THE CONSERVATIVE GRIND OF TALKBACK RADIO

While John Banks might of been sacked from Magic Talk for racism, racism raises its ugly head on talk radio frequently - but the offenders, unlike Banks, are never sacked. Its all part of a industry that prefers punching down rather than taking on the rich and powerful.

WHILE THE FOCUS might of been on John Banks receiving his marching orders from talkback station Magic Talk, talk radio has always been marred by its regular descent into racism. Whether its Newstalk ZB's Paul Holmes describing United Nations Secretary General Kofi Anna as a 'cheeky darkie' in 2004  or another Newstalk ZB presenter, Heather du Plessis-Allan, describing Pacific people as 'leeches' in 2018, racism has been grist to the mill for talkback radio for many years.

The common denominator is that, unlike John Banks last week, the culprits have usually got away with it. In 2013 Paul Holmes was knighted for his services to broadcasting and in December last year another Magic Talk host, Sean Plunket, escaped any kind of punishment after he was responsible for the station being slapped with a $3,000 fine from the Broadcasting Standards Authority. Plunket launched an intemperate attack on iwi for putting up roadblocks in Northland as protection against the possible spread of coronavirus. RNZ reported that 'Plunket called iwi 'bullies', 'rogues' and 'highwaymen', questioned how many  iwi were on a benefit , and asked why, with no context, it didn't focus on issues like child abuse'.

In its ruling, the BSA said that said that Plunket's comments had 'amplified and reflected' casual racism against Maori. But in the same week that 'Banksy' got axed, Plunket was again hammering away at the issue of iwi roadblocks, although a lot more 'cautiously'. It certainly appears that Plunket escaped any reprimand from his bosses. It seems some forms of racism are more acceptable than others.

Talk radio likes to portray itself as a democratic  forum where everyone can have their say.  Sean Plunket for example, bills his show as 'the free speech hotline for no-hold barred common sense talk that you control'. But talk radio's racist bent, casual or otherwise, lies in its obsessiveness in putting the boot into the most vulnerable groups in society. Any attempt to put forward more liberal or progressive views get lost in the right wing noise.

While Maori have felt the full force of talk radio's disdain, so too have other ethnicities. Other unfortunate recipients of talk radio's 'attention' have been Muslims, beneficiaries and - shock, horror- climate change activists. If you were to believe Magic Talk's Peter Williams, climate change is a gigantic fraud concocted by a cabal of mad scientists and lefty do gooders. That's an opinion also shared by his colleagues Sean Plunket and Ryan Bridge.

Beneficiaries and the poor get a particularly bad press from talk radio, with talkback hosts even going as far as suggesting that beneficiaries and the poor should be forcibly prevented from having more than one child. In 2015 Newstalk ZB's Chris Lynch played back twice the views of National Party cheerleader David Farrar who had told Newstalk ZB's drivetime host Larry Williams the previous  day that some women needed to be forcibly  sterilised to prevent them having further children. Lynch told one caller to his own show that some women needed to 'have their bits cut off'.  But Lynch was only following in the footstep's of Radio Live's Michael Laws who in 2010 argued that 'mongrels' had to be prevented from breeding more 'mongrels'

But the support for forced sterilisations  - which was part of the Nazi Party's eugenics program - wasn't enough get either Laws or Lynch removed from the airwaves or even reprimanded.

Although Mediaworks boss Cam Wallace tubthumped that Banks would never work for the media company again as long as he was in charge, what really prompted Wallace to quickly  take action was the threat of NZ Cricket denying Magic Talk the right to broadcast international cricket as well as major corporate advertisers like Spark, Vodafone and Kiwi Bank pulling advertising from the station. Money talks, especially corporate money. Unfortunately Maori, beneficiaries, and other disadvantaged groups within society don't have quite the same political and financial influence  as Spark or Vodafone so its unlikely that conservative talkback radio will be changing its right wing ways anytime soon.