If more evidence was needed about the relevance or irrelevance of the Broadcasting Standards Authority (BSA) then a couple of judgements they made this week have rammed home the point.
The decision about Sean Plunket on The Platform has been widely reported and commented on.
My take is simple.
Firstly, Plunket calls tikanga mumbo jumbo. It might be a colloquial and rudimentary description of an undefined spiritual concept but it’s true. Just like Christianity, Hinduism and Islam and every other religion. There’s no harm in one having a belief in any spiritual concept but if others disagree with the concept of such belief then in the free, liberal and open democracy that we enjoy we’re allowed to express that disagreement.
Two, the Broadcasting Standards Authority has no jurisdiction over an online, internet content producer. For The Platform, as is the case with Joe Rogan or Tucker Carlson, the BSA has no control over. Yes, its content originates in New Zealand but it’s available for consumption all over the globe wherever the world wide web can be accessed.
The jurisdiction of the BSA is self-evident in its very name. Broadcasting.
Therefore their call on Plunket was just plain wrong. Very wrong.
But even more disturbing is the BSA decision on a Newstalk ZB broadcast from April of this year. It was a talkback show inviting listeners to either call or text. One text came from an unidentified listener and the host, Francesca Rudkin, read it out.
“Israel is running the show and 80% of advisers around Trump are Jews. A Jew gifted $250 million to Trump personally at his electioneering time and he took it happily. Rubio is heavily linked to the Jewish community and society.”
Ms Rudkin read the text, as you do, made no comment on it, and moved on to the next call or text. Standard procedure for a talkback host. Been there, done that.
But in a majority decision released this week the BSA said the message “clearly evoked negative tropes about Jewish people, and that reading it without challenge served to embed those negative stereotypes.”
Ah, excuse me?
Chair Suzie Staley and another BSA member Aroha Beck, according to Stuff, “found the comment carried a clear implication that Jewish people as a collective were wielding control and influence over the US Government.”
To their credit a couple of BSA members John Gillespie – my old boss at 1News – and bloodstock entrepreneur Karen Fenton-Ellis dissented from the decision.
Presumably it was Staley’s casting vote which made the decision a majority one.
The big issue I have with the decision and the content of the text is a factual one.
While it may be an overstatement that “Israel is running the show” the reality is that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Donald Trump in the White House five times in 2025. No other foreign leader enjoys such access to the POTUS.
The “80 percent of advisers around Trump are Jews” is again an overstatement but it is a fact that many of his key officials like Stephen Miller, Howard Lutnick, Steve Witkoff and his trusted son-in-law Jared Kushner are Jewish.
It is a declared fact that Miriam Adelson, widow of casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, has donated $250 million to Trump and Republican Party causes during his Presidential campaigns.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has close ties to the Jewish community because of his acceptance of donations from Sheldon Adelson and the Jewish car sales billionaire Norman Braman who was Rubio’s primary financial backer during his rise to become a US Senator from Florida.
Remember too that the US is paying Israel $3.8 billion a year under the 2019-2028 Bilateral Memorandum of Understanding purely for military aid and missile defence programmes.
The above are facts.
The texter to Newstalk ZB was not stating anything controversial.
The BSA decision on a complaint which obviously came from a listener sympathetic to the Jewish cause was nonsensical and flew in the face of journalistic integrity. For that reason I’m heartened that John Gillespie was a dissenting voice.
Newstalk ZB were given no fine or ordered to issue an apology. It was a the lightest of slaps on the wrist with the wettest of bus tickets.
It was a waste of the BSA’s time and taxpayers’ money.
It’s another reason to disband the BSA as quickly as possible.
Peter Williams was a writer and broadcaster for half a century. Now watching from the sidelines. Peter blogs regularly on Peter’s Substack where this article was sourced.
Two, the Broadcasting Standards Authority has no jurisdiction over an online, internet content producer. For The Platform, as is the case with Joe Rogan or Tucker Carlson, the BSA has no control over. Yes, its content originates in New Zealand but it’s available for consumption all over the globe wherever the world wide web can be accessed.
The jurisdiction of the BSA is self-evident in its very name. Broadcasting.
Therefore their call on Plunket was just plain wrong. Very wrong.
But even more disturbing is the BSA decision on a Newstalk ZB broadcast from April of this year. It was a talkback show inviting listeners to either call or text. One text came from an unidentified listener and the host, Francesca Rudkin, read it out.
“Israel is running the show and 80% of advisers around Trump are Jews. A Jew gifted $250 million to Trump personally at his electioneering time and he took it happily. Rubio is heavily linked to the Jewish community and society.”
Ms Rudkin read the text, as you do, made no comment on it, and moved on to the next call or text. Standard procedure for a talkback host. Been there, done that.
But in a majority decision released this week the BSA said the message “clearly evoked negative tropes about Jewish people, and that reading it without challenge served to embed those negative stereotypes.”
Ah, excuse me?
Chair Suzie Staley and another BSA member Aroha Beck, according to Stuff, “found the comment carried a clear implication that Jewish people as a collective were wielding control and influence over the US Government.”
To their credit a couple of BSA members John Gillespie – my old boss at 1News – and bloodstock entrepreneur Karen Fenton-Ellis dissented from the decision.
Presumably it was Staley’s casting vote which made the decision a majority one.
The big issue I have with the decision and the content of the text is a factual one.
While it may be an overstatement that “Israel is running the show” the reality is that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Donald Trump in the White House five times in 2025. No other foreign leader enjoys such access to the POTUS.
The “80 percent of advisers around Trump are Jews” is again an overstatement but it is a fact that many of his key officials like Stephen Miller, Howard Lutnick, Steve Witkoff and his trusted son-in-law Jared Kushner are Jewish.
It is a declared fact that Miriam Adelson, widow of casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, has donated $250 million to Trump and Republican Party causes during his Presidential campaigns.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has close ties to the Jewish community because of his acceptance of donations from Sheldon Adelson and the Jewish car sales billionaire Norman Braman who was Rubio’s primary financial backer during his rise to become a US Senator from Florida.
Remember too that the US is paying Israel $3.8 billion a year under the 2019-2028 Bilateral Memorandum of Understanding purely for military aid and missile defence programmes.
The above are facts.
The texter to Newstalk ZB was not stating anything controversial.
The BSA decision on a complaint which obviously came from a listener sympathetic to the Jewish cause was nonsensical and flew in the face of journalistic integrity. For that reason I’m heartened that John Gillespie was a dissenting voice.
Newstalk ZB were given no fine or ordered to issue an apology. It was a the lightest of slaps on the wrist with the wettest of bus tickets.
It was a waste of the BSA’s time and taxpayers’ money.
It’s another reason to disband the BSA as quickly as possible.
Peter Williams was a writer and broadcaster for half a century. Now watching from the sidelines. Peter blogs regularly on Peter’s Substack where this article was sourced.
1 comment:
It is clear that Minister Goldsmith will now be far too busy with all his old and new portfolios to do the obvious which is to close down the BSA immediately. In spite of announcing this in May, it is clearly not a priority (that old National trope). How about they do this and save us poor taxpayers the costs. That would take just five minutes if they used AI to draft the specific repeals and amendments to the Broadcasting Act 1989 that are 'required'.
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