The Daily Blog 2014 Media Awards

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2014 was the year mainstream media Journalism died and women increasingly became the best cultural talents we had to offer the world. There were unique triumphs and abysmal also rans. Here are the 2014 Daily Blog Media Awards

 

Best Comedian in NZ 2014: Rose Matafeo

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Rose by a landslide. She is the funniest member of the Ben and Bill show on TV3, (is it still called that?). Her humour is intelligent, brilliant and clever. Her awkward dates are funny train wrecks and her song where she sings about dating Dads was possibly the funniest thing on NZ TV this year. News that she will have her own series with other female comedians is the best thing to happen to NZ comedy since TVNZ turned down Flight of the Concords.

 

The memorial Oliver Driver wasted talent Award: Guy Williams

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Williams is the second reason to watch Ben and Bill, but why oh why is he so wasted on the bloody Edge? His talent demands something far more substantial than the empty vacancy of commercial radio. If TV3 were smart, they would replace the late night Paul Henry show with Guy Williams.

TDB Recommends NewzEngine.com

 

Best NZ Film: The Dark Horse

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Here was the review TDB wrote:

The Dark Horse is heartbreaking, heartwarming and terribly raw. Director James Napier Robertson has crafted a movie so genuine in its authenticity it sets a new cultural threshold. The performances are all excellent, but Cliff Curtis as Genesis Potini a gifted chess player from a violent childhood who battles mental illness to teach a small class of troubled youth how to play chess is one of his greatest acting achievements.

Curtis and Robertson have the patience and subtle grace to allow the camera to linger on Potini in a way that is painfully intimate. The dramatic conclusion to a lifetime of violence and the sacrifice of manhood didn’t leave a dry eye on opening night. The final scene won’t depart you easily.

The Dark Horse is this generation’s ‘Once Were Warriors’ minus the overblown symbolism. It is such an extraordinarily brilliant movie that manages to highlight the challenges of mental illness, homelessness, hope, poverty, the emotional fragility of men, domestic violence and the true impact of toxic masculinity in NZ in a way few others ever have.

Beautiful. Just beautiful.

6 Stars

 

Worst NZ Film:  The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

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What the fuck happened here? This mess of a film is the reason we re-wrote our labour laws for Corporate Hollywood? Surely if the National Government are going to manufacture a crisis with a movie and bash unions you would ensure the finished project was actually watchable. This bloated trilogy  is tiresome to the point that you are actually cheering for the dragon by the end of it. ‘Please Smaug, burn everyone, including whoever ‘adapted’ this into 3 movies’. Look if we are going to sell our cultural sovereignty out to the Americans to appease the ego of Peter Jackson and re-write our labour legislation, shouldn’t the films actually be good?

 

Best TV Show: True Detective

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Haunting, incredible cinematography and enough existential philosophy dialogue to appease every Jean-Paul Sartre fan in the world. True Detective managed to prove intelligent, creative TV can be done.

 

Worst addition to NZ media landscape: Edge TV 

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Fuck it’s appalling. Someone should do a PHD on the impact of the depoliticisation of youth media and neoliberalism because part of Key’s appeal is him constantly turning up on barren yuff culture spots like the Edge and doing dorky youtube gags rather then being challenged on why youth unemployment is so high. The Edge TV has all the cultural charm of Ronald McDonald porn. Its crass consumerism is to talent what cancer is to good health. Ugh.

 

Best Cultural export since NZ refrigerated mutton: Lorde

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Her performance of Yellow Flicker at the American Music Awards was one of the best global performances of the year. Her energy, her defiance, her lyrics are all redefining popular music. She. Is. Such. A. Legend. Forget changing the flag, we should change the national anthem from ‘God Defend NZ’ to ‘God defend Lorde’.

 

Best new Comedy Act: The Fan Brigade 

They are the next big thing in NZ comedy. If you don’t know them yet, you should.

 

Worst scheduling decision since Comedy Central programmed ‘On the Buses’ Award:  Late at the Museum 

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Who the Christ scheduled Nicky Hager to appear on stage with Matthew fucking Hooton? Hooton is the bloke who in Dirty Politics gives Cathy Odgers Hager’s address after Odgers asks for Whaleoil to publish Hager’s address online in the hope that some of Odgers’ Chinese organised crime clients would assassinate Hager.

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What the fuck is Hager supposed to say on that panel, ‘I’m really glad to be here on stage with someone who tried to  fucking kill me’?!?!? I mean – WHAT THE FUCK?

 

Best radio station: Radio Hauraki

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Hauraki is by far the best commercial radio station in the country. Matt Heath, Jeremy Wells, Mickey Havoc – all broadcasters trying to do smart, clever media in a radio landscape devoid of genuine talent. If you aren’t listening, you really should. It’s head and shoulders above any other dribble out there.

 

Best Political Satire: Braunias/Wells/The Nation

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3 way split this year. Steve Braunias’ ‘Secret Diary’ is a weekly highlight, so too was Jeremy Wells’ Mike Hosking rant and 60 seconds on The Nation started pretty wonky but became one of the few reasons to actually watch The Nation in the end.

 

Best Journalist if Journalism is a blood sport: Patrick Gower

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At his best, Gower is a barking dog chasing a car, at his worst he is a homicidal chipmunk armed with a semiautomatic machine gun on a meth bender. When he’s chewing up someone you don’t like, it’s hilariously entertaining, when he’s chewing on someone you like he is an abomination. Beyond all the fun and games however, Gower’s speciality is planting his own opinion over facts and focusing on the tiny scandals he can dig up as opposed to actual journalism like ‘what will this policy do for NZ’.

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. Hi His attack on Laila and Hone is a reminder to the Left that the mainstream media will always His attack on Laila and Hone is a reminder to the Left that the mainstream media will always shit on them. Gower’s style of ‘journalism’ is the reason why NZ can’t have political accountability.

 

Best Blogger: Morgan Godfery 

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Morgan continues to be one of the best bloggers in NZ. His analysis of politics is articulated with passion and a rare intelligence. The only complaint is that he needs to be blogging a  lot more.

 

Worst Media Crime: Donghua Liu 

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How the bloody hell the Herald was allowed to run a story claiming that Donghua Liu had donated a hundred thousand dollars to Labour when it had no proof is surely one of the worst media crimes this year. That the boss of NZ Herald seemed to think a signed statement by Liu was the legal equivalent of an affidavit is still something that hasn’t been explained. The hack of Slater occurred before the Donghua Liu story broke and as our very own Frank Macskasy investigated, it looked like the entire Donghua Liu story was another example of Dirty Politics. The collusion between the Herald, the PMs Office and Slater during this fiasco  has never been fully investigated and in light of what we now know about Dirty Politics, it surely must feature prominently in any documentary on Dirty Politics that comes out.

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John Armstrong even went as far as suggesting David Cunliffe should consider resigning over this manufactured smear. He has yet to suggest John Key resign for his office using falsified SIS information to smear the Leader of the Opposition months out from an election.

 

Best panelist: Robert Reid

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You could hear a pin drop on the set of Q&A when Robert Reid appeared on it. The usual yawn fest that passes as comment on the State Broadcaster almost choked when Reid had the audacity to point out that the narratives they were running on Shane Jones being the great hero of the working class were bullshit and false. It was a joy to see the vacant political punditry get confronted by a genuine counter opinion. More Robert Reid in 2015 please.

 

Worst Panel Show: Q&A

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It’s. Just. So. Dull. How many times can Michelle Boag and Mike Williams agree with each other? Sure The Nation has Patrick Gower chewing on peoples legs, but that’s mildly entertaining, Q&A honestly puts me to sleep.

 

Seven Sharp public broadcasting hate crime award for worst current affairs show: Seven Sharp

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Seven Sharp represents all that is wrong in public broadcasting in NZ right now. It was a bastard creation from the revenue people created because TVNZ can’t sell any more advertising space during Shortland Street. So, they gutted Close Up and relaunched it as a yuff current affairs show so they could appeal to the same advertising demographic. Hosted by a far right fucktard and that giggly woman who looks like a head prefect from a private provincial girls school, it has done more to dumb down intelligent public debate than all the contaminated lead poisoning in history has. How Heather du Plessis Allan has been allowed back on Q&A to ask the big people questions after her appalling soft spun PR story on Cameron Slater is another unanswerable question.

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If there is a God, the first thing any new Government coming into power in 2017 will do is sack everyone associated with Seven Sharp and shoot the advertising department that spawned this abomination.

 

Cameron Slater Award for ‘balance’ in a mainstream media publication: Sunday Star Times

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The Sunday Star Times has appointed Phil Goff as the supposed counter view to Judith Collins. So that’s the really right wing of the National Party debating against the right wing of the Labour Party?

Only in mainstream media is that considered ‘balanced’.

 

Best Journalist: Andrea Vance

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Vance continues to be one of the few Journalists in NZ providing genuine critiques and criticism of this Government in a mainstream media environment that is unashamedly pro Key. Her insights and opinions have been one of the highlights of 2014.

 

Best Current Affairs show: Campbell Live & Native Affairs

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The Campbell Live team just go from strength to strength despite the female version of Whaleoil, Rachel Glucina, attempting to do her own Dirty Politics by trying to have John Campbell replaced with a two person team. Thankfully TV3 have resisted Glucina’s smear and have allowed John and his team continue to do real public broadcasting journalism. Their work on Christchurch, NovoPay, mass surveillance and child poverty is set against a harsh advertising environment that demands they perform every night. That takes guts and strength.

Over on Maori TV, it’s been another brilliant year at Native Affairs with courageous journalism that has made them the new benchmark for public broadcasting excellence.

The future however will be difficult for both shows. Glucina will continue to do what she does and attempt to discredit Campbell Live and Maori TVs recent reshuffle of staff raises serious questions. Those who care about quality TV need to watch out for any attempt to gag or change the last two bastions of journalism on TV.

Best Columnist: Dita De Boni

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The grace and fearlessness with which she writes is one of the few reasons to ever bother reading the NZ Herald.

 

Most hysterical news story: ‘Nazi chants’

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Of all the most ridiculous stories published by the NZ Herald, the one where they quote an academic claiming a bunch of drunk Christchurch students chanting ‘Fuck John Key’ was equivalent to ‘Nazi Chants’ is surely one of the most obscene. When Dirty Politics came out shortly after this, we got to see tactics far more fascist.

Orwellian Double Speak Media story 2014: Dirty Politics and National are moderate

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Two of the biggest right wing narratives that were spun this year was that the mainstream media investigated the allegations inside Dirty Politics and that the is Government are moderate.

Both are false.

If you look at the media coverage of Dirty Politics, it fell into 3 categories.

1 – It’s a communist conspiracy.

2 – Kim Dotcom was the hacker.

3 – Hager is a hypocrite for using stolen emails.

That’s not investigating the allegations. That’s accepting the Rights false narrative.

The other example of this was the constant line from our corporate news pundits that this Government is actually ‘moderate’. For the 250 000 children living in poverty it isn’t moderate. For the 800 000 NZers living in poverty it isn’t moderate. To the beneficiaries, those trying to buy a first house, those who are too poor to get a tax cut, Maori, Pacific Islanders, Women, Tertiary Students and every NZer now being spied upon, this isn’t a moderate Government. To those with many rental properties, Chinese businessmen and the rich, this Government is tepid at best.

 

Best radio host: Wallace Chapman

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He continues to be the best thing on Radio NZ and a future hope for a smarter more intelligent media.

 

Biggest media losers 2014: The People of NZ

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The biggest media losers this year were the people of NZ. This Government have passed the largest erosions of our civil liberties with the Search and Surveillance Bill, the GCSB Bill and the TICS Bill. NZers were conned by a biased media and instead of recoiling in horror at the revelations in Dirty Politics, they actually rallied to a corrupt leader like John Key.

Let me spell it out again. The PMs Office instigated and co-ordinated the leak of falsified SIS information to smear the Leader of the Opposition months before an election. We crucified Helen Clark for signing a painting she didn’t paint, what Key has done here is a thousand times worse and is as close to a coup as NZ has ever had. That NZers shrugged that off is an affront to our democracy fed by a one sided media who were working hand in glove with Slater for the last 6 years.

We have all been left a poorer Nation for the lack of real media scrutiny of these corrupt buggers. No Right winger has any ability to hold the moral high ground for the next 3 years when this is what their elected representatives carry out with their support.

 

46 COMMENTS

  1. Yes, the NZ Herald, the printed journal of the National Party.

    Even now after the dirty politics probably claimed many a subscriber and reader and if they pay walled their internet site no one would bother with it, they are still at it!!

    Yesterday in that turd of a publication, the Herald on Sunday I read their latest diatribe against Len Brown and for followers of this gripping serial in how to smear and how to character assassinate the “Part 3” installment was truly pathetic.

    Cut the fluff down to a minimum and the mentally defective voters/readers that National so like to take advantage of are told that Len Brown is;

    a) “Embattled” and is;
    b) having a fire sale of his home and the “popular residential auction process is being bypassed” because the Herald want us to think he’s desperate, but..
    c) its worth 1.7 million, on a 0.7 hectare site, has 7 bedroom, was custom built for him and the wife in the 9o’s so hes a rich bastard…
    d) because he and his wife have been rarely seen together since the whole affair Bevan whatshername thing took place,
    and finally the coup d’etat…
    e) “Brown has been under fire about his behaviour all year”. He has not of course but fuck it lets just make it up anyway

    A shallow, shit piece of gossip complete with bitchy revelations of his address and photo of the house. What are they trying to cause there I wonder.

    So to round out 2014 I’ll take a wild but educated guess the National Party and their filthy little helpers are still at it. What must they be brewing for Andrew Little?

  2. Martyn,

    I usually enjoy your writing style, but I feel that casually suggesting someone should be shot is more suited to blogs such as Whale Oil.

    • Nah mate, – figure of speech.

      One could also say ‘shot with a ball of their own shit at dawn’. Which would be a fitting thing for the neo liberal trougher pigs we currently have in this fraudulent ‘ govt ‘.

      The problem with that is , of course ,…..is that they spew the same shit out of their mouths in parliament every day so they wouldn’t notice a thing.

      Lets just educate the public and vote ’em out. That’d be far more painful for them.

  3. Brilliant . Nice to see you bring the ‘ fuck ‘ word back into your narrative . For what it’s worth , I agree with everything you write here .

    Having said that however …

    I think that the worse [it ] gets for Kiwis , the better it’ll be . It will force those who chose to remain ignorant ( For reasons of mental safety admittedly ) to take up arms and deal with that which is rampaging through our society .

    • What “arms”? Unlike the US with its 2nd Amendment, NZers have no RIGHT to own and keep weapons they can use to usurp a corrupt government that no longer represents them or their freedom (for better or worse, the Bill of Rights was demanded for this very reason). Imposing more restrictive laws or outright banning of firearms is actually one of the first thing oppressive regimes do (see history of Hitler Germany). So by “arms”, do you really mean pitchforks and torches? Or do you mean waving at him? John Key is laughing at you.

      • “What “arms”?”

        The context was of ignorance, so I’d interpret “arms” to mean a reasonable grasp of logic, knowledge of the facts, and the ability to criticize your own beliefs. For a more expansive interpretation you could include the motivation to publicly challenge the fictions make up the slave mentality.

      • ‘ Arms ‘ was a figure of speech and you know that . So why the hair splitting nonsense ? To arms might mean many things . And does .

        For example ; ‘Bugger me’ isn’t something I’d like to have taken literally while others might . Which is fine . To each their own .

        Martyn Bradbury wrote of how certain members of the media should be shot . Surely you don’t think he meant that literally ? ( You didn’t mean that literally did you Martyn ? )

        I know what you mean though . It is frustrating to think that jonky knows we’re powerless and I agree re actual arms .

        I remember listening to Charlton Heston , renown NRA enthusiast once saying that no one fucks with an armed population .

        Well , perhaps . Unless you’re another armed population . Then you have what’s known as a ‘ war ‘ .

        We don’t have bias populations braying for gun play though . We have a small group of crooks head fucking us . That’s all . And all we need to do is cut through the head fuckery . It’s not rocket surgery .

        So by ‘ to arms ‘ I mean , to enlightenment . Draw those whom have no real interest , into having an interest . Draw those who are disengaged into engagement . Give those who are too alarmed , permissions to be alarmed and then give them their head . ( Horse metaphor . ) Do not cut their heads off then hand them back to them . That’s worse than buggery surely . And fatal . Unlike most buggery .

        ‘ To arms ‘ in this context is ‘ to enlighten ‘ .

        If ‘ good ‘ is to prevail , it must be seen to be prevailing . ( I like that I said that and I like that and I’m not ashamed to say that . )

        • “‘ Arms ‘ was a figure of speech and you know that .”

          Ahm, no, I didn’t – and that isn’t at all clear from your post imo. I can honestly say I didn’t know what you meant by “arms” other than the dictionary definition of the word (“Weapons considered collectively”). The term “arm” as posed in your post is, to the best of my (apparently limited) knowledge, always exactly used in the same context as that in the Bill of Rights (meaning literally “weapons”). My Bad. Sorry to have upset you.

  4. ” One should respect public opinion insofar as is necessary to avoid starvation and keep out of prison , but anything that goes beyond this is voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyranny . ”

    Bertrand Russell .

  5. Some nice choices I would have to say…..though a little soft on Ratshit Cower . The only thing he was ever promoted for in the media was his ambient , baritone ‘kiwi bloke ‘ type voice.

    A sure winner with the boys down the pub and that’s about it.

    Here is a consolation and an example of hope.

    In Queensland , Australia, the people of that Australian state continued to vote in Joh Belke Petersen. He was similar to the neo liberal fraud trougher we currently have as an assumed ‘ prime minister ‘.

    Unfortunately another ‘ex – pat’ New Zealander , I might add.

    It took awhile , but through dogged pursuit , and exposure of the Queensland Police, …not only was Petersen deposed, but sweeping changes were made to the Queensland Police.

    As a consequence, Australia now has Anti Corruption Units aimed at monitoring political corruption .

    And thought that is by no means a way to sit on ones laurels, and cease to be vigilant , The point is this : keep persevering. Expose corruption ,- as sooner or later – a crack will appear.

    And that crack will come from an individual who has something to loose.
    And there are many neo liberal parasites who have PLENTY to loose.

    • Edit :And I say ‘unfortunately’ simply because I am a New Zealander…and I hate seeing us kiwi’s being done for poor behavior overseas when they should have been ambassadors of our mighty country.

  6. I’m so completely disillusioned with NZ mass media that I have no TV, no newspaper and only listen to Morning Report (and Matinee Idol).

  7. The Dark Horse, all the more extraordinary as it was a true story. One of the best I have seen, and I am picky with my movies.

  8. I think John Cambell deserves the bouquets thrown to him but there was one brickbat for his show and that was the BBC propaganda series presented by Matt Frei on the downing of MH17. As an example he presented the handling of a child’s teddy bear by a rebel soldier as a desecration of the child’s memory. A release of the full video clip that was available on the internet showed the soldier said a prayer over the bear and replaced it. There was also constant references to the rebels leaving the bodies in the sun to deteriorate or throwing them in cattle trucks and preventing access to the site. In actual fact impartial OSCE observers acknowledged they did their best to handle the situation in difficult circumstances with constant shelling by the Ukrainian army, no doubt doing their best to destroy evidence.

  9. Superb summary Martyn as usual,

    We certainly have lost any credible MSM here in Snooze Zealand as everyone has gone to sleep through lack of inspiration from the press.

    I remember in the 1960’s our fledgling black & white TV would punch out clips of Kiwi Can Do episodes of what an inventive, intuitive lot we were, that while working abroad I took that kindled pride with me everywhere but now this dull draconian Government over reaching control freak of a Compliant crazed lot are reducing us all into idiots that are afraid now to think out of the box they have put us all into.

    We need a revolution, to clear this repressive lot out and let our spirits free again, as you are my friend and never never let this go so Martyn you have a well earned warm settled Xmas, and rest up for the battle royal ahead as we rid these traitors against the people of this once proud land so we can go back to the other side.

    My best song for Xmas is “on the other side” by Dailey & Vincent. hope you enjoy country folks.

    http://www.uscountrymusic.nl/archives/12034

    Dailey & Vincent – On The Other Side Lyrics

    Artist: Dailey & Vincent

    Album: Miscellaneous

    Genre: Country

    Heyo! SONGLYRICS just got interactive. Highlight. Review: RIFF-it.
    RIFF-it good.

    Listen while you read!

    On the other side the sun always shines
    No minutes, no hour, there’s no such thing as time
    Where the streets are paved with gold
    And you never grow old on the other side

    On the other side everybody sings
    There’s miles and miles of flowers and lots of pretty things
    Where the sky’s pearly blue and everything looks brand new
    On the other side

    Well I’ve never been to heaven
    I didn’t know what it was like
    But God let me have a glimpse
    In my dream last night

    And I could see you smiling
    You were looking right at me
    For the first time in a long time
    On your face I saw some peace

    I knew everything
    Was going to be all right
    On the other side
    On the other side

    On the other side, do you ever see me cry?
    Do you know how much I miss you?
    Wish I could have said goodbye
    Just one more I love you
    Oh, am I really getting through on the other side?

    Well I’ve never been to heaven
    I didn’t know what it was like
    But God let me have a glimpse
    In my dream last night

    And I could hear you laughing
    You were looking right at me
    For the first time in a long time
    On your face I saw some peace

    I knew everything was going to be all right
    No more tears and no more sad good byes
    On the other side
    On the other side

    I’ll see you on the other side

  10. Yes, I agree with most, perhaps not all. But this post is just what the shit MSM deserve! Crap has become “normality”, and brain dead are the “normal” zombies that have their heads drummed full with drivel and hate thoughts, ready to vote in Key and his neoliberal sell-out masters.

    Hit at them, hit the commercially dominated MSM, with lots of well pointed and stinging criticism, and where they are weak. The more the better. Shit stinks, and we had enough of MSM bad smell all around our ears and eyes.

    Bring back true public broadcasting, and provide means to have community broadcasters create a stimulating, informing and entertaining new media-scape, which is CULTURE.

    If the trend continues, “culture” will be reduced to comparing shiny product wrappers in supermarkets, and nothing else.

  11. Excellent summation, Martyn.

    There should have been an honorary mention of Radio NZ, which continues to be a real news broadcaster.

    For example, on RNZ, on 22 December, a story was carried on SkyCity demanding taxpayer funding for their damnable convention centre, with interviews with the casino’s CEO Nigel Morrison and Gerry Brownlee. It was indepth and informative.

    By contrast, TV 3 news on the same day made no mention of the Skycity issue. Instead they broadcast bullshit stories which were “fluff pieces” but sadly in any value whatsoever.

    Radio NZ, Campbell Live, and Native Affairs – the last bastions of real current affairs left in this country.

    • You are so right Frank. The lead story was former All Black Leon MacDonald’s stolen rugby jerseys. Sure it’s a heinous crime for MacDonald; irreplaceable memorabilia from his playing days, but lead story, give me a break!
      Why the Sky City Convention Centre was not the lead story is an indictment of the Editorial team in TV3s new room.
      Our media are seemingly incapable of reporting stories that may be damaging to the government and for that they are irresponsible and fail miserably as a News service. New Zealand deserves better than this.
      The media seem only to be willing propogandalist for an evil callous government

      • Perhaps so many in the MSM have shares in Sky City?! Mike Hosking has his personal ties to that corporation, so have others. Paul Henry seems to be a regular there also. They will have regular contacts to their colleagues, many of them may in some ways have vested interests.

        So nobody of that group would bother bringing any “news” that may “stain” their loved “investment” or hang-out.

        I think again, that Hager missed out, or intentionally left out, many MSM journos from his book Dirty Politics. He must have known, if he exposes the much wider involvement of the MSM in Dirty Politics, it would not have helped him spread his revelations and sell his book.

        The DIRT is most likely much more widespread, sticks firmer and deeper than even most of us here may be able to imagine.

    • It is typically arrogant of many in the television and photography industry to believe they have the right to walk in and take over any space, public and private, often, and without authority, excluding legitimate users of the area. Examples I’ve seen include blocking off patron access to exhibits in museums and outdoor shows etc. Here, we have Gower and crew appropriating and creating a disturbance in a library.

  12. Yes, 100+ to Andrea Vance, Dita De Boni. They are practically an oasis in the barren and vast NZ media desert.

    I reckon Brian Rudman is worth a mention, who also uncovered Nationals latest scam, to flog off publicly owned Vector shares to their mates, ultimately, and who is a thorn in the side generally of our government and their clones in the Auckland Council. And he did a fine comeback article on the Slater’s in the Len Brown affair aftermath.

  13. I disagree about Andrea Vance, she doesn’t deserve that award, she played her part for John key and the National party during the election campaign.

    Vance is a very nasty piece of work, I’m sure John key gave her a bonus in her pay.

    Even Wallace Chapman is biased, he showed what a John key supporter he is.

  14. True Detective was not to bad,take them a while to get back the ratings of Breaking Bad.Find Kiwi humour lacking in most even the nice looking comedians,some have a line of humour,could it take a hour or two hour show,i doubt,mind you we have had six years going on nine now of care and compassion from a corporations board room that Kiwi!s like to say is government with care.Got to be laugh somewhere there.

  15. I know it isn’t related to N.Z but i saw the Hunger Games Mockingjay part one it is AWESOME! But i did run out the door when the Lorde song came on at the end, sorry I’m not a fan. The movie is AMAZING, and could WAKE people up, it is very political and exciting!

  16. VERY NICE WORK Mr. BRADBURY.

    BUT I DO wish /hope you spend LESS time next year on focussing only on the Telly and only NZ because it is a distraction from the big picture.

    MORE time needed reading ALTERNATIVE news sites -Before they all get censored as a result of TPPA (this in itself should be a warning)

    You are very excellent at what you do, but I DO WISH you would broaden your perspective so as to get a better handle on what’s ahead for NZers

    HINT: read “Veterans Today” (american), also Truthseeker (uk)..for their articles bec they are way ahead..

    Merry Christmas!

  17. May be I missed something for I felt sure that by now someone would have corrected you on “Jono and Ben at Ten”. There use to be a “Bill and Ben” show a few years ago but that was dropped. I don’t know for sure but I suspect it was because Bill was a naughty Flower Pot man.

    • Looby loo,was their distraction.She lived in the same flower pot row as they and other flower pot plants lived,but for Bill and Ben,Looby Loo,she was the one.

      • Or was that Andy Pandy,yes it was,always wanted to get in the same box as Looby Loo Andy did.Bill and Ben,well their you are living in a flower pot.Bill and Ben the flower pot men,they both loved Weed Who lived in the next neglected flower pot..

        May sound out their mad for you young serious Trotsky Marxist,but those programmes where every 4 year old childs watch,back in the sixties.

        Just think the humour they could create today,bit to far left out their for the serious Trotsky Marxist.They stop showing those child programmes in the eighties,to sexual in their content they decided.

        • FINBAR,
          Unfortunately I’m old enough to remember the Flowerpot Men and their love interest Weed ( I miss Miss Weed, read that as you will), however, for the sake of clarity, I should point out that I was referring to TV 3’s show “Pulp Sport” which starred the nome de plume “Bill” and the eponymous “Ben”.
          http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulp_Sport

  18. Something I’ve been ‘on about’ for a few years now, and at last I’ve found a more credible source than ‘my gut feel from experience’ that seemingly back up what I’ve been saying about the media in general and NZ’s Lame Street media. HOne are you reading this, you should have listened to me more carefully mate and taken on board what I was saying. At least Laila had a longer chat with me to understand my views, if not agreeing entirely with them.
    Put simply …..the Media lie !!!
    They often do so because the secret service and TPTB pay for their services, by various means (e.g. Book deals, promotions access to ‘the interviews’ etc etc).
    So basically the reason why NZ reporters (and the Daily comic….ur Herald) are so bad is quite probably because the SIS pay them to be so, and by extension the CIA/NSA.
    Absolutely marvelous !!!
    Well at least I no longer feel like Mel Gibson (the lone person knowing ‘the truth’) in the 1997 film the Conspiracy Theory. And I can continue to laugh at those muppets on TV news (I do miss the original muppets !) knowing I’m not mad, they ARE INDEED ‘puffed up little shits’ as (SADLY) highlighted to the cost of her career.

    John Pilger on exactly the same issue:

    http://johnpilger.com/articles/war-by-media-and-the-triumph-of-propaganda

    • Yo. Kevin -thanks for pointing out the Media lie.
      Yes the MEDIA – ALL … lie.
      Not the actual “news readers”, understand.

      It works like this-

      Newsreaders are just employed to do a Job.
      (for which they are hugely well paid.)
      Their job is to do what they are told. IE- read what they are TOLD to say.
      They are not , nor ever were, true journalists.

      A TRUE journalists job is to ask Real questions..and find out the REAL answers, not accept bullshit/marketing talk etc and just repeat it.

      The Media today (ie the Usual ones) NO longer work to this standard.
      This is the important reality that most NZers just haven’t come to grips with yet.

      This is why most people still believe that they can rely on the News to tell them /warn them if/when something of great importance is happening that they ought to know..

      Ha ha ha. (sadly) oh how easily deceived . They do not know that MOST of the media is owned these days by the few Owners who have a common agenda..to con the public, while they set about changing the world to suit their purposes.

      • These days? Have things really changed? – or are some just waking up to it?

        “There is no such thing, at this date of the world’s history, in America, as an independent press- you know it and I know it. There is not one of you who dares to write your honest opinions, and if you did, you know beforehand that it would never appear in print. I am paid weekly for keeping my honest opinions out of the paper I’m connected with. Others of you are paid similar salaries for doing similar things, and any of you who would be so foolish as to write honest opinions would be out on the streets looking for another job. If I allowed my honest opinions to appear in one issue of my paper, within 24 hours my occupation would be gone. The business of the journalist is to destroy the truth, to lie outright, to pervert, to vilify, to fawn at the feet of Mammon, and to sell his country and his race for his daily bread – you know it and I know it. And what folly is this toasting an independent press! We are the tools and vassals of rich men behind the scenes. We are the jumping jacks. They pull the strings and we dance. Our talents, our possibilities and our lives are all the property of other men. We are intellectual prostitutes.

        John Swinton – pre-eminent New York Journalist – 1880 (when called on to toast the Independent Press)

  19. Well done Bomber, I generally
    agree with you especially about 7 Sharp, a shocking programme, as is all the News talk shows.
    I would like to give you an Award for providing your readers with an excellent read and opportunity to have our say.

  20. I find it odd that some people jump up and down about Nicky Hager and his sources but remain strangely silent on Whaleoil having someone’s hard drive in his possession in his mission to besmirch him.

  21. Whilst think that Wallace Chapman is a breath of fresh air, I will forever be a fan of Kim Hill, she is a stunning interviewer with an enormous intelligence. I think that Jim Mora should up the anti on his 4 – 5 slot and stop having on Edwards with Boag quite pathetic the pair of them, constantly back scratching one another. They need to get on some real lefties. I am pleased that Selwyn Manning is now on this show. Morning Report has improved enormously by having Guyon Espiner in particular he has done some great political interviews. Both Q&A and the Nation are pretty boring now. But I too was delighted with the part Robert Reid took on one of them a couple of times.

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