With the loss of Campbell Live – Our democracy has never been weaker than it is today

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Why so much angst about the collapse of this show? Because Campbell Live was the only prime time media who were living up to their fourth estate obligations of holding the powerful to account.

In a nation of sleepy hobbits where the neoliberal myth of ‘you choose to be poor’ has become holy law and our engrained negative egalitarianism leads to an anti-intellectualism so laid back middle Nu Zilind burn books on their BBQ, Campbell Live was one of the few places where this was all challenged.

The mainstream media of NZ are tainted by their association with Cameron Slater in the Dirty Politics saga, the NZ Herald and Fairfax were instrumental in helping the smear and lies find a wider audience and with Hosking and Henry cuddling Key rather than challenge him every week, we now only have Native Affairs on Maori TV as the last, last bastion of a critical media.

Campbell Live gained 532,000 viewers on its last night, the horror is that even when you play their free market game & succeed, they punish you for political reasons.

When John Campbell is the one who loses his job in the wake of dirty politics and mass surveillance lies – this nation is broken.

He aha te mea nui? He tangata. He tangata. He tangata. Campbell Live knew this, and that’s why we loved the show.

We now have no primetime 4th estate holding power to account – we are officially a 1 party state with lap dogs for watch dogs.

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We are a lesser country for the end of this show and with its closing NZs democracy is far weaker than it has ever been. Key and the National Party will be laughing with delight and the sleepy hobbits of muddle Nu Zilind will go back to purring with whatever lies Hosking and Henry spew forth each weekday.

Now must begin a fight back for the hearts and souls of this nation with Unions linking arms with environmentalists, activists, NGOs, Maori, Feminists, Youth, Students, Women, beneficiaries, the poor, minorities and the socially conscious before it is too late. We need a new media platform and a new voice or NZ will cease to be what it was and will become a selfish 53rd state of America with no vision beyond property speculation and milk powder.

The revolution won’t be televised, so we need to make it happen somewhere else.

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15 COMMENTS

  1. Hey don’t worry- we can still question, debate and organise on Facebook (while being spied on, put on lists, banned from travel, and attacked by the IRD and other Govt crime ring agencies). Its the #FourthReich

    • Snailmail mate – the spooks can’t keep track of it. Reilly had the right idea for Key’s government – debag them and march them up Queen Street to prison. If they think asset theft isn’t treason they’re mistaken.

    • Actually, the idea that decent, long form current affairs and analysis is unwanted by the masses and thus unprofitable is part of the Kool Aid we’re fed.

      Pocket (like Instapaper, an app that lets you save stories you want to read later) has found that:

      …the Top 500 most-saved articles from the first half of 2015, we found that the average article length is 3,190 words, which would [each] take over 15 minutes to read.

      And they note that:

      …the longest article on this list is a 22,000-word piece on treatment for heroin addiction from The Huffington Post. It takes just shy of two hours to read.

      You might be asking yourself…but, wait, did anyone actually read that? In this case, yes, of those that saved this article, 43% read it in Pocket. That stat is a little lower than Pocket’s typical 50% Read Rate, but still high considering reading Dying to Be Free is the equivalent of watching two HBO shows in a row.

      What’s more, we’re not saving articles on Kim Kardashian’s arse:

      When looking at the content that rose to the very, very top of our most-saved lists — the Top 100, to be exact — we weren’t surprised to see articles about technology, culture and current events high on the list. [my emphasis]

      Do not believe for one minute that demand for long-form current affairs is such that a commercial operation would be unprofitable if it ran such material.

      It’s not true. Working journos (myself included) know it’s not true, and that’s why we’re so angry.

      I’m no left winger (at least not by Martyn’s standards). Heck, I’ve even guest blogged at Whaleoil. I would not, for one minute, expect a commercial organisation to do something unprofitable just because I happen to want to view, listen or read it.

      But that is not the case here. Have a read of the full article and see what I mean.

  2. You’re dead right there young Martyn. Not only is democracy the deadest it’s ever been in NZ (not that it’s ever been particularly alive in your short pakeha history) but it is also the most ignored it has ever been by the neanderthals that claim the dubious honour of Middle NZ.
    How many times have I seen in your blogs Martyn, a comment along the lines of ‘what does it take to wake up muddle NZ to the reality of what is going on?’? (Sorry. Er… not sure if the second ? is actually required…) Anyway heaps of times is the answer.
    It’s getting to the stage where I’m kinda glad I’ve got one foot in the grave and t’other on a banana peel ‘coz I certainly don’t want to be around to welcome in the future for NZ.

    The Slater-Nazi Corporation currently running NZ government is only one of many important issues facing us all.

    Add to that the very real but infinitely denied issue of climate change. Are you doing anything real about it? Not on your fucking nelly. This is muddle NZ, we can do what we’ve always done and stick our pea sized heads in the sand. It’ll all go away won’t it? No it won’t and there prolly won’t be any sand left to stick your stupid heads into; it’ll be at the bottom of the newly expanded Pacific Ocean or Tasman Sea. I take some comfort from the fact that most of Auckland and Wellington (parliament at least) will also be under water. Yah boo sucks to your love affair with real estate!

    And there actually is a limit to how long the lower classes will put up with poverty. The Bourbons discovered that as did the Romanovs and countless Arabic petty dictators. Think it can’t happen here? Look at America; the rioting and violence in reaction to their knuckle-headed police forces. It starts not as a revolution but as a steady increase in crime. Different here? Absolutely the fucking same. You have a steadily growing dissaffected underclass and a totally corrupt and incompetent police force. Hell we’ve even got the brown skinned people for the cops to pick on.

    I don’t know how long it will take to wake up to the rapidly dwindling options but the longer you leave it the worse will be the reaction. Your farms and real estate won’t help you then.

    It’s not rocket science children; it’s question of reading history and fucking learning from it.

    But of course reading is intellectual isn’t it?

  3. You’re dead right there young Martyn. Not only is democracy the deadest it’s ever been in NZ (not that it’s ever been particularly alive in your short pakeha history) but it is also the most ignored it has ever been by the neanderthals that claim the dubious honour of Middle NZ.
    How many times have I seen in your blogs Martyn, a comment along the lines of ‘what does it take to wake up muddle NZ to the reality of what is going on?’? (Sorry. Er… not sure if the second ? is actually required…) Anyway heaps of times is the answer.
    It’s getting to the stage where I’m kinda glad I’ve got one foot in the grave and t’other on a banana peel ‘coz I certainly don’t want to be around to welcome in the future for NZ.

    The Slater-Nazi Corporation currently running NZ government is only one of many important issues facing us all.

    Add to that the very real but infinitely denied issue of climate change. Are you doing anything real about it? Not on your fucking nelly. This is muddle NZ, we can do what we’ve always done and stick our pea sized heads in the sand. It’ll all go away won’t it? No it won’t and there prolly won’t be any sand left to stick your stupid heads into; it’ll be at the bottom of the newly expanded Pacific Ocean or Tasman Sea. I take some comfort from the fact that most of Auckland and Wellington (parliament at least) will also be under water. Yah boo sucks to your love affair with real estate!

    And there actually is a limit to how long the lower classes will put up with poverty. The Bourbons discovered that as did the Romanovs and countless Arabic petty dictators. Think it can’t happen here? Look at America; the rioting and violence in reaction to their knuckle-headed police forces. It starts not as a revolution but as a steady increase in crime. Different here? Absolutely the fucking same. You have a steadily growing dissaffected underclass and a totally corrupt and incompetent police force. Hell we’ve even got the brown skinned people for the cops to pick on. The next time you watch ‘Les Miserables’ pay attention to the big picture and not just the lovey dovey nonsense. Try and learn something.

    I don’t know how long it will take to wake up to the rapidly dwindling options but the longer you leave it the worse will be the reaction. Your farms and real estate won’t help you then.

    It’s not rocket science children; it’s question of reading history and fucking learning from it.

    But of course reading is intellectual isn’t it?

  4. Sorry to spoil your party, but Campbell only made that number of one night – his swansong. Even I watched, and I can’t stand the guy. The fact is that Campbell was employed by a commercial broadcaster for whom ratings matter. Campbell’s ratings had tumbled over the years, and frankly any show that can’t hold it’s own against 7Sharp doesn’t deserve to survive at prime time.

    • Except, Dave, that’s not quite true. Campbell’s ratings were on the rise – actually beating TV3 News. So if Mediaworks was going to cancel anything based on ratings…

    • 7 sharp should have been cancelled long before Campbell Live.
      7 sharp is dominated by an idiot with a brain the size of a pea and most are bored stiff with his rants and crazy thinking. He does not represent most of us here in NZ and he never will. People resonated with Campbell LIve and were told the truths that our lame govt. does not want exposed.

      Campbell succeeded and will be missed whereas 7 sharp is a failure and suits our govt. just fine.

  5. Totally agree but maybe it’s past time for telling people to ‘start’ fighting back; we already are. Have been for a while. Talking about starting to fight back gives the impression that we’re starting from zero, which we’re not.

  6. NZ is just one country that has been has been strategically & subtly Taken Over, on multiple levels, in increments for many years.

    One World Govt requires the gradual destruction of independent thought,social cohesion, and of course national sovreignty.
    (The latter is achieved by huge influx of immigrants which “dilutes” the existing values held by a nation)

    One of the primary ways to control people’s minds/opinions is via the Media.

    Changes to the media started happening long ago. I noticed how they started gradually eliminating the journalists who voiced a social conscience in newspapers eg the Herald, back in the early to mid 2000’s. (I have kept newspaper cuttings since 1990’s.)

    IT WAS ALWAYS GOING TO HAPPEN THAT HE BE EXITED
    His show made too many people think, and that is not desirable.

    Do you recall “Deregulation” in the 1990’s?
    The REAL purpose behind it was to eliminate the concept of Social Conscience. You might recall that after this , new “buzz words” & concepts were introduced & endlessly repeated in the media – ie ” personal responsibility”.

    (Jenny Shipley was a huge advocate of this at the time)
    You might also recall how she was instrumental in lowering the drinking age (“in bed with” Business Roundtable -Liquor Industry) which disasterous unvoted for decision, has had an INCALCULABLE cost to NZ. (probably multi millions of $$ )”.
    Yet NO accountability ever mentioned in Media for this.
    (Final outrage She was later “Knighted” !!!!!!!!!!!)

  7. For the sake of our democracy, I highly recommend you enquire as to which story lines the Campbell Live team were working on prior to the final decision announcement but never made it to air. I think you’ll find your suspicions are well justified, as you alluded to in your prior post.

    • For better or worse the Campbell live programme has gone. Get over it and get on with life – Campbell was a god to many but in reality he was human and as a TV journalist was pushing his own agenda.

      • Campbell had the option to continue under the new format or take his severance package. He made his choice that was forced upon him and he is probably sitting quite comfortably. The issue is what triggered the final decision during the review period…

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