What the right have understood in a way the left never seem to have understood, is that those who control the media, control the message.
When you look at the full spectrum assault with Guyon Espiner’s appointment on Radio NZ, Paul Henry on TV3 and Mike Hosking on Seven Sharp, the neoliberal mythology demanded by corporate media has many places from which to control the message.
The flawed landline opinion polls used by the media don’t reflect popular opinion, they attempt to manipulate it. The effect of telling the country for 3 years that Key will win an overwhelming majority is to disillusion progressive voters into believing the election is a forgone conclusion. The extraordinary hubris of Audrey Young’s defensive comments yesterday, desperately trying to give credibility to the Herald Digi Poll when Cunliffe shrugged it off is made more farcical when you consider this is the very same Herald Digi Poll that breathlessly predicted that John Banks and Len Brown were ‘neck and neck’
The race for the Super City mayoralty is going down to the wire – Manukau Mayor Len Brown and Auckland City Mayor John Banks are almost tied in the latest Herald-DigiPoll survey.
I understand that Len Brown ended up winning by a landslide. Interesting Audrey has forgotten that.
Helen Clark never seemed to appreciate the importance of funding public broadcasting, Radio NZ didn’t get the funding increase they needed and the Charter at TVNZ was an unmitigated disaster and the timid editorial direction of TVNZ7 ensured a weak guard dog that National have had little difficulty in killing off. After a decade, public broadcasting was in a weaker position than when Labour gained power.
In the Hollow Men, the National Party quickly identified that private radio was a breeding ground for redneck spittle who were unabashed in their bias and love towards National, the machinations of helping loan Mediaworks millions has payed a pretty dividend with an editorial stance that reads more like Steven Joyce has actually directed it. It is most important to the Right that they have total influence over the mainstream media and the ongoing slow strangulation of Native Affairs, one of the last true bastions of current affairs in NZ alongside Campbell Live, is the hideous end game for that full spectrum dominance.
Native Affairs has been bold, courageous and brilliant in its questioning of the political issues of the day, and that has brought about a nervous Board interested in gaining an information gate keeper whose appointment seems more about reigning Native Affairs in than supporting it.
I am told that Native Affairs have angered the establishment so much that when Mihingarangi Forbes called to get the press release for the white wash investigation into Native Affairs’ brilliant report on the kohanga audit last night, the press secretary hung up on her!
National Party strategists know they need to hold the narrative and influence over the mainstream media so that the publics love affair with Key endlessly continues, this myopic need to crush any dissidence of opinion has finally come to the front doors of Native Affairs. We have seen TVNZ7 killed off, we have seen RNZ neutered and we have seen TVNZ become little more than a mouthpiece for the Government, let’s hope the fight to keep Native Affairs as one of the few bastions of critical media is more successful.
Nice piece (as usual – I admire your work) but I noticed one error: “Mihingarangi Forbes”
Why down vote this? People get annoyed if English names are misspelled. The least we could do in NZ is try to spell Maori names properly, it being an official language and all that along with the polite thing of always trying to spell someone’s name properly.
What does it say about the state of NZ journalism that it takes a current affairs show from the country’s youngest broadcaster to have the Establishment so up in arms it holds a farce of a press conference in the media equivalent of the graveyard hour?
Excellent stuff from Native Affairs and MTS production staff. But how long will it last? The pending appointment of Paora Maxwell as CEO (if true) doesn’t exactly inspire. Not because of any of the controversies associated with him. But rather, his production track record, which is more limited to children’s programming. Yes, he had oversight over a range of programmers at TVNZ’s Maori Unit. But other than managing a hatchet job of redundancies and using production resources to support his whanau pet projects, he didn’t improve the quality of TVNZ’s Maori programming output. That has always been left to individual production teams who have soldiered on knowing they receive lip service executive support at best, total executive negligence at worst.
You’re totally right Mr Bradbury, Native Affairs is the only current affairs worth watching on MSM, so of course they must crush it. DonKey & Cronies the face of smiling facism.
Who is the newly appointed “information gate keeper” you mention in the first paragraph of this story?
I’m yet to be convinced that the new look Labour actually supports public broadcasting. They still seem to be hedging.
It’s more than that. They are organised.
The left used to be organised, back in the days of compulsory union membership and rational discourse. Now not so much.
Mihingarangi Forbes, Martyn, ffs.
I am the next minute, writing to Maori TV in support of Native Affairs and Mihingarangi Forbes.
Admittedly, I have not watched the programme regularly, but that is now changing.
Also, TDB, how do I change my user name to upwiththeleft!
“What the right have understood in a way the left never seem to have understood, is that those who control the media, control the message. When you look at the full spectrum assault with Guyon Espiner’s appointment on Radio NZ, Paul Henry on TV3 and Mike Hosking on Seven Sharp, the neoliberal mythology demanded by corporate media has many places from which to control the message.”
It is not just the media, they (the National led government and their top bureaucrats – who they move into key decision making positions) do the same with the “Commissioner” roles, who are supposed to be “watch dog” roles under the auspices of Parliament.
But back to Native Affairs, yes, I have noticed that for many months the programs have changed, they have become more “tame”, really controversial issues of social justice, about housing or similar significance are NOT shown anymore. Over are the days of challenging interviews with Paula Bennett or other ministers.
It is now all about the odd individual drama or tragedy, about some provincial issue here and there, and the presentation is almost “corporate” style now.
But I was even disappointed well back into last year, when someone I know sent them some interesting, revealing stuff about social welfare matters, which was NEVER even properly responded to. It must have ended in the waste bin. Up until mid last year I watched Native Affairs almost every week, but since then, it has been just very sporadic.
They are not interested, or not allowed to report on certain things now, it appears. Nothing that challenges the establishment, that appears to be the rule.
So yes, the whole issue about the new internal leadership shows that things are not good at Maori TV.
But I would never expect that this government would allow too much independence and editorial freedom in public broadcasting. If they had it all their ways, they would sell all the rest of public broadcasting, but so far they do not dare to, as there would probably be a bit of a fight, that would spill lots of bad blood, and make the government look too bad in the eyes of too many.
The fact is that most of the broadcasters fronting top rating programmes are there because they have the ability to attract the audience which in turn attracts the advertisers which in turn produces revenue. Commercial radio, television, and the newspapers are a business therefore they need to make a PROFIT – a dirty capitalist word. They are not there to appease either the left or the right. At the end of the day it’s all about ratings. Hosts on talk radio are paid to have opinions on all matters including politics. The reality is most are of the right persuasion. However they are there because they rate with the public. Now, think why Newstalk ZB is far and away the most listened to commercial network. Does that tell you something?
What you are saying is only partially true. Market forces are not the lone factor in determining content. Unpopular views can still boost ratings, whereas an unpopular model of motor vehicle won’t attract buyers. The forces of commercialism cannot be applied in blanket fashion – and certainly not with the mass media. Consequently, content and opinion can still be weighted by design, have a disproportional effect, without any threat to ratings. Public demand has little effect on the overall balance of broadcasting. That is usually determined by editorial policy. One thing I can agree on – “Hosts on talk radio are paid to have opinions … “
JC: none of what you say, while true, applies to Native Affairs. They aren’t part of a commercial broadcaster. They don’t have large audience ratings. They don’t have huge production and marketing budgets. They compensate for all that with a darned good editorial that focuses on practicing good solid journalism. No bells and whistles there. Just editors, reporters and support staff digging deep and asking questions. Old school. Because of this MTS are now NZ’S de facto public service broadcaster.
JC – yes, but with a “business perspective” those private, advertising selling media outlets have, they compromise standards and quality 24/7, as they are basically “bought” by commercial enterprises doing the advertising and paying for it.
How is that for fucking “media independence”, when the hand that feeds you has clear expectations, and will not want to hear criticism. That will never be discussed in open, as they are “private” businesses, and as they are not to be “explored” by questions that the public media has to answer under the Official Information Act.
One way to undermine public scrutiny and therefore input into quality and else is, to stop the O.I.A. process, which means, privatise it all, and keep it out of the public’s reach, that is apart from being the dumbed down consumer to gobble up commercial brain washing and then react upon it, and just live like a consuming idiot, spending a.s.a.p. the wage or salary comes in, without thought.
Gosh, I am shocked about the abysmal lack of insight of many in this place (not TDB).
One only needs to look at their role model – the United States of America. The mainstream media there spews out “news” with a filtered bias that at times beggars belief. Capturing the mainstream media is not a new phenomenon. Ever since the manipulative techniques of Tarde, Simmel, Sighele and Le Bon gained recognition, the brokers of power have fought first and foremost for this tool of control as if it were the hammer of Thor. From information control stems the thought, emotional, and eventually behavioral control, of the collective “audience.” The historical results of media control do not make pleasant reading, and are destined it would seem, to repeat themselves yet again.
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