Open letter to NewstalkZB hackette Kerre Woodham (Nov. 26, 2010)

Breen sends open letter to NewstalkZB hackette Kerre Woodham

This writer (i.e., moi) gritted the old teeth and tuned into Kerre
Woodham's godawful four-hour show on NewstalkZB for a half hour or so
on Wednesday night. As usual with callers to Woodham's show, it was
pretty much straight Looney Tunes; most of them simply echoed what
they'd heard from NewstalkZB hosts all week and poured scorn on the
police for their "gutlessness" and chortled over that Murdoch
newspaper hack's witless "country cop" slur against police chief Gary
Knowles.

This writer tuned in just in time to hear a classic call from "Cliff",
an angry, frothing troglodyte who brought every last cubic centimetre
of his cogitative capabilities to the question of WHY DID IT HAPPEN?
Obviously, he'd thought long and hard about this, and concluded that
it was... (wait for it) .... conservationists who had killed the
miners: "That last joker stole my thunder! I hope those tree-huggers
are happy now! Open-cast mines are the only way to go! Everybody knows
that trees REGENERATE themselves!" Cliff continued sputtering and
foaming in this fashion for several minutes.

Disturbing as it is to listen to such vicious ignorance, something
even more disturbing was going on: throughout Cliff's rant, Kerre
Woodham sat silent, as dumb as a post. She was, in effect, endorsing
what he said.

A genius called "George" was on next and, just like Cliff, he'd
obviously been thinking long and hard: "Willie Apiata, he picked a man
up on the battlefield in Afghanistan and carried him for seventy
metres through gunfire. I wonder why they don't bring those guys in, I
mean, they know gas...." On this occasion, however, Woodham felt moved
to actually say something. She gently informed "George" that the Pike
River situation was utterly different, and the SAS would not have any
idea what to do there. "Oh, yeah, I hadn't thought of that," said
George.

Incredibly, however, in this cavalcade of codswallop, one caller still
managed to sink below the level of everyone else. A bewildered woman
called "Pauline" called in to sing the praises of the show's host:
"You are just so CALM, Kerre! You have SETTLED THE NATION! I want to
recommend that you be nominated for the position of a United Nations
Ambassador for Peace!"

And she was deadly serious.

The next night (Thursday) Woodham changed tack completely. Instead of
silently or explicitly condoning the likes of "Cliff" and "George",
she repeatedly informed her callers that the "armchair experts" knew
nothing, nothing at all, and that all the "opinionated people" who had
urged the police to "let the rescuers do their job" were simply
ignorant. She solemnly lectured her listeners: "I wouldn't DREAM of
proffering an opinion about something that I don't know anything
about."

Naturally, this radical change of tune excited this writer (i.e., moi)
who felt moved to send Ms. Woodham the following e-mail....

Dear Kerre,Interesting to hear you denouncing "opinionated people" who "actuallyknow nothing" about important issues. You said you "wouldn't dream" ofproffering an opinion about something you didn't know anything about. 

Yet I recall clearly the way you spoke out repeatedly, in January oflast year, about the brutal carnage being inflicted on the people ofGaza. You were unstinting in your support of the Israeli bombardmentof a civilian population. Clearly, you knew nothing about thesituation there, yet you seemed unconstrained by your lack ofexpertise. 

You now seem to have changed your tune, which is encouraging. 

Yours sincerely, 

Morrissey BreenNorthcote Point

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Disappointingly, the potential U.N. Ambassador for Peace has not seen
fit to reply....