The hypocrisy of media outrage and the Toddler-in-Chief of The Platform
It is always a comedy of double standards when the mainstream media foams at the mouth over satire - except, of course, when the target is Donald Trump. When it comes to the US President, mocking his tangerine-tinted skin and calling him "orange man" is not just acceptable, it is a media sport. Shooting at action figures of him on live television? Is just another day at TVNZ.
But the moment someone dares to poke satirical fun at a New Zealand politician like Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, say, over an alleged spray tan, the self-righteous shrieks of "racism" echo through the press like it is the end of civilisation. The hypocrisy is laughable, if it were not so nauseating. Fair game for Trump, but hands off anyone the media deems untouchable. So much for consistency.
What is worse is when supposedly independent voices claiming to fight the good fight, like The Platform, start parroting the same sanctimonious lines. Sean Plunket called the satire in question “racist”, and in doing so, they proved they are no better than the mainstream media they pretend to critique. When you are using the same vocabulary and crying the same crocodile tears, you are part of the same tired establishment.
Sean Plunket, the self-anointed truth-teller, founder of The Platform, and walking embodiment of irony. He is always ready to brand dissenters “cookers”, hurl insults, and throw online tantrums like a teenager who has had his sticky-mags confiscated. When I started writing on X earlier this year, he was relentless in trying to drag me onto his show. I declined, not just because I was under a barrage of death threats, but because I could see right through his act. The way he treats his staff is no surprise to anyone paying attention.
Let us talk about that. The Employment Relations Authority heard last year how former Platform employee Ani O’Brien was allegedly screamed at, sworn at, and intimidated by Plunket, who, in a moment of schoolyard drama, reportedly punched a desk just a metre away from her. Plunket did not deny it. He called his behaviour “appalling”. And yet he still disputes the grievance. A man-child tantrum, followed by denial and deflection? Textbook.
O’Brien is now fighting back, seeking compensation for unjust dismissal, lost wages, and the kind of public humiliation you only get working for someone who believes a platform means a licence to bully. Frankly, I hope she gets every cent.
At the end of the day, Sean Plunket is not a fearless truth-teller. He is a toddler with a Twitter handle, stomping his feet when the world refuses to bend to his delusions. If he really believed in accountability, he would take his own advice for once and have a cuppa tea anda lie down, and maybe try acting like an adult in the room.
Until then, he remains what he so loudly rails against, a caricature of everything wrong with New Zealand media.
Sean has very thin skin, it would seem.
Thank God for old fashioned good humour and satire that we find here.
Plunket is a useful idiot par excellence. His daily faux outrage against woke and his disparaging "cooker" cheap shots directed towards anybody and everybody outside his tightly held narrative suggests - if he wasn't such an obvious fool - that he could even pass as controlled opposition. If nothing else, his arrogance and prejudices distract from more urgent issues.
He's probably losing sleep over his ol' sparring partner Garner muscling into his media domain and doing it better, not to mention the rants of sidekick Laws gradually aligning more closely with the worldview of those "cookers" at RCR.
I'm still waiting for Plunket to assemble his team of 'experts' to debate Steve Kirsch over the Safe & Effective for the $1M prize money, or was that just another stunt for a few 'likes' from a tragic crywanker trying desperately to be relevant?