Paul Henry and Anand Satyanand

Everyone else is having a say about this, so why not me?

Henry caused a storm after he said this morning that Sir Anand [Satyanand] did not look or sound like a New Zealander when he asked Prime Minister John Key whether the next Governor-General would be more Kiwi.

Danyl at the Dim-Post seems to be leading the charge against Paul Henry, and good for him. Ben Gracewood has resigned from the programme, and good for him.

Three observations:

1. John Key has been criticised for not laying into Henry instantly. This is unfair. I have done lots of live TV and it is really hard. You are the guest on the show, so you feel like a guest in the host’s home; you can see how stressful it is for them so you try to make it easy for them; and when you are cursed with the politeness gene you can’t switch into Bob Jones mode when the host says something stupid. I bet Key was stunned by what Henry said, as any of us would have been, but if you don’t react instantly it’s too late. All the commentators have the luxury of reaction time. Key didn’t.

2. David Farrar has, uncharacteristically, missed the point. He says:

If TVNZ don’t take firm action on this one, they will find themselves in a very umcomfortable position. They should also arrange for an apology to the Governor-General. He was born in New Zealand, and is every bit as much a New Zealander as Paul Henry.

The fact that the G-G was born here is irrelevant. That wasn’t Henry’s point. He said the G-G didn’t look like a New Zealander. WTF does that mean? I have friends who are third or fourth-generation Chinese and Indian who are just as New Zealandy as I am. And, as most of us do, I have friends who were not born here but were raised here or moved here by choice and have committed to life in New Zealand. Some are white, some are brown, some are other. They are all New Zealanders. Older readers may remember Rob Muldoon in the Auckland Town Hall responding to a heckler who had an English accent, “You’re not a real New Zealander.” Muldoon was a prick, and so is Henry.

3. I feel really sorry for Peter Williams who has to work with Henry. Peter is an old-school journalist, having been trained back in NZBC days. I can’t find the link but the other day Henry was making great sport of the name of Delhi’s chief minister Sheila Dikshit. Peter interjected that the name is pronounced “Dixit”, which didn’t stop Henry from making more adolescent jokes. And Peter was right, as he always is on factual matters. He is a serious journalist. Paul Henry is not. As the great Marcia Russell once said of a colleague of ours, he is not even a journalist’s arse.

UPDATE: Stuff reports:

TVNZ has come in for fresh criticism over its handling of Breakfast host Paul Henry’s Indian slurs after it continued to prominently feature a clip on its website in which he ridicules the name of Commonwealth Games troubleshooter Sheila Dikshit.

TVNZ has received at least four complaints about the clip, in which Henry deliberately mispronounces Dikshit, despite being told it is said “Dixit”. He also says the name “Dick Shit” is “so appropriate” because she is Indian.

The case for the prosecution rests.