Superior edition of The Panel this afternoon; Finlay Macdonald gets his act together and delivers Radio NZ National, Friday 12 April 2013 Jim Mora, Sam Johnson, Finlay Macdonald
Jim Mora’s Panel program has been pretty effectively purged of dissenting voices. Regular listeners will remember two of the victims of Radio NZ’s clobbering machine, AKA the “management”. Gordon Campbell on one episode challenged the bullying ex-cop Graham Bell and forced him to back down, after Bell had indulged in a wandery, foam-flecked rant against Jeanette Fitzsimmons. Entertainingly, on another occasion Campbell also embarrassed the godawful Richard Griffin into backing down and apologizing after he had made a foolish and ignorant comment about Hugo Chavez. Griffin has since then been appointed to the chair of the Radio New Zealand Board of Governors—and Campbell has never again appeared on the program. In 2011, Panelist Martyn “Bomber” Bradbury dared to criticize the Prime Minister after Key had been involved in some typically hare-brained and reckless behavior in parliament; Bradbury was banished almost instantly for this act of lèse majesté.
The few “left” or “liberal” voices that are still allowed on the Panel pose no such dangers. With the occasional exception, they are unlikely to spoil the convivial atmosphere, or to ruffle the smooth and unexamined prejudices of either Mora or the other guest, who will be almost inevitably a National Party supporter or something even further to the right.
Occasionally, though, the token liberal actually does a good job. One of the occasional exceptions is Finlay Macdonald, who this afternoon managed to actually stay on message and say something coherent…
JIM MORA: The BBC says it will continue to play “Ding Dong The Witch is Dead” even though it’s an obvious dig at Baroness Thatcher. What do we THINK of this? SAM JOHNSON: I admired her will, and her strong character! FINLAY MACDONALD: Well it’s all a bit obvious, really. There were plenty of songs actually inspired by Maggie Thatcher. Let’s face it: she was detested, especially in the north. SAM JOHNSON: I liked her leadership! FINLAY MACDONALD: She was never as popular as has been asserted recently. SAM JOHNSON:[doubtfully] Oh, okay. FINLAY MACDONALD: Sam, you need to remember she said some pretty terrible things. She once said that there are “reasonable people in the Khmer Rouge”. JIM MORA: Did she actually say that? SAM JOHNSON: She also said many clever things. “The lady’s not for turning.” That was one of her good ones. MORA: So what do we think? Should the BBC ban this like it banned “Lola” and it bowdlerized “Fairy Tale in New York”? FINLAY MACDONALD: Play it, I say! Play it! SAM JOHNSON: Many people admired her resolve! MORA: Oh okay. She’s a good witch in the eyes of a lot of people. And a bad witch to others of course.
Soapbox…
Finlay Macdonald’s contribution was a thoughtful and serious rumination on the pernicious and cynical use of the phrase “systemic failure”. The continual resort to such official codewords, he said, is a sign of the corruption of our intellectual and political life.
Macdonald made his case so compellingly that Mora actually contributed something intelligent instead of doing something flippant like countering with a quote from some right wing ideologue in the New York Times. Sam Johnson, too, showed that he is more than the ambitious young-man-on-the-make he has too often appeared to be. For a short time, The Panel was an intelligent and interesting forum.
Thanks Morrissey for that analysis. Poor guy. You are now obliged to furnish the same on a daily basis. MacDonald was great. No bones about it. Play the bloody thing !
Aunty Affable Mora was dying to clutch her pearls over the “unseemliness” of celebrating The Vile Old Bag’s going off with 666 stamped all over her arse for delivery purposes but obviously thought better of it, for fear no doubt of Finlay showing him up for the Semi-Hurrah-Henry dick he is.
The seminal thing for me about TVOB and her vaunted love of freedom and democracy is “Nelson Mandela is a terrorist”. What ??? Gimme Terrorist Nelson over you and your alarmingly inbred looking arms-dealing spawn Mummy, any day.
Saw some comedy thing the other night where this wit (Englishman) said the send-off will be the first ceremonial funeral in history where the 21 gun salute shoots the coffin.
Saw some comedy thing the other night where this wit (Englishman) said the send-off will be the first ceremonial funeral in history where the 21 gun salute shoots the coffin.
That was Frankie Boyle, from Scotland. He was speaking four years ago, following a rumour that she had died. Here’s the clip….
Good summary, Moz. I heard the latter half, and then a Mora inspired waffle about why ‘systemic failure’ was a catch all for any modern enquiry. Actually, its not. It’s what kills kiwi workers at record levels. And a finding of systemic failure does not preclude individuals being fully prosecuted for personal failings. It’s not an either/or as Mora seemed to think.
Finlay Macdonald gets his act together and delivers
Radio NZ National, Friday 12 April 2013
Jim Mora, Sam Johnson, Finlay Macdonald
SAM JOHNSON: I admired her will, and her strong character!
FINLAY MACDONALD: Well it’s all a bit obvious, really. There were plenty of songs actually inspired by Maggie Thatcher. Let’s face it: she was detested, especially in the north.
SAM JOHNSON: I liked her leadership!
FINLAY MACDONALD: She was never as popular as has been asserted recently.
SAM JOHNSON: [doubtfully] Oh, okay.
FINLAY MACDONALD: Sam, you need to remember she said some pretty terrible things. She once said that there are “reasonable people in the Khmer Rouge”.
JIM MORA: Did she actually say that?
SAM JOHNSON: She also said many clever things. “The lady’s not for turning.” That was one of her good ones.
MORA: So what do we think? Should the BBC ban this like it banned “Lola” and it bowdlerized “Fairy Tale in New York”?
FINLAY MACDONALD: Play it, I say! Play it!
SAM JOHNSON: Many people admired her resolve!
MORA: Oh okay. She’s a good witch in the eyes of a lot of people. And a bad witch to others of course.