Kiwiblog

Ali Ikram just tweeted:

will someone deface Labour’s billboards by putting their leader on them?

Think if someone went and made up some huge stickers of Phil Goff and stuck them on all the Labour billboards. They wouldn’t know whether to complain or not!

Fun summer reading can be decisions of the Broadcasting Standards Authority. Some recent decisions:

1. They reject four complaints against TV3 for Ali Ikram’s satirical piece of Maori TV getting the Rugby World Cup rights. It wasn’t that funny a piece of satire, but no way should it be illegal!
2. They also turn down two complaints against TVNZ and Paul Henry over his comments re the Maori flag.
3. ACT member Peter Taskhoff is sucessful against TVNZ for a story at an arms show than unfairly portrayed him in a negative light.
4. Kerry Bolton wins against Radio NZ for Chris Laidlaw’s programme which made holocaust denying accusations against him withotu verifying them.
5. Henk van Helmond loses against TV3 for door stopping him at is home in relation to threats about Sue Bradford.
6. A complaint against TV3 for coverage of the Boobs on Bikes parade was not upheld.
7. A complaint fron a Patty Towl against Solid Gold FM for the joke that Ellen DeGeneres is the second most powerful lesbian on the planet, and Chris Carter being the first – was not upheld.

The Herald reports:

Maori TV has accused its rival TV3 of racism after it broadcast an item lampooning what its coverage of the Rugby World Cup would look like.

The TV3 Nightline parody showed an All Black diving for the winning try in the final, with the broadcast interrupted by a public service announcement, saying: “Pakeha. It’s time to talk. There’s a few things we need to sort out and you won’t get to see the rest of the game until we have.”

The reporter for Tuesday night’s item was Ali Ikram, who is well-known for his satirical streak.

And this is key. Ali takes the piss out of everything and everyone. I’m reasonably supportive of the Maori TV bid, but really they need to lighten up.

But Maori TV spokeswoman Sonya Haggie said it was “basically racist” and it would be laying a complaint with the Broadcasting Standards Authority. The item also showed a match referee calling on the video referee, which turned out to be the Waitangi Tribunal, with Ikram warning “this could take a while”. There was also a “compulsory haka” for which the French did the can-can.

You can watch the clip for yourself here. I don’t think anyone is really going to think that the Waitangi Tribunal will be the video referee!

Ikram ridiculed Maori TV presenter Julian Wilcox, saying he presented virtually every show on the channel. …

TV3 received a number of complaints, including from its own staff, including Campbell Live reporter Mihingarangi Forbes who told the Herald it was disappointing and embarrassing.

“Given that it was supposed to be satire I didn’t find anything funny about it at all,” she said. “I think Ali [Ikram] would have hoped it was funny and clever but unfortunately for him and everyone else it was not.”

Ms Forbes said the jibes against Wilcox were hurtful.

“We have the utmost respect for Julian and it was unfair to pick him out like that.”

If the item was having a go at Wilcox, that would be regrettable. Wilcox is highly respected. But I didn’t see the clip as that. I actually thought it was paying Wilcox a subtle compliment by mentioning the large number of shows he presents.

Humour is always a challenge. Almost all humour can offend someone. My preferred Southpark type humour offends almost everyone . There is a difference between humour for humour’s sake, and using humour to attack or ridicule someone. I didn’t see anything in Ali’s item that suggested it was anything beyond his normal humour for humour’s sake.

My advice to Maori TV. Do your own satirical response! Fight humour with humour.

Mediawatch on Sunday did a spell talking about blogs and included a chat with me, and an extract from the Two Helens ad Whale Oil and I did.

Last week I did an extended interview for around 10 minutes with Eric Young on Sky News. Was lots of fun. The dog toys even made an appearance. Also I discovered that Eric wears jeans with his suit and hides it from the camera

And Ali Ikram had some fun on Sunrise last week with our the two Helens ad.

I’m also on One’s Breakfast around 8.20 tomorrow discussing the campaign and the election.