I see the Broadcasting Standards Authority (BSA) has taken upon itself to rain on frontman Paul Henry's parade. Has anyone else noticed the plethora of articles and advertising slots devoted to the great man's flaming re-entry into public life in this country?
He has, apparently, been in orbit - globetrotting and, among other things, getting up the noses of gun-toting cops in the good ole US of A. Seems at least one cop, when he pulled the maverick motor-mouth over, didn't exactly get Mr Henry's sense of humour. But then, as we all know, it's an acquired taste.
And now he is back among us, being feted and dining out on the strength of his illustrious life and career - including adventures with the US constabulary. Anyway, as he told an audience gathered to hear him promote his own biography, What Was I Thinking, he ended up in a Los Angeles court but escaped with his speeding charge dismissed on account of there being insufficient detail on the ticket.
He has not been so fortunate in his past misdemeanours - one of which has resurfaced. The BSA has just thrown the book at his former employer TVNZ - and thus at his good self.
The state broadcaster has been fined $3000 over its erstwhile star Breakfast host's indiscretions with respect to the chief minister of Delhi, Sheila Dikshit.
The BSA's ruling stated that Mr Henry's comments last year on air were "not only derogatory but entirely dissonant with common decency and a clear breach of the discrimination and denigration standard".
For those who have forgotten the incident, Mr Henry, in a fit of schoolboyish smuttiness, made great play of the chief minister's name.
As the BSA ruling states, during an item in the run-up to the Delhi Commonwealth Games Mr Henry said : "Also, the dip shit woman, God what's her name [hysterical laughter], Dick Shit, is it Dick Shit?"
Mr Henry continued on in the same vein: "Look, there she is, Sheila Dick Shit [hysterical laughter] ... Anyway, that's so appropriate because she's Indian, so she would be dick in shit, wouldn't she, do you know what I mean, walking along the street."
Now there are those who see no harm in this at all, including it must be said Mr Henry himself, who is not in the least contrite over the matter. He described the decision as "ridiculous".
"Will it never end? It is a completely ridiculous ruling made by completely ridiculous people for completely ridiculous reasons ... I have been able to move on. Why others cannot, I do not know."
Presumably, others can't move on because in broadcasting as in other modes of public expression there are constraints on the boundaries of "free speech" - and when they are crossed and complaints are made, processes are set in train.
The BSA, having considered at length the nature of the complaints against Mr Henry and his employer, having revisited his remarks, and having deliberated, has finally released its decision.
It is not impressed and, while Mr Henry considers this ridiculous, many others will not - particularly when he chooses to make such remarks on a platform that carries, fraudulently as it turns out, some residue of national and cultural imprimatur.
We are now regularly told that of course TVNZ is no longer a state broadcaster and hasn't been for a long time, but I for one do not see the funny side of such juvenile and pejorative name calling, wherever it is broadcast. So good on the BSA for making it clear that there are still limits to be observed and standards to be held accountable by.
If this all makes me, along with a great many other Kiwis, a humourless so-and-so then so be it: we are, possibly, a little too quick sometimes to jump down the throats of those simply attempting to get us as a nation to lighten up a bit. But arguably not in this case; for isn't there a persistent theme of denigration that comes through in Mr Henry's posturing?
Wasn't he the one who also had a crack at the Governor-General's expense - wondering aloud, and attempting to enlist Prime Minister John Key in the joke, whether Sir Anand Satyanand was "even a New Zealander", because he apparently did not look and sound like one.
Thankfully, as funny and refreshingly irreverent as he might on occasion be, Mr Henry doesn't get to make that kind of decision.
• Simon Cunliffe is deputy editor (news) at the Otago Daily Times.
