The nervous chuckling of radio broadcasters (Mar. 17, 2013)

The nervous chuckling of radio broadcasters
Sunday Morning with Chris Laidlaw, National Radio, 17 March 2013

Chris Laidlaw is one of this country’s more serious-minded and intelligent broadcasters. He goes out of his way to be fair and even-handed, and he has attracted many high quality guests on to his show, including dissidents normally shunned by the mainstream media, such as Noam Chomsky and Norman Finkelstein.

He also has one of the very best feature writers in the country, Wayne Brittenden, who in his “Counterpoint” segment every week provides an unflinching, often startling in-depth backgrounder to current news issues.

Today, just after the 8 o’clock news, during his rundown of the programme, Chris Laidlaw said this: “At 11:40 Wayne Brittenden talks about the American soldier who is on trial for releasing hundreds of thousands of official documents to Wikileaks.” Then he chuckled, and quipped: “Which makes him flavour of the month at the Pentagon!” And he chuckled again.

Such behaviour is not just irritating, it is concerning for two reasons. (1) The American soldier (Bradley Manning) is not on trial for releasing hundreds of thousands of documents, he is on trial for blowing the whistle on atrocities and war crimes committed by U.S. occupation troops in Iraq. No doubt Laidlaw knows that, but he obediently read out the misleading words anyway. (2) The chuckle didn’t just happen. He did not chuckle while reading out anything else, only while reading out about Bradley Manning. This is, I believe, because Laidlaw realized that he was wading into extremely dangerous territory, and the consequences of even MENTIONING, let alone giving a fair hearing to, an official enemy are dire. Chuckling is a distancing mechanism, an almost subconscious way of protecting yourself from the charge of taking all this radical stuff too seriously.

That’s why Jim Mora chuckled incessantly recently whenever he even mentioned the name of official enemy Hugo Chávez. It’s not that Mora is a raving right winger like many of his guests, it’s just that he realizes it’s risky to go out on a limb and tell the truth unflinchingly.

A few years ago, Brian Edwards shrewdly assessed the behaviour of journalist/PR shill Bill Ralston: “He is an intelligent man who is afraid of being seen to be intelligent.” Replace the word “intelligent” with “principled”, and you have a perfect description of the timid “liberals” on Radio New Zealand National.

https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-17032013/#comment-604948

• Jenny8.1

  17 March 2013 at 10:11 am

  You should have listened to the broad cast program on climate change. Laughing and giggles and unfunny jokes all through it.

  I’ll be damned.

  Now I understand why. It was a distancing tactic. They were too frightened to seriously discuss this issue in case they ruffled the feathers of powerful interest groups who could harm their careers.

  I will right now, go and look up the link. And listen again with new ears.
• Ugly Truth8.2

  17 March 2013 at 10:49 am

  “it’s just that he realizes it’s risky to go out on a limb and tell the truth unflinchingly”

  I agree. Man-made earthquakes are not funny things. Another way of looking at it is when they lie blatantly about something, then you know that the issue is an important one. Like common law, for example.
• North8.3

  17 March 2013 at 11:03 am

  Methinks you may overcook Laidlaw’s chuckle there Morrissey. Doesn’t strike me that Laidlaw is an individual to be cowed either consciously or subliminally.

  Thanks anyway for the reminder to listen to the Brittenden interview @ 11.40 am. Didn’t hear the chuckle myself so won’t be adamant about it but are there possibly legs in Laidlaw actually doing a bit of a snidey at the expense of the monstrously fruit-saladed boys and girls at the Pentagon ? It was only an intro after all.

  As to Mora on the other hand…….well, he’s more a fulsomely charming dinner guest than anything else. The one whom for whatever self-preening reason brings the finest wine at the table and the only one whose demeanour is ineffably affable from start to finish.

  Anyway, raining steadily in the Mid-North for a few hours and just now quite solidly

  My ruggedly individualistic, freedom-loving, self-reliant, ACT-voting silverbeet and herbs are positvely humming. For today anyway they can safely eschew the vile-welfarism attendant in Nanny North’s watering.

  It is exciting as someone said.
  • ghostrider8888.3.1

    17 March 2013 at 1:01 pm

    Love it North (possibly the laughing discomfort of dissonance Mozza)
  • Morrissey8.3.2

    17 March 2013 at 1:58 pm

    Doesn’t strike me that Laidlaw is an individual to be cowed either consciously or subliminally.

    You’re correct in that he is not easily cowed. It’s hard to intimidate someone who has survived THIS….
    http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lrao8j533u1qgfwr0o1_500.jpg

    I do, however, think that his slight chuckle didn’t just arise because he thinks the persecution of Bradley Manning is funny.

    Don’t get me wrong: I believe Laidlaw is a brave and independently-minded broadcaster, but even he is not immune to pressure. Chuckling like that is the verbal equivalent of wincing; it signals uncertainty and discomfort.

    It’s far from the gales of laughter that resound in Jim Mora’s studio whenever something delicate, like government crimes or human rights, comes up for discussion.
  •