Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Fall From dis-Grace?


I haven't made submissions to TVNZ about Paul Henry's resignation.

I think this is another of those times when the people responsible are best left to act out their responsibility as best they can without a lot of free advice from the public.

But, in this quiet corner where only a few souls are interested in what I write, I want to set down that Paul wasn't my cup of tea. "Breakfast" obviously had a strong following of people, either because they loved him or, possibly because they wanted an excuse to be outraged. All too often, he obliged the latter while titillating the former.

I suppose that's more or less OK, as long as we remember it's just entertainment. And as long as the nasty edges that inevitably will slip through that veneer of chat and charm don't hurt, ridicule or deeply offend anyone else. Alas, all too often, that's what happened.

However, it's not to the credit of his employers that Paul Henry lasted as long as he did and that international concern had to surface before they recognised they had a problem. How have they managed to so completely ignore the requirements of the TVNZ Charter under which they are expected to meet certain standards and deliver certain kinds of programming? And how can the Government hope for anything better by dismantling the Charter just because TVNZ has ignored it? How will it help to replace the Charter with the series of wet-bus-ticket guidelines proposed in the bill currently before Parliament?

We need a decent public service broadcasting system. And we could do it by drawing together the best qualities of Radio NZ and the technical capability of TV6 and TV7.

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