So Mr. Henry, shall we shoot you in this foot, or the other?

Right! I'm going to be controversial! I fully stand behind what Paul Henry said. News media is practically built on the Double Standard. To be very blunt about it: if you are a shade of brown or have a foreign name, or you are homosexual or religious or are of high standing within a minority group, you can say whatever the hell you like and get away with it, because minorities are of course continually put down by an oppressive white western media.

Bollocks.

The Paul Henry story has moved so fast that I'm not even 100% sure what he did in the first place because most of the coverage has been about what the effects of what he said are and what TVNZ is going to do about it. Because Paul Henry is white, he comes across as being insensitive and discriminatory. If he was Tangata te whenua (like I am, the whitest Maori in NZ), then he'd merely be an outspoken proponent of an ethnic minority.I don't think the Governor General looks like a New Zealander either. And this is despite growing up in Northland, which has a very large Maori population AND having a Maori grandmother. We are styled as being a largely white nation with a large immigrant population. The face of New Zealand is either white or Maori. So Paul Henry had a point, however bluntly he made it. Hell I have an English accent and I've never even left the country.

The media always jumps on the hot coal, so to speak, rather than concentrating on things that are IMPORTANT. Then again, its easy to fill pages with this stuff, especially considering the diplomatic outrage that has occurred in the wake of Mr. Henry's outrageous comment. What will happen is that he will be replaced. Just as Paul Holmes called that long forgotten rugby player a "cheekie darkie", Paul Henry will be replaced by someone else equally "shocking."

Political Correctness is the bastard child of the right-wing media. Even the advertisers have resorted to making white people the buffoon in their advertisements because everyone will cry racism at the first sign of making fun of someone who isn't strictly Aryan. Had Paul Henry said what he said in a pub, I'm sure many would agree with him. But because he said it on television, giving his opinion as was his job, the media acted like it had had its head cut off and ran about like Mike the Headless Chicken (look it up.)

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10678115 - Look he even apologised. You'll note the Herald telling us about Mr. Satyanand's life just to prove beyond all doubt that he is in fact a New Zealander and that they support him entirely and not that nasty Mr. Paul Henry (of course saying all this in the name of journalistic objectivity.) My point is, when did we get a new Governor-General anyway? Surely thats more important than some oik slagging him off on the morning television? Isn't everyone supposed to be at work anyway?

I am not always a fan of Paul Henry, but he is interesting. I realise that interesting does not always denote intelligence or integrity or credibility: if someone says The Hills is interesting, or Jersey Shore, then I will be proven correct. He is an intelligent and educated man and as an intelligent and educated person myself, I take pride in being able to give my opinion.

Though perhaps with a little more tact than Mr. Henry.