If Key reinvades Iraq – can we actually trust our media to hold him to account?

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As John Key’s casual drumbeat for war builds tempo, it increasingly looks like NZ will pointlessly reinvade Iraq. The shame of such war mongering might be lost on the majority of NZers who electorally rewarded Dirty Politics and mass surveillance lies because they don’t like Germans who supposedly try and buy elections (despite National having the most money)

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Deployment looks increasingly likely so we now must ask, can the mainstream media in NZ hold Key to account if we go to war?

Based on our recent past, the answer to that is a resounding no.

If we look to Nicky Hager’s previous book, Other People’s Wars, the insidious ability of the NZ Defence Force to manipulate and co-opt mainstream media into being their propaganda tools is well researched, and unsettling.

Take for example ‘Kiwi Camp’ in Afghanistan. It was sold via the embedded mainstream media as some type of Engineering peace corps rebuilding schools, bridges and wells. Independent reports citing the work we did for the locals called our efforts “poorly planned” and “wildly exaggerated”. Embedded journalists Guyon Espiner and Vernan Small both visited Kiwi Camp and later noted (after being outed by the book) the CIA were using our base as a cover, yet both failed to mention that as anything worth informing NZers about. The CIA were using our base as a front because Provincial Reconstruction Teams don’t get attacked the way Forward Operating bases do, but neither journalist thought that manipulation was news worthy at the time.

The media’s self censoring compliance with the NZDF and their willingness to don flak jackets and helmets to play the intrepid journalist shtick is actually part of the problem.

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From Other People’s Wars

having CIA operatives inside the Kiwi base fitted poorly with the deployment’s stated goals. Why would the New Zealand authorities risk the New Zealanders working at Kiwi Base, and the credibility of the New Zealand peacekeeping mission, by mixing them up with a CIA operation? After the suicide attack on the FOB [forward operating base] Chapman, the issue of CIA operations inside a provincial reconstruction team was widely discussed. The Times wrote that “PRTs have been criticised widely for endangering civilian aid workers by blurring the line between development staff and the military.

John Armstrong probably summed up the media’s inability to look past the war PR spin best with his 2011 column on the book, ‘Candyfloss’ PR exposed in all its cynicism

Those who think Nicky Hager is just another left-wing stirrer and dismiss his latest book accordingly should think again.

Likewise, the country’s politicians should read Other People’s Wars before condemning it.

Whatever Hager’s motive for investigating New Zealand’s contribution over the past decade to the United States-led “war on terror”, it is pretty irrelevant when placed alongside the mountain of previously confidential and very disturbing information his assiduous research and inquiries have uncovered.

With the help of well-placed informants and thousands of leaked documents, Hager exposes the cynical manner in which the Defence Force has purposely misled the public by omission of pertinent facts and public relations flannel.

This is particularly the case with regard to the “candyfloss” image the military has built around the deployment of New Zealand soldiers in the Bamiyan province of Afghanistan.

That image is of our soldiers acting more like peacekeepers armed with nothing more dangerous than a shovel.

…what was more concerning than our media’s embedded compliance was that the NZ military lied and deceived our own politicians

Defence Force staff responsible for the deployment of Orion aircraft and Anzac frigates to the Gulf in the “war against terror” ignored instructions from then prime minister Helen Clark to keep their operations separate from those being conducted by the United States against Iraq. The book quotes unidentified officials and former diplomats as agreeing that Clark – lacking a strong defence minister – fought a lone battle against never ending efforts by the Defence and Foreign Affairs ministries to rewrite Government policy and buy military equipment which would enable New Zealand to build bridges with the United States.

New Zealand diplomats resorted to underhand tricks when they did not get their way with the last Labour Government. For example, when Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials did not like a particular Government policy decision, New Zealand’s ambassadors in Washington and Canberra were told to sound out the views of the local bureaucrats. The ministry would then tell Government ministers that the Americans and Australians had made it known they were very concerned and there could be “relationship implications”.

…and what of the allegations that NZ SAS were involved in war crimes for handing over civilians to known torture units in Afghanistan? Well, the Journalist who broke that story, Jon Stephenson, was blacklisted and had smears spread about him by the NZDF in an effort to discredit him. So good was the smear and spin, Stephenson shockingly had his defamation case against Lieutenant General Rhys Jones halted by a hung Jury in 2013.

Our media have a sorry history of being played like propaganda sock puppets by the NZDF and their bias towards National over the last 6 years doesn’t suggest they are capable or inclined to hold Key to account for anything that happens during this re-invasion of  Iraq.

If truth is to be told and the powerful held to account in the mainstream media, it will be by journalists and columnists like Jon Stephenson, Nicky Hager, Brian Rudman, Mihingarangi Forbes, Gordon Campbell, Dita De Bon, John Campbell, Russel Brown, Wallace Chapman, Rachel Stewart, Michelle A’Court and Matt Heath who will do it.

Post Dirty Politics, ethical media consumption should be a consideration. We make many decisions as consumers when trying to be good citizens. From investments to battery free eggs to fair trade coffee to free range everything, we make consumer decisions to be ethical. If we want to make a better democracy than the rotting joke we have now, perhaps a commitment to provide our attention to media who are upholding their end of the fourth estate responsibility over the shallow brain farts offered elsewhere is our part of the civil obligation?

Right now Nicky Hager is battling a Police force who have become an arm of intimidation from an embarrassed Government. You can donate to his legal defence here.

 

 

8 COMMENTS

  1. To answer Martyn’s post headline question – NO!

    The spin spewing from msm sycophantic journalists, justifying FJK’s decision to involve NZ in the ISIS war, will reach such dizzying heights, our heads will be doing somersaults!

    If FJK or any supportive MPs want to play a part in doing battle with IS, then they should go and take along their of service age offspring with them!

    Now what could be fairer than that?

  2. It’s not a legal defense, and if you solicit donations stating that it is you know what that amounts too don’t you.

    • Have the police returned his computer, notebooks and other personnel belongings? If not, doesn’t he require legal consul in an effort to have them returned poste haste?

      • FYI this was part of the reply I received after making a donation…
        “Thank you so much for your donation. All money will go to Nicky Hager to support any legal case or to cover any costs incurred as a result of the police raid. Please share on facebook, twitter or via email with your networks. Arohanui, Meg”

  3. Hi Martyn,

    can the mainstream media in NZ hold Key to account if we go to war?

    You are exceptional as the standout of all the remaining “truly credible investigative Journalist’s” of our day.

    Those words resonate well, “How can MSM in NZ hold Key to account?” We all hold you in high regard.

    But it is disturbing that I am now being introduced to so many of our past credible Journalist’s now being seeded out of the media.

    This is deliberately being done now over the ditch by Rupert Murdock as he wants to hold a “Fire sale to his crony’s as they are planning to privatise Australia’s last remaining public media ABC TV/Radio my Brother tells me.

    So Media’s Key Muppets will do all in their power to hide all the bad effects we will endure as he drives us again into someone else’s war.

    So we cannot ever trust the media to hold Key to account clearly until someone with money like KDC comes along and begins a free public TV/Radio network where all our much loved old school investigative Journalists have a part to play in telling the real story and once again holds Key to account.
    God we need free independent public media, can we start a fund raising please? I will offer $200 to kick it off.

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