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By Steven | July 7, 2009
Michael Laws has been potted by the Broadcasting Standards Authority again, this time for a tirade against two fire service spokespeople, who had warned the public about the dangers of leaving chips unattended in a frying pan and not having working smoke alarms. This was after a fatal fire, killing four children, had been caused by… chips left unattended in a frying pan with no working smoke alarm nearby.
Just doing their job? Looking to save lives by averting similar tragedies? Not according to Michael Laws, who railed against them for three hours on his talkshow:
“dickhead in a uniform”
“I’ll find out who this idiot was”
“inhumane comments”
“Let’s use dead little Polynesian kiddies as a marketing tool, shall we?”
“I actually think the Manukau Fire Chief Larry Cocker, you’re a cock. You’re an absolute idiot.”
“contemptible individual”
“What’s the matter with you two? Are you morons?”
“[Larry Cocker has this] uniform mentality… He strikes me as a little strutting bantam with short legs.”
“Jumping up and down on the graves of dead children – not even the graves they’re still in body bags – is just grossly inhumane.”
“Resign, you loathsome individual.”
“Larry Cocker. He only needs to remove the ‘er’ to describe his mentality.”
“Larry Cocker, you’re a disgrace.”
“They’re arseholes… They’re grossly insensitive. They’re inhumane.”
“grossly insensitive idiots”
“these two morons”
“They’re not real firemen. They’re bureaucrats.”
“There’s a bit of racism going on.”
“This idiot, Mike Hall… He’s always been an idiot… He was an idiot over Guy Fawkes…”
“You’ve got some prick in a uniform – and that’s the word that could only be used to describe these two – using you and your family to promote their particular party political message.”
“This wouldn’t be happening if it was a middle class Pakeha family.”
They were exploiting the tragedy? How were your ratings that day, Michael?
PS. A cogent response by Laws:
The BSA should be disbanded. There is no need for it. My job’s not to offer balance, it’s to offer strong opinion. I never, ever go too far. I’m not a namby-pamby left-wing liberal commie journalist.
Topics: Broadcasting Standards Authority | Comments Off on Laws unto himself
