Mike's Minute: I win one last time against the moaners
I would like to thank Stuff for reporting on what might well be one of the final times my name is associated with the Broadcasting Standards Authority.
It encapsulated everything that is wrong with the BSA.
This was the headline on Friday; "Complaint over Hosking's 'cocked it up' Covid remarks fails".
A person moans to the BSA, the BSA rejects the moan, they publish the result and then a website looking for clicks whacks a photo of me up and sticks the headline next to it.
What a waste of time.
This time it was from a Martin Garrood. He got exercised about my review of Phase Two of the Covid Inquiry.
He claimed I misrepresented what the report said. He also moaned about balance, or lack of it.
This is BSA nonsense 101. Most of the people who waste our time on this sort of thing don’t understand the rules of engagement.
The rules of engagement are not about whether you like it, or me, or not. It's whether I'm allowed to have an opinion and, guess what, I am.
Hence the complaint was rejected. They pointed out it's an opinion. People expect an opinion from the likes of me.
No one expects both sides of a complex story in a two minute segment, therefore the whole balance argument fell away as well. There was also a bit around fairness, which also fell over based on the idea politicians face extra scrutiny because they are publicly accountable.
Anyway, all of this is coming to an end, thank the good Lord.
It's people like ol' Martin that have kept them in business.
People who don’t like opinion that doesn't suit them and want someone to do something about it are, in a way, narks.
Broadcasting rules need to be about fact or legality, defamation or egregious behaviour. Serious stuff. Stuff that can ruin a life or reputation.
Having a spray at a useless Government over Covid is not any of those things.
Yet we have endured a mechanism that is paid for by all of us for the agitated few to whinge their hearts out.
So if this was it thank goodness, and let the record show that on Hosking vs the whiners, Hosking won about 97% of the time.
Free speech generally rules as it should.
There you go Martin. Moan about that.
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