Racism - John Banks, Radio Pacific, 10/04/2006

John Banks isn't known as the most liberal (or sane) individual in New Zealand. In fact, many a person has told me he is absolutely barking mad. His talkback show is filled with religious rhetoric (which recently included a sychophantic interview with Brian Tamaki), bigoted generalisations and some really really odd stuff. Now, one would think I shouldn't feel the need to comment on such nonsense. Everyone knows about it, hardly anyone listens to it, so might as well just let it run its path. But, let's not forget one of the pivotal roles of the media: to act as a public forum within which the views of society can be aired and heard freely. All media outlets, no matter how insignificant, need to be criticised. Banks himself loves to refer to his show as the 'people's parliament'. Well, I presume then he sees himself as the speaker of the people's parliament, the independent moderator of debate? If he does, he should be framing debate within an intellectual context, not a racist one. On his show yesterday, just after 7am, a caller named Peter called Banks saying there should be a sign at Auckland Aiport telling tourists that hitch hiking is dangerous. Banks replied there should be sign 'Welcome to Aotearoa, but be very wary of the natives'. Now, I guess in certain contexts that could be funny. But not in Banks'. His constant bagging of Maori among other ethnicities is far from light-hearted. He is quite serious. There's really not much else to say, except that it is completely unacceptable for any media outlet to allow such junk to fill the airwaves. Banks shouldn't be on the air if he can't help but make pathetic racist remarks and generalisations. It stifles intellectual debate and is just plain stupid. (Leighton Smith (Newstalk ZB) may not be so obvious, but the implicit racist/cultural generalisations he makes are far beyond reasonable)