Thu 25 Jun 2009 In: New Zealand Daily News View at Wayback View at NDHA
Radio Live talkback radio host John Tamihere admits his off-sider Leo Molloy "got a bit carried away" during a recent on-air rant about accused HIV+ man Glenn Mills, but has defended his comments against the gay community and now advises his critics to "harden up!" "Harden up" says shock-jock John Tamihere Tamihere and Molloy shocked gay listeners to Radio Live on Tuesday 16 June, drawing harsh conclusions about promiscuity amongst gay men, and taking callers who described gays as "bummers" who "treat their bodies like fairgrounds". "Not all gays are raving lunatics who are right into promiscuity, right? But it would appear that a big number are," he said. Influential left-wing blogger Russell Brown this week blasted Tamihere's comments as "indefensible". STORY "A GOER" FOR TALKBACK The radio host was invited onto the taping of broadcasting watchdog show Media7 for digital channel TVNZ 7 last night, where host Simon Pound chaired a panel discussion which also included Claudette Hauiti - the Executive Producer of TVNZ's Maori Issues current affairs show Eye to Eye - and HIV researcher Michael Stevens. Tamihere said he knew the Glenn Mills story was a "goer" after hearing the story on the radio news. "It had some vim and vigor in it for a talkback topic. You've got to rev it up… it's not National Radio. We wanted to get views from both sides of the fence." Stevens was keen to take the Radio Live broadcaster to task for his comments against gay people, which he believed were "insulting and nasty." The hosts' commentary on the case that day was full of inaccuracies, the researcher pointed out. "I don't watch Close Up," Tamihere replied when asked if he'd seen TV coverage of the story. "But there's no doubt that HIV is a male homosexual problem in this country." Hauiti seemed familiar with Tamihere's on-air tactics. "These 'shock jocks' are often male, white, conservative and bullyish," she observed. "They get emotive responses to their topics, not intelligent debate. They try to marginalize minority groups to promote their conservative idealogy. But they should never have free license to denigrate and discriminate." "ADOLESCENT" Tamihere admitted his in-studio guest Leo Molloy had "got carried away" with the topic during the Radio Live show, but last night's discussion ended on a strange note, with him inviting the panel to "harden up", and then asking host Simon Pound: "When are you coming out of the closet?" Pound summed up his inquiry in one word: "Adolescent." The episode of Media7 will be broadcast on digital channel TVNZ 7 at 9.10pm tonight (Thursday). The show is then replayed several times during the week, and will be made available via the TVNZ website - and on YouTube (now shown below).
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News Staff
First published: Thursday, 25th June 2009 - 9:36am