Posted by BE on December 4th, 2017
Well, given the level of controversy and protest about my post concerning Guyon Espiner’s use of Te Reo on National Radio, I had several options:
*To defend the post;
*To take the post down;
*To explore the issue further;
*If necessary, to apologise for what I’d written.
I decided not to take the post down. I wrote it. People read it. Some approved of what I’d said. Others were deeply offended. Taking the post down would do nothing to change that.
But an apology to Guyon and Māori upset or angered by my comments is clearly required. I failed to check my facts, by taking the time to listen to several editions of Morning Report. Despite my own fairly extensive background on National Radio, Including Top of the Morning, Checkpoint, Jim Mora’s The Panel and a variety of other programmes, I’m not a frequent radio listener. But that won’t stand as an excuse. I should have checked.
I didn’t. Instead I simply assumed that listener complaints were justified, that non-Māori listeners were unable to understand significant parts of the body of the programme where the host was practicing his Te Reo.
That is clearly not the case. And for that I sincerely apologise.
John Egan December 4th, 2017 at 16:42
Go on you good thing!
Zinc December 5th, 2017 at 09:39
When in doubt, do nothing.
John Northcott December 5th, 2017 at 15:57
If something need to be done and you do nothing, you are bound to be wrong.
Do something and you may be right.
Zinc December 5th, 2017 at 21:55
Agreed. Sometimes doing nothing simply isn’t an option, so act and try not to make things worse. But if in doubt, do nothing.
pjr December 5th, 2017 at 21:02
To err is human to apologise is devine
larry mitchell December 6th, 2017 at 09:13
No need for an apology in my view. I fully! support the Te Reo parts of RNZ … except that is for Guyon’s unintelligible babble.
How hard is it to provide (an abbreviated?) translation, if only out of courtesy to (a majority of) non-Maori speaking listeners.
Pete Sime December 7th, 2017 at 12:56
As a matter of fact, they do have a translation online. From what I recall they provide translations on the air during Maori Language Week
http://www.radionz.co.nz/collections/kiaora
pjr December 7th, 2017 at 17:16
Despite the Te Reo Maori disagreements I find it doesnt detract from what is an excellent programme.Guyon does a generally excellent job and lately Kim Hill has been standing in and demonstrating her peerless interviewing abilities.A good interview is better than a strong coffee in the morning to increase my state of alertness.
And yes Guyons diction and enunciation seem to appeal to the show off side of his nature.Either that or he suffers from dynamic perfectionism as demonstrated by Taxi’s Jim “Iggy” Ignatowski
Gordon De Queasy December 8th, 2017 at 22:05
If Espiner wants to parlay his conceit in the guise of faux humility and self-deprecation a.k.a ‘cultural sensitivity’, let him.
jh December 21st, 2017 at 22:05
Like planets around a sun, everyone has to get into line. Whatever happened to an independent media? Could it be that the media is too rich too elite, too out of touch?