London: Two New Zealand radio hosts have been suspended after they broadcast a conversation with the mother of England’s Ben Stokes without her permission.
Deborah Stokes, who lives in New Zealand, phoned the Radio Hauraki show to defend her son after hosts Jeremy Wells and Matt Heath criticised his performance in the World Twenty20 final — during which he was hit for four consecutive sixes by West Indies’ Carlos Brathwaite. When she phoned the station, Mrs Stokes asked to speak to someone off-air and was told “you’re off-air” — but the call was actually taken by Heath and broadcast live.
During the call, she said the hosts’ remarks had been “inappropriate name-calling”, were “absolutely unconscionable”, and added: “I’m totally brassed off”. She added: “They have never met [Ben], they don’t know him ... I don’t know whether they realise he was actually born and bred in New Zealand, and quite frankly has family all over the country. And for those who listen to your station, for them to sit and listen to their cousin and their grandson being bagged like that is absolutely unconscionable.”
As she continued to defend her son, Wells and Heath kept up the pretence that they were off-air, promising to record the complaint and saying it would be “righted on the show”. New Zealand Media and Entertainment director Mike McClung told news.com.au: “They’ve been suitably reprimanded, and are off-air tomorrow. Matt and Jeremy are famous for identifying where the line is and then ignoring it, however putting Ben’s mum to air without her knowledge, albeit defending her son, was obviously well over that line.”
- Guardian News & Media Ltd, 2016
