Sunday morning TV current affairs yielded a wide range of issues discussed; Len Brown and the Auckland Unitary Plan; Hekia Parata’s political career; US-NZ relations; New Zealand Universities; the high incidence of asthma in Maori; the Living Wage campaign; the rising careers of Dayna Grant and Maisey Rika; and the recently released findings of the Independent Police Complaints Authority. Plus the obligatory ‘plug’ for TV3’s “X Factor” on TV3’s “The Nation“.
On the issue of the IPCA’s report, “Q+A” host, Susan Wood introduced the issue with this segment;
SUSAN WOOD: “And the police conduct authority delivering it’s findings on the Urewera raid. Some road blocks and searches found to be unlawful. Some on the receiving end thinking about compensation.”
[cut to:]
RUATOKI CITIZEN: “Because you know, stress and all that kind of stuff. Cleaning the house. Because it took quite a while. That tear gas is quite hard to get rid of. I had to paint the ceiling.”
SUSAN WOOD: (smiling) “Who’d have known?”
Time Stamp: 1.05 – 1.20
TVNZ – Q+A – Series 2013, Episode 12
A screen-shot captures the moment when Wood made light of the young man’s experience, with her flippant, dismissive remark,
Yes, Susan. Who’d have known that a white pakeha could so openly lack empathy with fellow New Zealanders, in our own country, that had been terrorised by a para-military exercise that our own IPCA labelled as unlawful, unjustifiable and unreasonable?
Who would have thought, Susan, that women and young children could be locked up in a garage for nine hours under guard, without food, and a supposedly reputable journo like you could make light of it?
Who’d have thought, Susan, that an entire small town could be locked down and sealed off from the rest of the country in a scene straight out of C.K. Stead’s “Smith’s Dream/Sleeping Dogs” – and it would be an object of mirth for you?
When something like this – perhaps one of the most shameful events in our recent history – is so casually dismissed by you, then perhaps you should reconsider if you’re in the right job.
Your flippancy might be suitable on the cyber-sewer that is Whalesoil or David Farrar’s marginally less odious Kiwiblog, like this insensitive clod, anonymously revelling in his racism,
Kiwiblog – Greens see racism everywhere
Is that the kind of racist moron you’re lining up with, Susan?
Sorry, but one expects better from a supposedly experienced, professional in our media. Just because they were brown folk and poor, and not like your refined middle-class neighbours in your fine, leafy suburb – a bit of empathy mightn’t go astray here.
Or has the mask slipped, revealing the true attitudes of white mainstream media in this country?
.
Susan Wood is…simply wooden. I’ve always been struck by her “wooden-ness” . Never experienced suffering of any kind, except maybe couldn’t get her salon appointment on the day she wanted.
Nice Frank, you and Mr Selwyn do this media review stuff really well.
Thank you, Adam… 🙂
Honestly, I’ve pretty much tuned out Q+A since Susan Wood took over on that show. Look, I don’t mind a tough interviewer and I think the media here is sorely lacking in those. What I do mind though, is someone who seems to think that constantly interrupting and shouting over the interviewee constitutes “hard questions,” particularly when they’re in the middle of answering.
There’s nothing I find more disgusting than those with a well-to-do lifestyle denying or shrugging off the bleak reality for those in society who have been disadvantaged for generations. The RFK quote sums the situation up well.
The arrogance of the Police and AOS is very evident when they raid a property. I know someone who was growing cannabis and had his property raided a few years ago. He said the raid began when he left the house after six in the morning wearing a T-shirt and shorts, forced to the ground with six AOS members pointing their firearms at his head (where would you conceal a weapon if you’re wearing such attire?). They ransacked the house, left gates open on his block of land after the search – no consideration given to his livestock if they ran on to the highway or neighbouring properties. All because he grew a personal supply of cannabis and there were legal firearms on the property (kept in a gun safe). It doesn’t take much imagination to understand what the victims of the Urewera raid must have faced, indeed worse than the prior example.
Maori have faced enough disrespect for too long due to the ugly spectre of prejudice. But perhaps now with our leaders getting ever wealthier (and the rest of us poorer) and the disdain they seem to possess for us. If you don’t have the wealth, you are all Maori now.
A mandatory holiday where the wealthy and poor swap lives would be good; give the disadvantaged a break from their hardship and possibly enlighten the wealthy naysayers to the realities faced by the disadvantaged.
I’d have to agree she comes across like something out of the Australian if one wishes to watch a programme increasingly lacking in balance this is what Q&A is more and more becoming
Susan Wood and her ilk should try living for a month or two with a poor family (without access to money), so she can get a clue on how the other half (actually probably three quarters) live. How can you properly report on poverty when you don’t really know what it means to be poor?
She was always a little “I couldn’t help notice I’m considerably richer than you” (a la Harry Enfield) for me when she relieved for Paul Holmes on ZB. He managed to talk about his lifestyle without coming across superior. A skill little possessed and certainly not possessed by Susan or Mike Hosking.
In summary, this attitude doesn’t surprise me.
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