BlackHearts or blackguards?

By JAMES GARDINER

The BlackHeart campaign was launched this week to the tune of the Dave Dobbyn classic Loyal - but the real soundtrack has been of egos clashing.

Big names in the radio world have fallen out, bigtime.

Listeners to ZB's Drive Time on Tuesday night were treated to a dust-up between host Larry Williams and sports broadcaster Murray Deaker.

No sooner had Deaker acknowledged that he had been at the BlackHeart launch than Williams launched into him: "God, you're pathetic".

"See, you're as bad as Holmes," retorted Deaker in reference to Paul Holmes' show on the same station four days earlier.

Holmes had broken the story of BlackHeart after seeing an invitation to the lunch, saying he was concerned about "dirty tricks" and "dark elements" in the campaign.

"You two guys have got your head right up your backside," Deaker thundered.

"You haven't read anything, you don't ask any questions, you came straight in with, 'You're pathetic'. Now are you going to conduct an interview or are going to be a smart dick?"

Williams: "You have this bee in your bonnet about the so-called mercenaries ... Do you actually know why these sailors, a whole bunch of them, left Team New Zealand?"

Deaker: "If you're told something in confidence by your friends on a golf course that you haven't made public, you bloody live with that, mate.

"Either you get on that microphone and tell what you know or pull your head in."

Williams: "That's the difference between you and me, because when I'm told something in confidence, it stays in confidence."

Over on Radio Sport, hosts Martin Devlin and Brendan Telfer were also at odds.

Devlin had also been to the BlackHeart lunch, and said he endorsed the campaign.

"I support anyone who supports Team New Zealand."

But to Telfer, it was the "ugly side" of New Zealand sport.

"I just find this rampant mix of nationalism and jingoism coupled with identifying sportspersons you are competing against as public enemy No 1 and running campaigns against them is insidious and completely foreign to the ethos and traditions of New Zealand sport."

Telfer said the story had gripped talkback callers.

"Usually stories, even those that have a lot of steam about them like the Bulldogs' salary cap, last for about a day, but this story, that's all I had on my programme for two days for four or five hours ... There were a variety of opinions expressed.

"Martin takes a different view from what I do, but he takes a different view from me on a lot of things."

nzherald.co.nz/americascup