CONSIDER THE very public humiliation of Today FM talkback hosts Leah Panapa and Miles Davis. One moment they are defending the right to describe women as pregnant and dismissing a gender ideology that insists that we can now only talk of 'pregnant people'. Less than twenty four hours later they are offering up contrite apologies for what Stuff, displaying its usual bias, describes as a 'toxic on-air rant'. It is also worth noting that the Stuff article was funded by NZ On Air as 'public interest journalism'.
Panapa had previously commented that 'Sometimes I think this is how I’m gonna lose my job – because I would refuse to read out the words ‘pregnant people’. She was obviously well aware of what might be coming down the line. Behind the scenes, Mediaworks management almost certainly made Panapa and Davis an offer they felt they could not refuse; apologise or be sacked.
Mediaworks effectively hung Panapa and Davis out to dry. Dallas Gurney, Director of News and Talk, has displayed little regard for the right of the two presenters to express their own opinions. Apparently freedom of speech is whatever Today FM thinks it is. The station's listeners might like to reflect on that.
Gurney also thought he was an entirely within his rights to speak on behalf of Panapa and Davis.
'Once Leah and Miles were made aware of the impact of what they said, they were devastated about those they have hurt,' he declared.
Really? Who did they hurt exactly? And what does he mean when he says they were 'hurt?' It is more than likely that Gurney has made this all up, and Panapa and Davis aren't going to be disagreeing with their boss anytime soon. And none of their colleagues, like Tova O'Brien and Duncan Garner, have come to their defence.
Dallas Gurney and Mediaworks may well have been worried they would lose accreditation with Rainbow Rick if they did not act to shut Panapa and Davis down. Launched in 2013 Rainbow Tick operates on its own assumption that it speaks for the entire country on matters of gender. The 'Rainbow Tick' is the certification an organisation receives if it is deemed to encourage gender diversity in the workplace.
Mediaworks is a Rainbow Ticket approved organisation having received its certification in 'diversity and inclusion'. But, as critics have pointed out, most organisations practice such 'diversity and inclusion' anyway - without having to be formally approved and watched over by Rainbow Tick.
And Rainbow Tick has demonstrated that it is more than willing to use accreditation as a baton to beat organisations over the head with when they threaten to disobey its orders.
In 2019 it warned that Massey University's accreditation would have to be 'reviewed' if it allowed an event, Feminism 2020, to take place on one of its sites.
The organisers of the event, Speak Up for Women, said it was upset and angry that Rainbow Tick was harassing Massey University to suppress its democratic right to free speech.
O'Brien said that the claims that Speak Up for Women and the Feminism 2020 speakers were transphobic were 'both false and malicious.'
'This is not hate, it is women attempting to assert our rights in what should be a democratic society' said O'Brien. 'Instead, we are being silenced by activists and lobby groups who bully businesses and institutions with threats of withdrawal of ‘rainbow capital’. Well, a ‘rainbow tick’ that is conditional on you silencing lesbians is a pretty meaningless concept, in my opinion.'
At the root of it all is gender ideology, the idea that everyone has something called a 'gender identity', and that this identity is more important than one's biological sex. Once a relatively fringe cultural and academic idea, it has come almost completely dominant to the point that it made its way into the 2023 Census.
Liberals and many on the left have embraced gender ideology because they have mistakenly identified it as 'progressive'. It isn't. The idea that 'woman' and 'man' should be thought of as social categories and not simple descriptors of biological reality is fundamentally regressive.
But such is the climate of opinion, those who dare to oppose the claims of gender ideology are invariably smeared as 'reactionary' and 'transphobic'. This would have been the fate of Leah Panapa and Miles Davis had they not been required to see the error of their ways. They have been ordered by Mediaworks to undergo 'training' with Rainbow Tick where they will be required to be cleansed of their wrong thinking.
20 March: Dallas Gurney resigned today as Today FM's Director of News and Talk and he will leave Mediaworks in May. Today FM has performed poorly in the ratings and speculation continues about the future of the radio station.
I am a man. A male member of the human species. There are only two flavours on this earth. Male or female. Anyone who thinks they are anything other should probably check themselves into a hospital specifically designed to deal with these types of delusions. People are starting to disappear up there own arses. Where does the crazy stop?
ReplyDeleteSo..are they having to undergo conversion therapy...I thought that was illegal. How ironic.
ReplyDeleteTrying to impose top down ideologies usually never work, because people revolt. It may be because they simply don't like being manipulated by those who think they know better. Rainbow Tick seems like a very unlikeable group and I imagine there will be many people who will just tell them to fuck off.
ReplyDeleteYou’re joking, there’s little chance of Rainbow Tick being told to fuck off, unfortunately.
DeleteThey have copied what Stonewall in the UK are now doing: making good money out of Diversity and Inclusion training - and gaming it because they can exploit the fierce political correctness around those issues.
Stonewall were once a necessary, helpful and effective support group for a marginalised group, the UK’s gay community. That campaign is, for the most part, over because, mostly, it’s objectives have been achieved, thankfully. Stonewall’s subscription/donations were falling, they needed a new income stream.
Hey, the diversity industry! Stonewall will train your HR dept in the basics - it’ll cost you but, hey, it ain’t your money you’re spending - then you can instruct your staff. And boy, god help them if they don’t want to comply!
But Stonewall’s businesses model, and Rainbow Tick’s copy of it, isn’t sustainable. Last year the BBC decided to listen to the many criticisms of Stonewall’s training, and withdrew from the contract, and stopped paying. A client that large and public withdrawing got plenty of attention, it wasn’t a coincidence it happened after Stonewall was found to be validating the newly fashionable ideology of MAPs (Minor-Attracked People). A lot of sensible people pointed out we used to have another name for that type of dangerous and harmful man, and inventing a new name wasn’t going to let anyone forget the many years of evidence that children are damaged by sexually abusive adults. Several corporate clients of Stonewall also made public cancellations of contract.
Rainbow Tick will have learned to be weary of recklessly adopting fashionable ideologies, I’m guessing, but I think sooner or later, probably later because it’ll take time for the adults to return to the room, this commercialisation of gender ideology is going to be seen for what it is: a scam masquerading as Progressive policy, allowed to be lucrative in a workplace atmosphere of timidity - to even ask for a conversation where challenging questions are asked can cost you your reputation and, maybe, even your job.
Leah Panapa not on air today, leaving Miles Davis to host the show himself.
ReplyDelete