi then surely he should have mounted a campaign for Tame Iti..

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