Start a group!

Hey all you New Zealanders out there (even if you do not look like me) : why the hell are you so many of you getting into such a state about what Breakfast TV host Paul Henry says?
I can’t say that I’m either a fan or a critic of the so-called TV shock jock. Not that I am sitting on the fence or afraid to utter an opinion about him. It is just that I just don’t care.
I rarely watch Breakfast TV. And the few times I have seen Henry, he has come across as a bit of a goober – especially when he giggles at his own jokes.
However, the proverbial really hit the fan earlier this week, when the loudmouthed Henry was interviewing Prime Minister John Key about the Governor-General Sir Anand Satyanand. He asked Key during their usual weekly interview, "Are you going to choose a New Zealander who looks and sounds like a New Zealander this time ... Are we going to go for someone who is more like a New Zealander this time?"
Now while our current Governor General is of Fijian-Indian parentage, he was actually born, educated and worked all his life in New Zealand. So it appears Henry seems to have really upset those who cannot stand him, which tend to be the politically correct, liberal, feminist, tree-hugging crowd. And this is not surprising as these are the types who are often the targets of Henry’s funny – and not so funny – barbs.
A couple examples of these ‘Henryisms’ have included:
- Asking his co-host if a rather serious, but admittedly hirsute, female Greenpeace spokeswoman had a moustache following his interview with her.
- Getting all school-boyish and giggling uncontrollably and repeatedly saying the name of the Indian politician responsible for overseeing the Commonwealth Games Shelia Dickshit.
- Questioning whether British singing sensation Susan Boyle was retarded.
As I have said previously, I am rather ambivalent about Paul Henry and am not fussed if he stays or goes. But come on people can we all get a bit of perspective about this!
Has Henry’s rather stupid and boorish question about the GG’s appearance really been worth all the newspaper column inches, news bulletin leads and online commentary it has garnered during the week?
Or do many of those calling for his head, and/or expressing all the faux outrage about his comments, really have other agendas to play out? What really are the Green Party, the Unite Union – and everybody’s favourite rent a protestor John Minto so upset about?
Is it more because Henry is viewed as a right wing commentator – he did once stand for Parliament for the National Party (and was ironically well beaten by a transgender, Maori ) — and not a bastion of the liberal, left wing, intelligentsia who these people support?
Meanwhile, much of the media commentary and news stories about Henry’s GG gaffe can be put down to good, old-fashioned competitor rivalry. It is obvious much of this commentary is more about news organisations been able to have a whack at TVNZ than any real concern about what Henry actually said.
French writer Voltaire is often credited (and wrongly as it turns out) with the rather eloquent defence of tolerance and freedom of speech by saying: “I may disagree with what you say, but I’ll defend to my death your right to say it.”
I’m with Voltaire on this. Paul Henry might be a bit of a dick and what he said might not have been politically correct. But we live in a free country and we are all allowed our own opinions – no matter how unpalatable others may find them.
So to all Paul Henry's detractors - as the man himself would so succiently put it - start a group!