Lindsay Perigo
The Politically Incorrect Show - 21/09/2000
[Music - Die Fledermaus]
Good afternoon, Kaya Oraaa & welcome to the Politically Incorrect Show on the free speech network, Radio Pacific, for Thursday September 21, proudly sponsored by Neanderton Nicotine Ltd., the show that says bugger the politicians & bureaucrats & all the other bossyboot busybodies who try to run our lives with our money; that stands tall for free enterprise, achievement, profit, & excellence, against the state-worshippers in our midst; that stands above all for the most sacred thing in the universe, the liberty of the human individual.
[Music up, music down!]
Years ago, when I worked for National Socialist Radio & Political Correctness was just beginning to creep into our public life, I was invited to be part of a committee set up to examine the "problem" of "sexist" language on the airwaves & propose solutions to it. I told the then-Director-General, Beverley Wakem that there was no such problem & I couldn't see the point in serving on a committee devoted to the non-existent. Undeterred, Ms Wakem pressed on, a committee was duly set up - & months later we were presented with a list of "sexist" terms with which we were supposedly blighting our air-waves & the alternatives that we were to use instead. This was when the generic "he" became the ungrammatical "they," "man-hole" became "person-hole" & "all the King's men" became - I kid you not - "all the Monarch's support-persons." This list attracted such derision that it was quickly withdrawn - but Political Correctness continued its insidious, Orwellian advance nonetheless.
Now, that latter-day paragon of PC, the Minister of Broadcasting, Mistress Marian, has presented TVNZ with a Charter telling it what type of programming it must transmit - among other things, "a greater range of Maori & minority programmes." She admits she hasn't a clue at the moment how TVNZ should reconcile this sort of programming with its duty as a State-Owned Enterprise to attract viewers & advertisers & turn in a profit to the government, given that there is no great demand for Maori mumbo-jumbo on the telly, especially among Maori. To be consistent, Ms Hobbs could force advertisers to advertise & viewers to view, but I doubt that even she would go that far right now.
What is galling about this announcement, apart from its content, is the flaccid nature of the opposition to it. Where is the outrage over this latest expression of this regime's hankering for Thought Control? National's spokesman describes the Charter as "nebulous platitudes" & "sweet nothings." It isn't. There is nothing "sweet" or unreal about this government's attempts to dictate what we think. Winston Peters came closest to meaningful protest when he called the document another example of "social apartheid." Newspaper editors have failed to a man to question the assumption that the government has a right to dictate television programming, yet they would scream blue murder - one would hope - if the government meddled similarly in what they print.
Again, the answer to this latest Big Sisterism is obvious - get the government out of broadcasting altogether. When television began here as a state monopoly, that's literally what it was - just one channel. Since those dull, monochromatic days, private enterprise has been allowed to enter the field & work its magic. Now, Sky Television, thanks to the digital technology that the government has forbidden TVNZ to upgrade to, offers a choice among THIRTY-SIX channels - a variety & diversity unimaginable just five years ago. Sky is poised to leave state television for dead; this Politically Correct Charter will be the final nail in its coffin.
So my advice to Herr Hobbs is - mind your own business; throw your Charter into the shredder; disestablish yourself - & privatise the thing forthwith. As it is, all the King's horses & all the King's men won't be able to put TVNZ together again.
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