What is going on at MediaWorks? First, it was John Banks and now it’s Sean Plunket. It seems as if the company is trying to pre-empt the proposed hate speech laws and get in first. Their CEO Cam Wallace certainly seems to be intent on implementing a woke philosophy. There appears little room for anything controversial on Magic Talk, even if it’s the truth. I would have thought a company that is well behind its opposition might need a little spice to increase its audience numbers.
The circumstances surrounding the demise of John Banks have been well documented with the reference to Maori as a Stone Age people. I decided to research whether there was any reference anywhere, preferably locally, that linked the words Maori and Stone Age. I came across one such reference in the National Library under the heading Te Ao Hou – The New World. There I read that at the time of Captain Cook’s arrival in New Zealand Maori were still in the Stone Age. What do we take from that – either Maori were in the Stone Age but not a Stone Age race or conversely they were a Stone Age race.
To argue either way is splitting hairs because the truth is they were in the Stone Age as the caller to John Banks stated. That is a fact. It is documented in the National Library. Therefore we have reached the point where truth is unacceptable if it is deemed unpalatable to the ear of the little woke PC CEO of MediaWorks. So he, in a silly act of self-righteousness, fires a talkback host for accepting a statement of truth from a caller. This is truly pathetic.
It is actually outrageous because it is a good example of exactly where we’ll find ourselves if this new legislation is passed. Believe me, there are plenty more of Cam Wallace types around, particularly of his generation, only too happy to stamp all over any speech they regard as harmful. As Jacinda said, you’ll know it when you see it or in this case hear it. According to whom? The likes of Jacinda Ardern and Cam Wallace I presume.
This is about free speech and, more importantly, democracy. We fought in two World Wars and many Kiwis gave their lives to protect exactly what the PM, Cam Wallace and others would take away. I suggest that they both bone up on some history and start dealing in the truth rather than the populist wokeness of 2021.
Cam Wallace needs to realise he is presiding over a business that in the domain of talk radio should be a bastion of free speech. He should be ensuring people’s views can be freely expressed and not shut down because they’re hurtful to others who have thin skin.
Having got rid of John Banks, Sean Plunket was next in the firing line for daring to come out in support of him. According to the company (read Cam Wallace), Plunket “decided to leave Magic Talk”. How very convenient. I presume from that we are supposed to believe that he saw the error of his ways and fell on his sword. I say BS to that. If I were Peter Williams I wouldn’t be feeling too comfortable in my chair at the moment. As is happening globally, I fear right-wing viewpoints are not the flavour of the month at MediaWorks.
It also appears advertisers, by threatening to cancel, are dictating programme content. That should be completely unacceptable to any media organisation. Worse still, New Zealand Cricket weighed in with threats although what it has to do with them has me stumped. It’s time they hit their wokeness for a six. MediaWorks need to realise that losing their audience will also see a decline in advertising. It’s bad enough having woke newspapers, we don’t need woke radio as well.
Cam Wallace might have been flying high at Air New Zealand but if he’s not careful he’ll be in for a crash landing at MediaWorks.
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