RNZ is fully funded through our taxes so doesn't have irritating advertisements, yet listeners are fast moving to commercial stations. RNZ's chief executive and others were reported offering various unlikely explanations such as the location of their operation and how large their office space is. No mention of one of the most likely explanations, that RNZ's constant use of te reo and focus on all things Maori are not what most people want to hear. The elephant in the room.
In the numerous readers' comments below the article there were almost no references to te reo. Most referred only to the RNZ's left-wing bias. I would place a small bet that comments referring to matters Maori were censored.
I know I'm not alone in experiencing some grief. RNZ's National Radio was previously my go to, playing much of the time at home and in the car, providing interesting programs, news, interviews and music. When I was alone RNZ was my companion, my connection with other humans. Since the time of the last (Ardern) Labour governments, RNZ announcers started using frequent Maori phrases, mostly incessant reminders of the te reo name of RNZ and whatever program was playing. They increasingly spoke Manglish, always replacing certain English words with Maori versions. Apparently, 'work', 'family', 'good morning', 'good evening', 'children', 'grandchildren', 'patients', 'meeting', 'walk', 'discussion', 'purpose' 'status', 'protocol', 'islands' and 'New Zealand' are no longer valid English vocabulary and must be replaced by Maori terms that often have slightly different meanings. Whereas previously I had no problem with some announcers using a Maori greeting or with Maori announcers or interviewees using some Maori language, I experienced the station's widespread use of te reo even by its European announcers as patronising and virtue signalling. I didn't listen to RNZ to be force-fed Maori language like a school child at a kura. I continued to turn on RNZ as I always had, hoping the woke nonsense would be a fading fad, but the bursts of te reo continued and each time I swore loudly (when nobody else was around, usually) and my hand went to the off button or the station-change dial. I genuinely felt sad at losing what had been such valued part of my life.
Especially irritating were the falsehoods. These included references to 'Treaty partners' and to distorted versions of the Waitangi Tribunal's retrospectively invented 'principles' of Te Tiriti as if they were true, uncontentious or even adequately defined. Also, the use of false Maori names for cities such as Hamilton, Christchurch and Dunedin. For a time, RNZ added Maori terms after the actual names for those and other towns but recently the English names have been totally discarded in favour of the Maori substitutes. Those bodies were originally established as townships based on European municipal models. They did not exist as entities before English and European settlers founded and named them. I see it as disrespectful to the founders to change the names they gave to the towns. The alleged Maori names may well have existed for certain Maori settlements, places or landmarks somewhere within the areas later subsumed by those towns but there were no Maori names for entities that did not exist in Maori times. One might argue that it's perfectly valid to make up and use Maori terms for European concepts and inventions. However, RNZ has never used a replacement English name for any of the much more numerous towns that were given Maori names. Even long-established English versions of the Maori names were no longer permissible.
Days of the week were another artifice. Maori did not have the Gregorian calendar or any of its predecessors. They did not categorise days into weeks but into lunar months with 30 or so differently named days. Sure, that was impressive Maori science albeit replete with superstitious astrological predictions for people's lives and activities. However, it means that Maori terms for days of the week are post-colonial inventions (as is the case for the majority of modern reo). By routinely giving the Maori term before the English term RNZ implies that the Maori names for days were traditional equivalents that should be shown respect. They are not and don't deserve such respect beyond being used when modern reo is spoken. As far as I'm aware, RNZ has never provided clarification about the origin of the Maori terms for English towns and days of the week and is happy for the public to keep being hoodwinked by the implication that the terms arose from traditional Maori culture.
Interviewers allowing Maori activists to make outlandish or incorrect claims without challenge also became intolerable. Such as the claim that the punishment of children for speaking te reo at school was part of a plot by the colonisers to suppress Maori language and culture, when in fact it was done at the behest of numerous kaumatua who wanted their children to become proficient in English in order to deal successfully with the larger world. There was never any rule prohibiting Maori language use in homes or community, only whilst attending school. With the wisdom of hindsight, the discouragement of te reo use at school may have had harmful consequences for children's pride in their culture etc but there is no evidence it was motivated by anything except good intentions. It seemed very unacceptable for the taxpayer-funded RNZ to be spreading untruths or distorted pictures of history likely only to increase division, resentment and instability in our country.
RNZ's content also lurched more generally towards Maori matters. It previously aired a lot of BBC and other international documentaries and focused on important world news. I don't think it's racist to find little interest in long reminiscences about somebody's deceased grandparents or the new paint job for a marae's kitchen.
One might have been heartened to learn that RNZ managers were considering ratings and audience numbers. However, RNZ does not need to be responsive to customer preference or audience numbers and it doesn't need to care about providing proportionally for all groups of the listening public, because we are all forced to fund it regardless. The blinkered views and blatantly silly explanations regarding RNZ's plummeting popularity suggested that there was no genuine interest in providing what most taxpayers want from a public broadcaster.
A.E. Thompson is a working, tax-paying New Zealander who speaks up about threats to our hard-fought rights, liberties, egalitarian values, rational thinking and fair treatment by the state.
14 comments:
For me, two hours of Kim Hill hysteria and Chris Laidlaw droning scarred me for life. The use of Te Reo by TVNZ had exactly the same effect and I suspect that I am not the Lone Ranger in this regard as evidenced by their latest profit results. If both organisations disappeared off the face of the earth today would we be any worse off?
I agree with most of the above The idea that only the Pacific is of interest to New Zealanders is parochial and dangerous We are part of the world whether we like it or not One point referring to Maori nature lore as science helps the misleading ideology about Maori knowledge to persist It wasnt science Insifar as it was accurate and spirits free it does count as knowledge but not science
As a small exporting nation at the bottom of the world it remains just as true today that proficiency in English is hugely advantageous for dealing successfully with the larger world. Combining English and Te Reo will over time lead to us speaking a language the rest of the world can’t understand. This is madness when English is the global language of business. English helps us earn a living. It’s a huge advantage. I gave up on RNZ when the female announcers started introducing themselves by saying something that sounded like “call [insert announcer’s name] a ho” - e.g. “call Kim Hill a ho” - which is of course pretty offensive in English slang.
It is not just the gratuitous use of te reo which deters traditional type RNZ listeners and any substitutes. It is absurd to use maori names for days of the week when maori had no such names. It is doubtful if maori ever used motu to mean all NZ as they had no concept of the whole country of 3+ islands as one territory. Programmes are relentlessly pro maori and dismissive of European culture. The Black Sheep series an example. Persons advocating the current pro maori re interpretation of Treaty intent are endlessly selected, presented, prompted, and encouraged. Little hint of the many counter arguments. On Saturday morning a relentless pro maori fare from the ever sour Mihirangi Forbes, sympathetic Susie Fergusson, followed by Julian Wilcox with his infuriating show off te reo babble and hyenic PD gang maori snigger, and trivail in house social chatter. RNZ continues as if the election had never occurred.
The programmes have been hugely dumbed down. Years ago there was a smattering of light classic music. Now never heard. The eclectic John Gordon, Norden/Muir, Peter Fry etc programmes were interesting.( Latter should be re played). Saturday evening is now absurd noise followed by pleb requests of pleb music by plebs, and hence much of the traditional audience is lost. RNZ seem to assume that discening listeners are dying off with age; they do not realise that there is continuous replacement. The aim seems to be to reduce the audience to those least likely to protest the proceeding Jackson conversion to a full maori station.
Personally I think Melissa Lee who seemd to have a knowledge of the programmes, may have proven better.
All of the above A.E. - most of those people felt like my friends. I do feel betrayed - think, "surely if we got rid of those noddies at the top, we could have a relationship again" - hmmm - maybe not.
AE Thompson's article says everything I have felt about RNZ and its irritating philosophy, if blatant virtue signalling and anti-colonial posturing can be called a philosophy. I turned off RNZ about 5 years ago and my physical and mental health have never been better as my blood pressure and spleen have returned to normal function and my breakfast is eaten in oath-free silence, something my wife values highly. The taxpayer money spent on RNZ would be better invested in a boat into which all of the egregious broadcasters could be placed and set adrift in the Tasman Sea where the elements could deal with them.
I'm with you A. E - exactly the same - RNZ National was my primary radio station.
I now haven't listened to it for years for all the reasons you have outlined.
Ditto TVNZ.
Indoctrination, pure and simple.
Now and again, while listening to other stations in the car, I punch the RNZ button, just because it is there as an option. In the past couple of years, I do not think I have listened to what subsequently eminates from the speakers for more than a minute before punching out to something else. It is not that I have ashort span of attention, far from it. The Manglish usually accounts for the exit stage left but the content is usually so gratingly woke or otherwise Maorified my poor old ears cannot handle the nonsense.
i forgot to mention the diabolical NZ speech and diction. The 6am guy frequently drops the g from ing words (and this despite me posting him a packet of cut outs to use ) And the ex TV3 bloke equally grating. Latest appeal to plebs is a moronic random time filler quiz. Responders seem to be random and mostly their reponses the same. Hopefully the Board is due for early revue.
I’ve been listening to national radio for 40 years but I never listen anymore as I don’t speak Maori, don’t care what the reporters name is which the current woke mistress says on every single article, and the content is woke, pathetic and mind destroying.
As we currently tour a number of cities in the EU we often use tour buses to see the sights. Most of these buses give you the option of listening to a running commentary in your selected language of which there are about 10 options, the first and most used generally being english. Funnily enough I am yet to be given the option of Te Reo. My point being that to travel, trade or conduct commerce in the world English appears to be the dominant language and the therefore be at the forefront of our school teaching.
Right ON A.E.
The virtue signalling is insufferably pathetic. Hijacking of the state radio by neoracist fads is very dismaying.
BTW you do not, A. E., to present a portrait of yourself; but to offer instead that old MAD Magazine image 'Alfred E. Neuman' just because you have the same initials is unnecessary. You are vastly more valuable than that flimsy character.
The day after the Maori queen was introduced to us, two different RNZ announcers referred to her "anointment".
Were we to believe she was rubbed down liberally with Nivea Cream? These two people speaking to us have never heard of the word "anointing". They are close to illiterate and RNZ is no doubt proud to have them on the payroll. I have written to RNZ about this but don't expect a reply.
I spent nearly 40 years in radio in NZ and Australia, mainly commercial stations, but some were with RNZ who then owned commercial stations. We recieved the highest standard of training based on BBC standards in speach, presentation and even pronouncing Maori names correctly. When the commercial stations were sold off and the TOW gravy train started with successive Labour and National Government's their was a major shift towards what we have now. In my opinion RNZ is to far gone to save, get rid of it or at the very least close it down
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