Controversial media personality Mike Hosking has slammed the Broadcasting Standards Authority (BSA) as "humourless earnest clipboarders" after it ruled he had broken broadcasting rules.
In an episode of Seven Sharp in August Hosking made "inaccurate and misleading" comments about the Māori Party by saying only people enrolled in a Māori electorate could vote for it.
Hosking attempted to clarify his message a day later, but the BSA decided his explanation was "flippant and too general", and has upheld a complaint against him.
But Hosking has lashed out at the authority, justifying his comments as "a throwaway line" and accusing it of "pontificating and writing reports".
"My Christmas gift from the BSA, the Broadcasting Standards Authority, is I misled the nation. Sorry nation, I misled you," he wrote in a NZME column.
"I didn't of course, but they don't have a sense of humour, or indeed any understanding of the realities of broadcasting, like you shouldn't take everything literally."
The BSA has asked TVNZ, which broadcasts Seven Sharp, to publicly acknowledge the breach of accuracy with an on-air statement, before the 2017 summer holiday break.
Seven Sharp's final broadcast of 2017 was broadcast on December 15, which was also Hosking and his co-host Toni Street's last episode as presenters.
Hosking takes issue with the judgement against him and the "aggrieved" who complained.
"Once again, we have paid for a bunch of humourless earnest clipboarders to sit around pontificating and writing reports," he writes.
"So what has been achieved here? Nothing. The show is finished. The election is over. I've quit.
"We have paid for what? What changes? What's the point? The only clarification needed is why we have a BSA that busies itself with such nonsense."
Newshub.
