So how racist is Radio NZ?

By
Tim Selwyn
-
8
24

How to asses if race bias at RNZ is justified.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

8 COMMENTS

  2. Wallace Chapman is Fijian/Pakeha but I agree with your points. This Way Up is hosted by a Brit too. I do count Kim Hill as one of our own by now though. The one I don’t understand is Noelle McCarthy. She’s not even good but still gets lots of airtime in summer. At least Susy F is good in my opinion.
    Then again, I’m a white middle class Wellington liberal so I probably don’t notice the diversity gap.

  3. Interesting… I hadn’t thought about it…

    But you’ve made a valid analysis, Tim.

    Have you contacted Radio NZ for a response to your criticism? It would be interesting to see their response.

  4. Yep, it’s a valid point, considering the amount of traction performers like Billy T James & Sir Howard M. generated for the whole radio/tv environment, you’d think there be some kind of tribute page there. Plus RNZ should have a lot of time devoted to reading works by maori writers otherwise what’s the point of having a national identity that is given it’s mandate at Waitangi every year?
    I still haven’t found a radio station worth tuning in to. Keep going, please; liking the trews style reportage btw.

  5. Sorry to say this, but – simplistic crap.

    So, we’re hearing a broader range of accents on RNZ in recent years (including people and accents that you haven’t mentioned, such as Mai Chen, or others who discuss the experiences of newer immigrants). So what? NZ is a multicultural country – people who make this country their home are not always born here. Plus, it seems to me that you are ignoring programmes like Asian Report and Dateline Pacific (the world is not just Māori and Pakeha) along with The Treaty Debates, the Waitangi Rua Rautau Lectures, the numerous readings from Māori writers in both the regular morning readings and the Sunday morning kids’ slot (which often features myths and legends, as well as more modern writings). I can also think of three regular Māori content programmes (I seem to remember you only mentioned two).

    And are you assuming that there are no Māori voices or viewpoints in regular programmes like Country Life, Spiritual Outlook or Spectrum? How are you deciding who has a Māori voice? You give what seem to be very precise figures, but at best they are guestimates.

    Public Service organisations like RNZ usually try pretty damn hard to attract and keep Māori staff, especially those with skills in Te Rēo. The truth is, a lot of organisations are competing for these voices.

    RNZ could probably lift its game in all sorts of ways, but I don’t think emotive terms like “racist” are helpful.

  7. Very simplistic and poorly researched and completely ignoring the full range of diverse programmes broadcast on air and available online.
    Radio New Zealand has responded to this argument with accurate data and detailed presenter information whenever you have raised it in your blog in the past.

    As an aside it is worth noting that Susie Ferguson is not Irish. She comes from a third generation NZ family, her father is a Kiwi and her accent is Scots. Very basic research.

    • They all sound the same after a while. She was filling in for Noelle McCarthy on the basis she sounds like her – wasn’t she, that’s how she got her big break, yes? I made the mistake of interchanging them. The point is we aren’t talking about Samoan/Tongan or Ngapuhi/Tainui it is about Irish/Scots. Ethnic diversity to RNZ seems to be a balance between the tribes of Britain and the European races and provincial Pakeha rather than diversity to the rest of us which is whatever it says in the census. If Pakeha/Europeans are less than three quarters or two thirds and a shrinking proportion of the population why do they have their own special ethnic radio station called RNZ? Pakehatanga is fine, but that cannot be the exclusive (98%) voice on a radio station that says it is national and has appropriated the Maori language to do so. Next blog may be of interest to you, Mr Barr.

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