TV1 News has led with the story about the resignation of Breakfast host Kamahl Santamaria for at least the last 4 days.
I cannot imagine, when China is running rampant in the Pacific and the war in Ukraine is taking a worrying turn, why this story is the first item on the six o’clock news day after day.
And for reasons that I really cannot explain, this was a feature on the Breakfast Show on Monday morning.
I am glad I have not watched the show since Paul Henry left. Let’s just say that it has lost a lot of its smart content and connectivity and has become so horribly woke that no one in their right mind would ever watch it.
But what the hell is the big deal about a TV presenter resigning after a month? He is not a minister, politician, or a CEO of a listed company. He is a TV presenter; a nobody, a news reader… not even a celebrity. I hadn’t even heard of him before he resigned.
And there is not much doubt that he was a diversity appointment. When he was at work, the team was the Asian, the Maori, the Gay person and the Pacific Islander. Tick, tick, tick, tick.
What could possibly go wrong?
It now seems that Mr Santamaria has been accused of inappropriate behaviour towards an unidentified female staff member at TVNZ.
No. Wait. It seems he was fired because of unconfirmed reports about inappropriate behaviour at his previous employer, Al Jazeera.
Former TVNZ Breakfast host Kamahl Santamaria was accused of sending multiple women inappropriate messages in his previous role at Al Jazeera, a former colleague claims.
The former staffer at the Doha-based organisation, who asked not to be named, said Santamaria was alleged to have sent the messages using the newsroom’s internal messaging system.
“There are women who have been subjected to inappropriate behaviour … at Al Jazeera, who are thinking about whether they are going to come forward at the moment,” she said.
So he was sacked from TVNZ for unsubstantiated claims that he made inappropriate comments to female colleagues at a previous job. Nothing has been proved against him, the complainants have not decided whether to come forward and, as usual, the accused is named and shamed in public while the accusers continue to live in a shroud of anonymity.
But, it would appear that he didn’t actually do anything wrong at TVNZ.
On tonight’s 6pm TVNZ bulletin, 1News reported it had spoken to former Al Jazeera female colleagues of Santamaria who claimed he had made women feel “uncomfortable” with inappropriate comments.
The head of TVNZ’s nouvelles operation sent out an email to staff today acknowledging how “difficult” the past few days have been under the “spotlight” following Santamaria’s abrupt resignation.
The email from TVNZ’s Head of News and Current Affairs, Paul Yurisich, acknowledged the scrutiny that TVNZ journalists have been put under and praised their “mahi” in persevering in their work.
Newstalk ZB
Gosh. Poor things. Having to work with someone who might have made inappropriate comments to a colleague in a previous place of employment is a terrible thing to bear. I am so glad they were able to do the “mahi” to get themselves through this.
When did we all become quite so precious?
This forms a precedent for anyone to be fired based on unsubstantiated accusations made by a colleague from a previous job. The witch hunters could have a field day with this one. If you dislike a colleague, go and find someone from their previous employment who also disliked them and, bingo! You can get them fired. They don’t actually have to have done anything wrong: it will be enough that they might have done something wrong.
Do you see how profoundly dangerous this is?
This is several steps on from Trevor Mallard opining that a person in Parliament who gave a colleague an unwanted hug was guilty of rape – and the accused in that case lost his job, his livelihood and his mental health. But that’s OK because he inadvertently did something inappropriate; now we can’t have that, can we?
What happened to the days when a woman would deal with inappropriate comments with a sharp retort, and would deal with inappropriate touching with a swift kick in a very painful area? Certainly, a man can overpower a woman if he wants to, but we are not talking about that. We are talking about personal comments that might have been made, and that women might decide to find offensive.
But getting someone fired is so much more effective than dealing with an inappropriate comment yourself. It may have a long-lasting effect on a man’s career. He may never be able to work again, for simply making a comment such as, “You look nice today.”
Imagine having to put up with comments like that. How much ‘mahi’ would one have to do to get over that?
#metoo has a lot to answer for. A movement that was originally intended to empower women against sexual assault from men has turned them all into victims. What a snivelling lot of precious zealots they have turned into. No one is safe in the company of these shadowy witch hunters.
In the meantime, as China is sneaking its way into the Pacific, and the war in Ukraine edges closer and closer to a nuclear conflict, don’t we have more important things to worry about than this?
It seems not… if you are TVNZ.