Radio Pacific afternoon talk host Mark Bennett yesterday slammed the appointment of a LGBT liaison officer in the Waikato, saying that the police should logically now appoint a liaison officer for paedophiles and necrophiliacs. "If you've got a cop who deals with homos, that's on the one side of the equation, you've really got to have a cop who deals with the homophobics, don't you, the ones who hate homos, in the same way that homos hate anti homos,” said Bennett. The comments highlight the type of homophobia that is still acceptable on radio in the wake of the “cheeky darkie” controversy, when a broadcaster on a station that reaches nearly 230,000 New Zealanders of all ages every week can connect homosexuality to paedophilia and suggest that homophobes need to have protection from the police because of the threat they are under from gay people. It is unwise to dismiss such comments as ploys for ratings, highlighted by Newstalk ZB's general manager Bill Francis in his book on talk radio published last year. “My experience of hosts is that few don't believe in the argument and positions they adopt,” he said.
Credit: GayNZ.com News Staff
First published: Thursday, 16th October 2003 - 12:00pm