Under further questioning from Salmon, Batchelor said he was not a racist and disagreed with Nazism and right-wing extremism. He repeatedly stated that he believed Māori had fundamental character flaws. “It’s the lack of character inside Māori that I believe is the issue,” he said. “If Māori don’t address the issue of character, then the culture and the language might as well die a natural death.”
He told the court that he believed Māori were not indigenous to New Zealand and that a race of fair-skinned, ginger-haired people had settled the land before Māori arrived.
I have to say, based on his own words, he does sound a little racist.
For someone who is not a racist he certainly knows a lot of racists, worked very hard to promote racist conspiracy theories, and says a lot of things a racist would say.
Oh well. Ultimately there is no way to tell what is in a man's heart. After all if you can't judge a man by the things he says, the causes he supports, and the company he keeps, we all just need to assume he's just a little guy, just a small bean and also its his birthday.
Under further questioning from Salmon, Batchelor said he was not a racist ... He repeatedly stated that he believed Māori had fundamental character flaws
"I'm not racist. I just believe this particular race is flawed". In court too. Is he as dumb as he is racist?
Reminder that convicted arsonist, "former" white supremacist, anti vaxxer, and hate crime guy Kyle Chapman ran security for Batchelor on the Christchurch stop of his racist conspiracy theory tour.
And if people think that might be a one-off, the organiser of the Hawke's Bay leg of Bachelor's tour was a member of the National Front, who self-describes himself as a racist.
Those are the sort of characters that Batchelor willingly associates with.
"Home made pseudo-SS uniform wearer who would burst into local body election events and try to staunch out the room" guy, who ran annual white power marches, yeah. That guy, worked the door for alleged not-a-racist Julian Batchelor.
Can't imagine what those two would have in common.
Very terrible look for NZME to have your company director putting money on the line in a fight against another media company to defend racism. If it was a fight about something else I could understand it, but going this far on behalf of a racist fuckwit who has a chip on his shoulder about Māori people?
Friendly reminder that articles about Jim Grenon and his shady background were archived 9 months ago in anticipation of him trying to manipulate the media:
Who is James Grenon? The billionaire who spent $9m on a stake in NZME - [Original] [Archive]
Billionaire moves to clear NZME board, add himself, days after buying 9% stake - [Original] [Archive]
NZ Herald newsroom concerned by billionaire’s plan for NZME board - [Original] [Archive]
NZME union members ask for meeting with the billionaire who wants to clear the board - [Original] [Archive]
Former Warehouse exec and NZ On Air board member nominated for NZME board - [Original] [Archive]
Mediawatch: Anxiety over editorial policy and a billionaire on board at NZME - [Original] [Archive]
Top journalists to depart in major NZME newsroom operations overhaul - [Original] [Archive]
NZME was in fresh talks with Stuff, but it’s third time unlucky - [Original] [Archive]
Canadian billionaire willing to compromise on NZME board changes to become chair - [Original] [Archive]
Billionaire’s NZME board takeover may have breached regulations - [Original] [Archive]
Sir Ian Taylor: Why I’m concerned about Jim Grenon’s NZME takeover bid - [Original] [Archive]
Fight for control of NZME delayed as shareholders’ meeting pushed back - [Original] [Archive]
Billionaires funding defamation law suits to silence the media is a trick straight out of the Trump playbook.
That the owner of the country's largest private media company is funding the suing of the state-owned broadcaster should ring alarm bells in a normal democracy.
Such an apt description 😂 Having left the shire and lived in many other lands before settling here, I'm concerned by the tendency to just sing louder and drown out the approaching war drums.
We barely have any proper journalism and what little we do have, is being lost. It's absolutely vital to democracy.
“He told the court that he believed Māori were not indigenous to New Zealand and that a race of fair-skinned, ginger-haired people had settled the land before Māori arrived.”
Are we Irish?
The man should sue himself next for ridiculing himself in public.
What’s even worse is the piece of shit billionaire isn’t even a kiwi, he’s Canadian. So he’s putting money on the line to fight on behalf of a racist on the other side of the planet. That’s how you know they’re all fucking trash.
See, dickheads like that ruin it for the rest of the rich. If they are going to behave like monkeys I'll tax them like monkeys. . . Yes I'm aware that makes no sense, but you get my drift.
Grenon doesn't live here, he's probably not earning much/any NZ income - he just bought a stake in NZME so he could exert influence towards his personal ideological views because presumably he wants to see those views be adopted in countries around the world.
The problem is that we have allowed overseas interests to buy their way into controlling our domestic media, no doubt done with the idea that overseas buyers increase the potential market and thus give current business owners the possibility of selling their businesses for more money. This is seen by the business community as a huge win...although for the regular people of NZ the prospect of an overseas interest deciding how our media is run and what they say should be concerning.
If you're interested, here is the (admittedly AI generated) list of NZME brands.
NZME (New Zealand Media and Entertainment) owns a large portfolio of leading NZ brands across print, radio, and digital, including major newspaper titles like The New Zealand Herald, regional papers (e.g., Bay of Plenty Times, Northern Advocate), popular radio stations (Newstalk ZB, ZM, The Hits, Gold, Flava, Coast, Hauraki), digital platforms (iHeartRadio, OneRoof, Driven, BusinessDesk), and lifestyle brands (Viva).
Newspapers & Publishing
The New Zealand Herald: Flagship national newspaper.
Regional Papers: Bay of Plenty Times, Hawke's Bay Today, Northern Advocate, Gisborne Herald, Rotorua Daily Post, Whanganui Chronicle.
Lifestyle/Other: Viva, Canvas, Reset, Education Gazette, SunLive.
Radio & Audio
Newstalk ZB: Leading news/talk station.
The Hits: Popular music station.
ZM: Hit music for younger audiences.
Gold: Classic hits.
Radio Hauraki: Rock/Alternative.
Flava: R&B/Hip-Hop.
Coast: Easy listening.
Hokonui: Regional music.
NZME Sport:.
Digital & Streaming
iHeartRadio: New Zealand's local streaming service.
OneRoof: Real estate platform.
Driven: Automotive content.
BusinessDesk: Business news.
TheCountry: Rural news.
NZME's extensive network allows them to reach a broad audience across various platforms.
Hard to avoid them, but you can make informed decisions about what type of media you want to consume
Regardless of what you think of Gawker, a tech billionaire funding a lawsuit by someone else, should not be how news media is held accountable.
By the way, News of the World and the British tabloids were never held accountable. When David Cameron refused to introduce any of the recommendations of the Leveson inquiry, the British tabloids basically won. While News of the World was closed, nothing truly meaningful has come about from it.
If Peter Thiel wanted to hold Gawker accountable for what they did, he should have sued them himself. They did violate his privacy after all. But he didn't do that. Instead, he duplicitously used Hulk Hogan as a proxy to attack the company and destroy them.
Accountability requires at the least shedding light on a harmful practice. Whereas, hiding in the shadows while using a third party to attack the cause of harm you may have experienced is not accountability.
An improvement in and enforcement of journalistic standards, especially regarding paparazzi and tabloid media, like what the Leveson inquiry recommended.
That's not to say that lawsuits against media companies by individuals who have been hurt by them cannot be a legitimate option. Such situations are why tort law exists. But it is totally wrong for some billionaire to fund any such lawsuit from the shadows as a cudgel to attack the media, like what Peter Thiel did. He should not have been allowed to fund Hulk Hogan's lawsuit.
I know that no one has to be charitable with their money and I definitely don’t get to dictate what other people do with their money, but I don’t understand how you could be a billionaire from New Zealand not do more to help the country, we are small enough that they could make a difference.
He's not a billionaire from New Zealand. He's a right wing billionaire from Canada who bought up NZME in order to exert influence on the New Zealand media landscape.
You could find countless newspaper opinion pieces arguing back and forth what is and is not racist: this political campaign is racist, that radio commercial isn't racist, this remark by a game show host is racist, and so on.
It seems straightforward to me that because the meaning of the term is so contested, it's ultimately a matter of personal judgement, and therefore the "honest opinion" defence should apply to all accusations of racism when defamation lawsuits come up. Yet this unfortunately is not the case in New Zealand. The courts see fit to judge what counts as "really" racist.
I've read some of what Mr. Batchelor has to say, and I've arrived at the conclusion that he is racist. Since I am currently writing this comment from the United States, my conclusion is protected by the law: courts here recognise it as a statement of opinion, rather than an assertion of fact, and therefore it cannot be legally defamatory.
I have to say, based on his own words, he does sound a little racist.
For someone who is not a racist he certainly knows a lot of racists, worked very hard to promote racist conspiracy theories, and says a lot of things a racist would say.
Oh well. Ultimately there is no way to tell what is in a man's heart. After all if you can't judge a man by the things he says, the causes he supports, and the company he keeps, we all just need to assume he's just a little guy, just a small bean and also its his birthday.
"I'm not racist. I just believe this particular race is flawed". In court too. Is he as dumb as he is racist?
Ignorance and racism go together like bread and butter. Causation or correlation? Who are we to judge
> I have to say, based on his own words, he does sound a little racist.
He sounds totally racist. That's conspiracy theory "scientific racism" straight from the Nazi playbook. It's absolute fucking bullshit.
Isn't the belief that a particular race has inferior characteristics a literal definition of racism?
"I'm not racist, I just hate people based on race."
Only a little?
I didn't know he was short
He's definitely trying to make up for being a few inches below average
Reminder that convicted arsonist, "former" white supremacist, anti vaxxer, and hate crime guy Kyle Chapman ran security for Batchelor on the Christchurch stop of his racist conspiracy theory tour.
And if people think that might be a one-off, the organiser of the Hawke's Bay leg of Bachelor's tour was a member of the National Front, who self-describes himself as a racist.
Those are the sort of characters that Batchelor willingly associates with.
dont forget 'home made pseudo SS uniform wearer'
"Home made pseudo-SS uniform wearer who would burst into local body election events and try to staunch out the room" guy, who ran annual white power marches, yeah. That guy, worked the door for alleged not-a-racist Julian Batchelor.
Can't imagine what those two would have in common.
Its a mystery for the ages, for sure /s
Very terrible look for NZME to have your company director putting money on the line in a fight against another media company to defend racism. If it was a fight about something else I could understand it, but going this far on behalf of a racist fuckwit who has a chip on his shoulder about Māori people?
Friendly reminder that articles about Jim Grenon and his shady background were archived 9 months ago in anticipation of him trying to manipulate the media:
Billionaires funding defamation law suits to silence the media is a trick straight out of the Trump playbook.
That the owner of the country's largest private media company is funding the suing of the state-owned broadcaster should ring alarm bells in a normal democracy.
That’s not even Trumpian, that’s straight up Trump’s handler Peter Theil. I still miss Gawker.
The Wānaka wanka.
In a backwater of clueless and cowardly hobbits however 👇🏻
Such an apt description 😂 Having left the shire and lived in many other lands before settling here, I'm concerned by the tendency to just sing louder and drown out the approaching war drums.
We barely have any proper journalism and what little we do have, is being lost. It's absolutely vital to democracy.
Well, really it’s just the billionaire playbook. Hell, wasn’t Orson Welles sued by a billionaire for slander about Citizen Kane?
Didn't know that!
As far as I'm aware a billionaire is legally allowed to fund a legitimate defamation law suit against the state-owned broadcaster.
It would seem like democracy is functioning properly - im not aware of any democratic process underway that would make such actions illegal.
Many things that are legal are not ethical or contribute positively to society as a whole.
The existence of a state-owned broadcaster should ring alarm bells in a normal democracy.
Nearly every country in the world has some kind of state-owned broadcaster, many of them far better funded than they are here.
Not my problem.
What's not your problem? Facts?
The governments of other countries.
This is a subreddit for New Zealand.
So, you want to make an assessment on the validity of state-owned broadcasters by only considering one country? Oh dear.
Not only that but he’s only considering one of the countries that has strict political laws around broadcasting ( unlike the US )
Probably gets his news from The Platform.
I’d more like believe it’s from a conspiracy based YT channel ohh wait…
There's a huge difference between state-owned and state-run media.
Implying one is less desirable than the other, why might that be? 😏
Because state run media is bad for democracy, and state funded, editorially independent media isn’t?
lol you can’t be this dim
Based on all evidence so far, it's not looking good for them.
Great adhoms don’t need validation.
Are you AI?
Are you choosing to spend time on social media talking to people who might be bots?
You need to be trained on a more interesting dataset.
This comment convinced me that it's bad when government says stuff but good when government pays to have stuff said.
It’s ok, we all already understand you don’t grasp the concept of editorial independence, you don’t need to keep demonstrating it.
You sure got me there, huh.
Yes, they did. You just aren't clever enough to realise.
How about that.
Er, have you seen Chinese or Russian run state media?
We're on it right now.
Are you suggesting none of these are normal democracies since they have state-owned broadcasters?
UK (BBC),
Germany (ARD)
Japan (NHK)
Canada (CBC)
Australia (ABC)
India (Doordarshan)
France (France Télévisions)
Define normal democracy.
You're the one who used that phrase originally. What does it mean to you?
lol no
What does history show in that respect?
For instance can you name a democracy that has not had a public media?
Is or public or private media that is, associated with threats to democratic states in failed democracies?
“He told the court that he believed Māori were not indigenous to New Zealand and that a race of fair-skinned, ginger-haired people had settled the land before Māori arrived.”
Are we Irish?
The man should sue himself next for ridiculing himself in public.
Fuck this. Tax the rich.
What’s even worse is the piece of shit billionaire isn’t even a kiwi, he’s Canadian. So he’s putting money on the line to fight on behalf of a racist on the other side of the planet. That’s how you know they’re all fucking trash.
Irony is Jim Grenon is a tax fraud in his homeland of Canada. He has lost many cases against the Canadian IRD.
Probably up to the same shit here but our tax enforcement on the wealthy is so weak he's getting away with it.
See, dickheads like that ruin it for the rest of the rich. If they are going to behave like monkeys I'll tax them like monkeys. . . Yes I'm aware that makes no sense, but you get my drift.
Grenon doesn't live here, he's probably not earning much/any NZ income - he just bought a stake in NZME so he could exert influence towards his personal ideological views because presumably he wants to see those views be adopted in countries around the world.
The problem is that we have allowed overseas interests to buy their way into controlling our domestic media, no doubt done with the idea that overseas buyers increase the potential market and thus give current business owners the possibility of selling their businesses for more money. This is seen by the business community as a huge win...although for the regular people of NZ the prospect of an overseas interest deciding how our media is run and what they say should be concerning.
Fucking tax him anyway. Might encourage him to leave.
He lives in Takapuna apparently, has a mansion on the waterfront.
Good time to boycott NZME: the Herald and Newstalk are the main brands, also Business Desk, ZM, the Hits, the Coast, Radio Hauraki.
Fuck billionaires man.
This fool Batchelor is getting washed in court and Grenon will come out of the whole sorry affair looking like a chump.
What an embarrassment for any journalists left at NZME. And their subscribers I suppose.
Billionaires don't want the media to win anything. What if they started to report the illegal things that the rich are doing behind the scene?
Jim Grenon fucking sucks dude - he's been funding bullshit right wing news here in NZ for a while now. Like a shittier Rupert Murdoch
Didn't expect a Canadian was gonna be the lead character for ruining the country over the next decade but here we are.
As much as Canada is generally perceived as a reasonable country around the world, they do have a province known as the Texas of the north, which has a premier that speaks at MAGA events in the US, has fanned separatist ideas in the province and who has rushed through legislative changes to allow a petition asking the province if they want to secede from the country because it's not conservative-enough.
Always the ritch who think they can do whatever they like.
If you're interested, here is the (admittedly AI generated) list of NZME brands.
NZME (New Zealand Media and Entertainment) owns a large portfolio of leading NZ brands across print, radio, and digital, including major newspaper titles like The New Zealand Herald, regional papers (e.g., Bay of Plenty Times, Northern Advocate), popular radio stations (Newstalk ZB, ZM, The Hits, Gold, Flava, Coast, Hauraki), digital platforms (iHeartRadio, OneRoof, Driven, BusinessDesk), and lifestyle brands (Viva).
Newspapers & Publishing
The New Zealand Herald: Flagship national newspaper.
Regional Papers: Bay of Plenty Times, Hawke's Bay Today, Northern Advocate, Gisborne Herald, Rotorua Daily Post, Whanganui Chronicle. Lifestyle/Other: Viva, Canvas, Reset, Education Gazette, SunLive.
Radio & Audio
Newstalk ZB: Leading news/talk station. The Hits: Popular music station. ZM: Hit music for younger audiences. Gold: Classic hits. Radio Hauraki: Rock/Alternative. Flava: R&B/Hip-Hop. Coast: Easy listening. Hokonui: Regional music. NZME Sport:.
Digital & Streaming
iHeartRadio: New Zealand's local streaming service. OneRoof: Real estate platform. Driven: Automotive content. BusinessDesk: Business news. TheCountry: Rural news. NZME's extensive network allows them to reach a broad audience across various platforms.
Hard to avoid them, but you can make informed decisions about what type of media you want to consume
I have zero trouble already avoiding all that without any effort 😂
I had already cancelled my NZ Herald subscription and thanks to your list, deleting the iHeart radio app fits with my new digital minimalism.
This is straight out of the Peter Thiel playbook for killing journalism.
Well, apart from choosing a case he can't win (cos Batcheler regularly expresses overtly racist beliefs) and suing for a paltry amount (50k).
[deleted]
Regardless of what you think of Gawker, a tech billionaire funding a lawsuit by someone else, should not be how news media is held accountable.
By the way, News of the World and the British tabloids were never held accountable. When David Cameron refused to introduce any of the recommendations of the Leveson inquiry, the British tabloids basically won. While News of the World was closed, nothing truly meaningful has come about from it.
[deleted]
If Peter Thiel wanted to hold Gawker accountable for what they did, he should have sued them himself. They did violate his privacy after all. But he didn't do that. Instead, he duplicitously used Hulk Hogan as a proxy to attack the company and destroy them.
Accountability requires at the least shedding light on a harmful practice. Whereas, hiding in the shadows while using a third party to attack the cause of harm you may have experienced is not accountability.
[deleted]
An improvement in and enforcement of journalistic standards, especially regarding paparazzi and tabloid media, like what the Leveson inquiry recommended.
That's not to say that lawsuits against media companies by individuals who have been hurt by them cannot be a legitimate option. Such situations are why tort law exists. But it is totally wrong for some billionaire to fund any such lawsuit from the shadows as a cudgel to attack the media, like what Peter Thiel did. He should not have been allowed to fund Hulk Hogan's lawsuit.
Seize all his NZ assets and chuck him out of the country.
I know that no one has to be charitable with their money and I definitely don’t get to dictate what other people do with their money, but I don’t understand how you could be a billionaire from New Zealand not do more to help the country, we are small enough that they could make a difference.
He's not a billionaire from New Zealand. He's a right wing billionaire from Canada who bought up NZME in order to exert influence on the New Zealand media landscape.
You could find countless newspaper opinion pieces arguing back and forth what is and is not racist: this political campaign is racist, that radio commercial isn't racist, this remark by a game show host is racist, and so on.
It seems straightforward to me that because the meaning of the term is so contested, it's ultimately a matter of personal judgement, and therefore the "honest opinion" defence should apply to all accusations of racism when defamation lawsuits come up. Yet this unfortunately is not the case in New Zealand. The courts see fit to judge what counts as "really" racist.
I've read some of what Mr. Batchelor has to say, and I've arrived at the conclusion that he is racist. Since I am currently writing this comment from the United States, my conclusion is protected by the law: courts here recognise it as a statement of opinion, rather than an assertion of fact, and therefore it cannot be legally defamatory.