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(Open Letter to the Minister of Broadcasting
and the Minister of Finance)
Dear Paul Goldsmith and Nicola Willis,
Introduction
The entire Board of Television New Zealand should
be replaced, because Q+A programme's Jack Tame has perpetrated
a racist scam on the New Zealand public. I refer to the Q+A interview
with Jason Gurney about rheumatic fever which was aired on 8 September
2024. I have transcribed this interview, and this
transcript is on the Web for everyone to see. The
programme itself will apparently only be up on TVNZ+ until about 6th
October 2024. I am not referring to Jason Gurney's book,
which I have not read.
The reason why this scam is so important is that both Maori activists
and Feminists use media propaganda and education system propaganda to
instill unjustified feelings of guilt into Non-Maoris and men, respectively,
in order to make it easier to build support for their political objectives.
This programme is an extreme example of this sort of unprofessional
propaganda.
Racist Negligence
There is a lot that is simply outrageous about this interview.
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In paragraph 11 of my transcription, Jack Tame asks, "Why
are Maori and Pacific people so over-represented in rheumatic fever
stats?", and Jason Gurney replies,
making statements in which he contradicts himself twice.
First he says that it's not about genetics -- without providing
any evidence. Then he immediately contradicts himself by saying
"genetics is one component", then he immediately contradicts
himself again, saying "we still don't understand the ramifications
or how important the genetic component is" -- in other words,
he doesn't really know whether his first statement was correct,
or his second statement was correct. And then he immediately
contradicts himself again, saying "It's absolutely a disease
of the social determinants of health," which reiterates his
first statement, i.e. that it's not about genetics. BUT
JACK TAME SIMPLY IGNORES THESE CONTRADICTIONS!
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Not only that, but Jack Tame does not ask
Jason Gurney for evidence to back up his dogmatic statement that
it's not about genetics. Jack Tame is usually a very incisive
interviewer, who pounces on inconsistencies and unsupported claims.
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In contrast with his views on rheumatic fever, later
on in the interview, in paragraph 24, Jason Gurney is quite
happy to imply that melanoma is a genetic disease which disproportionately
affects White people. It seems unprofessional that both he
and Jack Tame rule out genetic factors in one case, without clear
evidence, but accept it in another case. I am not stating
that the issue of rheumatic fever is a genetic one -- all I am saying
is that no evidence was presented.
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Then, in paragraph 14 (maorheal.htm#evasiveness), Jason Gurney
replies to Jack Tame's question about his research: "What did
it find about those socio-political factors?". He starts
off saying, "it really splits
into...", but then he decides that he only wants to mention
SOME of the causes (housing conditions), and we never hear about
the other causes at all in the interview. AGAIN,
JACK TAME DOES NOT ASK HIM WHY HE DOESN'T WANT TO MENTION THE OTHER
CAUSES! It becomes obvious that Jason Gurney has a
political agenda, and he doesn't want to talk about causes which
might detract from his "Maori and Pacific Victims" agenda.
Jack Tame, however, shows no interest at all in challenging Jason
Gurney to be truthful and honest with the viewers.
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Then there is the issue of what exactly the result is of those
causes (whatever they are).
In paragraph 17, Jack Tame asks: "How does old, cold, full
of mould lead to an auto-immune response?" In other words,
how do housing conditions lead to rheumatic fever? Jason Gurney
replies that "the old, cold, full of mould leads to the Group
A strep infection, so that, the conditions that give rise to the
spread of that Group A strep infection, which then kicks on to the
autoimmune response." My point here is that poor housing conditions
do not directly cause the autoimmune response which causes rheumatic
fever. Not everyone who gets "strep throat" (a streptococcal
infection in the throat) gets rheumatic fever. I myself have
lived in mouldy homes and I myself have had strep throat -- but
I have never had a rheumatic fever diagnosis (and I am not a Maori
or Pacific person). In paragraph
10, Jason Gurney had told the story of how his own father had
contracted rheumatic fever. This was a very sad story, and
I am sure everyone who sees the video will sympathise with what
that family went through. However, Jason Gurney states the
following: "as well as a few of the other boys, he developed
a strep infection, but his ended up being
much worse, and he developed rheumatic fever, as a result
of that strep infection." JACK
TAME DID NOT ASK WHY SOME BOYS GOT RHEUMATIC FEVER AND OTHERS DIDN'T.
THIS SHOULD HAVE BEEN A FAIRLY OBVIOUS QUESTION.
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Not only that, but Jack Tame and his team (if he has a team) seem
to have done no research, apart from reading Jason Gurney's book
and/or his report. I have done a little research on rheumatic
fever, and it didn't take long to find the
following quote, from the Mayo Clinic: "Rheumatic fever
is an inflammatory disease that can develop when
strep throat or scarlet fever isn't properly treated. Strep
throat and scarlet fever are caused by an infection with streptococcus
(strep-toe-KOK-us) bacteria." So Jason Gurney and Jack Tame
were trying to con us that rheumatic fever is caused by Maoris and
Pacific Islanders living in bad housing, whereas
the immediate cause is in fact a failure to treat strep throat properly.
Because of Jason Gurney's racist agenda, he deliberately refused
to talk about the immediate causes, and focussed on housing issues,
which may or may not be part of the cause of strep throat.
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The question then is (and Jack Tame should have enquired into
this): Why isn't strep throat being properly treated in New Zealand
-- expecially in the case of Maoris and Islanders (Pasifika)?
Part of the answer may be the cost of visiting a doctor and the
time you might have to wait before there is a timeslot when your
doctor if available to see you. Part of the answer may be
a reliance on traditional medicine by these communities. I
once had some Maori flatmates who liked to travel long distances
to consult their favourite expert on traditional Maori medicine.
I am sure that traditional medicine in many countries has some merit
-- but, on the whole -- it is nowhere near as effective as the cumulative
knowledge built up by centuries of scientific research across the
world.
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My own personal cure for strep throat is
to gargle VERY DILUTE Dettol. It tastes awful, and I don't
swallow it, but it works well. I have mentioned this to two
of my doctors, and neither of them said anything against it.
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It is very important to notice the nature of the interaction between
Jack Tame and Jason Gurney, and to relate it to TVNZ as a whole,
and to the political agendas of TVNZ and radical Maoris. Towards
the end of the interview, you can see that they have a very friendly
relationship. Jack Tame even ends the interview by saying,
"So thank you so much. We really appreciate it."
Soon after that, I saw another interview on television, where the
interviewee thanked the journalist for giving him a chance to air
his views on television. That is the normal thing to do.
For Jack Tame to "really appreciate"
Jason Gurney for the opportunity to publicise his book for him is
simply insane!
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The Leftist media have a strong tendency to be subservient to
radical Maoris. As another example, see my transcript of TV3's
interview with the Co-Leader of the Maori
Party in 2021. As is the case with Jack Tame's interview
with Jason Gurney, the interviewer asked no tough or searching questions
at all. In fact, he said "OK" 15 times and "Right"
16 times!
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I suggest that TVNZ news and current affairs
staff be kept as separate as possible from the staff who produce
programmes in Maori or for Maoris. That is because some (probably
many) TVNZ staff have learned or are learning Maori (including Jack
Tame). There must be a tendency for Non-Maori staff to want
to practise their Maori with, and learn from, their Maori colleagues
-- but there is a conflict between the relationship of a student
to a teacher and the objectivity which news and current affairs
staff should be trying to cultivate towards all sectors of the community
-- including Maoris. Also, when you learn a language, you
naturally develop positive feelings towards the people whose language
you are learning.
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