While blue green hipster wank blog, ‘The Spin-Off ‘, cravenly worshiped the corporate media against the ComCom decision, the best economic columnist in NZ, Rod Oram, has stepped down from Fairfax for ‘editorial differences’ after he wrote a column in support of the Commerce Commission decision to stop Fairfax’s newspaper monopoly…
…it really says something about the current media landscape when an economist and writer of Rod Oram’s statue is forced to stand down for supporting a decision to halt a newspaper monopoly while blue green hipster wank blogs cheerlead corporate media’s dominance.
The vapidness, self interest and whining by self interested journalists who want the merger is a disgrace to the profession. Allowing corporate elites to dominate 90% of a newspaper market is the very antithesis of democracy, and watching millennial media with no ideological compass defend those corporate media interests is the ultimate win for neoliberal culture.
Listening to Rod Oram destroy Stuff on Radio NZ today should make all those who have breathlessly rushed to support these fucking arseholes hang their heads in shame.
‘editorial differences’ yeah right !!!!!!!!
More like ” Telling the truth”.
The free speech we enjoyed during the more of the 20th century was won by grit and determination now lost apparently.
The answer as I see it Martyn,;
– All every self respecting journalists should leave these toxic media organisations that suppress the journalistic viewpoints from being heard in public, and band together and form a “free press” agency under a “Co-operative” platform so they can invite any public minded person or group to join their free press enterprise and this could be a large method of securing funds to begin this “free press” platform, so can you kick this idea down the road so we get prepared adequately for the election Martyn?
Co Operative’s are part of many top companies in NZ today.
One is our largest export dairy company.
Don’t feel too defeated, Rod. You’re in good company, along with John Campbell and Dita De Boni. Telling the truth is an act of rebellion in these post-truth times, so keep fighting the good fight.
Yes good stuff on RNZ by Rod Oram today!
I’ve listened to Rod Oram on RNZ and read his paper columns. He’ll be a hard act to follow. Fairfax have lost a real treasure with his departure!
I heard Rod Oram talk with Kathryn Ryan on RNZ’s Nine to Noon today, and listened to how he explained, how Stuff had cut down his editorial space over time, and made it near impossible for him to write any commentary of substance and with sufficient information.
This is the trend all over though, check out the websites of NZME and Stuff and others, they write shorter articles, scratching mostly only surfaces, and inform about less detail.
Most media consumers settle with this, read this short article stuff, and learn damned little, and so get no info of substance, leaving them ignorant, just as the MSM bosses and their mates in government want it.
It is just another aspect and area of the endless dumbing down agenda at work, nothing else.
So no wonder Rod threw in the towel, when your hands get tied so much, you cannot really move and fulfill your tasks, then it is a waste of time. Remember also how many good commentary and article writers have resigned, or have been resigned from the Herald over recent years, it is happening everywhere.
And to some degree, we are all a bit responsible for this also, as we now continue to use the web more and more, and do not buy papers and magazines anymore, the advertisers do shift to Google and Fakebook and so, and the death of much of the media continues, it is a vicious, self destructive cycle now.
The Spinoff is the sad alternative we get, with a potpourri of writers presenting stuff, some advertorial almost, some biased, some useless and silly, the odd bit still worth a read.
I despair.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/201843153/business-commentator-rod-oram
Oram was one of the few reasons I would get the Sunday Star Times, which is the last paper I actually buy. Now, no point.
Stuff is truly awful, it is a mish mash of tattle tale woman’s mags type of shallow crap. It is NOT the go to for news and certainly as Oram said, it’s a mess. Trying to find older articles is near impossible and for all those reasons I barely look at it.
He is a stark contrast to the Heralds business writer Liam Dann who was opining the other day about having to even think about politics, something he appears to loath and business where he should be concentrating on mergers and acquisitions and bottom line profits.
Dann seems to be oblivious to the fact that there is human collateral in what business do that is tempered or aggravated in our present case by whatever government we have. Politics and business are closely linked.
The people of Dunedin have been shafted by some US investment company who own Cadbury, that has dragged massive amounts of money from their company and paid little tax in return and decided to shut it down altogether, all aided and abetted by Nationals business friendly attitude.
Maybe Dann wants to turn a blind eye to National, they are a fuck up and the byproduct of their short-term, focus grouped, poll driven policies of the day are, are hurting real people and the environment.
Everyday stuff.co.nz sounds more like “Newspeak” – the stripped down language used by Big Brother and the Party in George Orwell’s novel “1984” which involved stripping the English language of any words that conveyed intelligence, originality or individualism.
Rod Oram doesn’t just write business stuff, he often makes good sense! Fairfax media are really digging a hole for themselves.
Never mind, they can find an 18 year old journo grad from Hicksville Polytechnic to write about shite they have no idea about, and experience they will require another 50 years to obtain.
Fairfax: gun, head, trigger, pull. Sorted.
Such a loss to media. Seems now telling the truth comes at a cost!
Hopefully Rod Oram will be picked up by some smart, progressive media source, dedicated to putting the truth out there.
All the best Rod.
[…] away years ago to the internet for better sources of information to hold the powerful to account. Listening to the way Rod Oram was treated by Fairfax and the way those arrogant pricks had the audacity to hold him up as their evidence of being […]
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