NZ Herald/Fairfax merger and the burning of the public square

By
Martyn Bradbury
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31
0

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Is it just me or has the last 48 hours of mainstream news on the NZ Herald and Stuff websites managed to erode what little is left of their reputations?

While NZ media focus on rich racist housewives, central bankers warn of economic meltdown.

Tough math questions, rich racist women on trash tv & Willie Apiata’s ex-wife – how is this news when we have 300 000 kids in poverty?

The Herald is running a story on the right way to store peanut butter for God’s sake – this is why we can’t have nice things people!

I’m not sure what is uglier – the whole concept of the #rhoakl or their media partner apologists attempting to hose this shit down. Merging NZ Herald and Stuff won’t just be dangerous to our democracy, it will via its media partnerships promote the kind of garbage that is the Real Housewives of Auckland.

The only thing that seems ‘real’ about these Auckland Housewives is their ignorance, how is that worthy of our attention?

 

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One rich woman racially abusing another rich woman is headline news yet fact the actual justice system IS racist isn’t news and is relegated to the back pages? By the way, mainstream media suddenly discovering racism in our justice system is about 176 years late.

We have a level of debate that is already broken, allowing to merge the few newspaper platforms we have left to form a monopoly is media fascism.

From Paul Henry in the morning to Mike Hosking at night with a merged right wing newspaper monopoly in the middle. An unbroken chorus of neoliberal mythology masquerading as successful fact.

We have become a one media state.

 

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31 COMMENTS

  1. Maybe Woman’s Weekly has bought out the NZH. Soon, “political news” will be an exclusive interview with Bronagh and Moonbeam. Hell, it’s not that far off already.

  2. Most people seem to have sponge brains, otherwise we would not even have all these developments. But it takes spongy brains for a start to have advertising succeed. And as those selling stuff (businesses and a few commercial individuals) endlessly advertise, and as media see this as their main income, we must accept it is done, because it somehow works on the many spongy brains out there.

    Spongy brains I describe the brains of people as, who are simply open to receive any messages and who are not using protective layers to siphon out what is really important, and block the rest.

    Because we have this sad situation, people do put up with all the nonsense we have, and we are trying to fight. People reading here, same as on a few other blogs, are the minority of people who both thing and who take a considered position on matters they care about. They are concerned, mostly genuine people, who express views and discuss matters of importance, sometimes also lesser importance.

    The state of the media proves to me, that the majority of people rather fit the category of those with sponge type brains, they suck up whatever comes to their attention and fall for spin, lies, manipulation and all kinds of influences, and at best may react on it as “consumers” and “brainwashed” lab animals, who do whatever the master expects them to do.

    That perfectly explains the “Real Auckland Housewives” and other phenomenon, as I am struggling to find any other explanation for such crap to even survive one day.

    The phenomenons of Henry, Hosking et al is in my view that, that most people are to some degree also “jerks” of sorts themselves, so they identify with the leading jerks that have now placed themselves in the MSM, for all to see in their given limelight.

    It explains the fact that we have many or most walk past beggars in the street and some even frown on their presence. It explains that most rather go shopping to the malls, go to the pub, buy some wine or beer at the supermarket and drink at home and make a fool of themselves, rather than actually care about society and the weaker ones within it.

    It explains why work situations are often toxic, as team spirit is rarely found, I mean honest team spirit, and as most compete with others, some back stabbing and worse.

    It explains why few actually care that much about homeless sleeping in cars, about poor kids going hungry to school and so forth.

    And while this crap is encouraged, the worst comes out of people, as those who look for excuses to be selfish jerks, they feel encouraged to be just that, and the spiral down the toilet bowl of values goes further down that pipe.

    So, people, face off with the jerks and sponge brains, and challenge them, confront them, as otherwise they may even start corrupting your and my brains, it must be stopped in the beginning, but that was before, now it must be declared war against, it is a serious social ill and disease what has caught on to many.

    It must be fought and exterminated this disease, or we will all go under.

  4. Well done Martyn and Mike in Auckland. Trouble is I suspect that all the bullshit you so aptly decry is part and parcel of our ‘brighter future’ and the majority of the public have fallen in behind it all. How are we going to ‘fight and exterminate this disease’ when everyone is ‘ oh so positive’ about being gormless jerks? Every time I point out how things are going downhill I’m told I’m being negative. Hardly anyone talks anymore anyway – they’re all attached to their fucking phones. Spongy brains indeed!

  5. It’s melting ’cause the US fiat dollar is on fire and nobody wants to touch it. US Inc already bankrupt and 1 October sees the axe being brought down. Reset about to start with sovereign nations having gold-backed currencies. Rothschild and Rockefeller empires are about to crumble publicly and the US Secret Government and their media minions will slowly vanish. The truth will out and I dare say many conspiracy theorists will have their day in the sun.
    “Central bankers warn of an economic meltdown” … meaning their lies and scams are at long last coming to the top of a boiling pot to be skimmed off like scum.

    • “living beyond your means” was what my wise old Dad always said!

      Of course he lived through two world wars and a massive depression so they knew about this sort of thing.

      So it is time to pay the ferryman eh????

      I have always lived frugal as can be, and people always ask me “why do you keep old junk”

      I guess I was taught for the day coming by Dad wasn’t I??

  7. is it that the media have a long and successful conspiracy going or is it that the views they present are simply more popular and acceptable than those of an opposing view?

  8. This is a worldwide issue, and credit where credit is due, the Right, National, Tories, Republicans – have learnt well, and have played a winning game when it comes to control of their Media.
    Then again, the centrist-left, the Neo liberals, Labour UK or NZ, and the Democrats are just as bad.
    Go look at the Guardian’s coverage of Corbyn and Sanders. In fact the Guardian printed a story positively boasting about their anti Corbyn bias (19.6.16 Greenslade)
    The bottom line is that the Media has been taken over for the purpose of maintaining the status quo.
    It is one thing the current leaders of the Centre-Right and the Centre-Left can agree on (actually, one thing of many things they can agree on).
    Feed us mindless dross, distract us with bright shiny colours and hope the ‘trouble makers’ and Doubting Thomases disappear.

  10. Great post. Couldn’t agree with it more! Spinoff has also been a real disappointment. More media trash with the same BIG story TRHAK. It’s so fucked up. All I can say is, still looking at it and stop clicking that Trash news.

    Good news is that as well as Waatea Estate which will hopefully be back soon, there are also quite a few good blogs in NZ now, that provide an alternative.

  11. Minto seems to have free licence on this site to write what he wants so you cannot advance a conspiracy theory here. perhaps people simply choose not to read his stuff. Who will you blame when he does not win the Christchurch . mayoralty

        • People here can choose what posts they read, and for John Minto, he does hardly get much space on MSM coverage, so TDB offers him a voice at least.

          I see stuff I can agree with, and some I may disagree with, but on TDB we can at least get an alternative view on matters, which is hard to find elsewhere.

    • Clearly Dave you are unaware of what the term — “conspiracy theory” really means. Google – Tavistock Institute and ” conspiracy theory ” and find out who coined the term and why.

      The media focuses on their darling of a candidate and would surely pass on a candidate who is about exposing DIRTY POLITICS.
      Thanks Martyn. N.Z. looses big time with this merger.

      As for John Minto – he may not win but he is the best candidate and he would serve ethically and morally and is not bought and owned by the big corporations and OLE BOYS NETWORK, like Dalziel.
      Plenty of folks read TDB and thank goodness we have an alternative left wing voice to counter the right wing Natzi – “out of touch” elitist govt. that lies and has taken our country into a very bad place economically; ethically ; psychologically and environmentally. Look at Q & A now, a mouthpiece for this govt. when it used to have just a few who had their heads on straight and challenged the idiots at the helm. They only interview pro Natz people mostly and it is about as boring of a TV show as a block of frozen hardwood.

      Most media is a waste of space and does not deserve our attention and is meant to brainwash the masses into brain dead sheeples
      believing their biased and phony info-tainment garbage.

  12. Ah ?
    The internet? The W-orld W-ide W-eb ?
    Imagine for a horrible moment, that you and I were not aware of the Interweb?
    Imagine that now? OMG ! If we thought our Ox and cart was the fastest vehicle on the track when suddenly ! Whoosh ! You were passed by a Ford Falcon?
    Dump the cart, eat the Ox, hello future you sexy beast.
    On a different tack.
    We all know that the mainstream media is awful at best, and why is that? The people who run and organise the MSM are not fools. And the worrying thing for me is that we believe they are because they will have us believe they are. In fact, they’re doing their hardest to convince us to hate their seemingly brainless guts. paul henry and the short arsed, toxic little wasp hosking are not ‘ reporters’ they’re entertainers. Otherwise they’d report, not squeeze their little diddles to clueless granddads and grandmas doomed to living in their closed minds and so are too afraid to look at that there inter-whatsit. Hosking and henry work to a script. But why ?
    They, and their management are driving the thinkers over to the internet. They know that. Again, why??

    Could it be that when analogue radio’s gone. Free analogue TV’s gone already, fm radio too, then the newspapers, all gone. What then do we have? The internet. What then might happen if it were turned off? Does the word chaos spring to your trembling lips?

    You seen this little gem?

    http://boingboing.net/2016/09/14/a-powerful-attacker-is-systema.html
    Is a weapon most terrible, all the more terrible for the lack of it.
    Imagine a weapon that meant no food. No fuel. No meds. No transport. No information.
    Sounds like a pretty powerful weapon to me.
    Take the internet away and you will see global chaos on an unprecedented level.

  13. The cross over of “news” between Fairfax and NZH, with the latter being usually a day behind the former I’ve noticed, is beginning to definitely seem like a (blind) merge. Not healthy at all, considering msm is supposed to be the proxy of the people.

  14. Well, looking at the bright side. You’ve got all the shit in one place! No need to go there then?
    When people have an addiction and this case, to shit. You have to force feed them it to break their habit? Well that’s my philosophy/cure-all. Lets see if it works. There’s only so much shit one can take? Isn’t there?

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