Labour vs The Nation – learning a lesson from Corbyn’s recent poll jump

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Huge Twitter eruption of elite journalistic privilege today over the decision by NZ Labour to dump appearing on The Nation.

The spluttering indignation of many of our elite journalists and pundits that Labour wouldn’t front on The Nation is entertaining and warms my cold, cold heart.

All Labour have done by refusing to appear on The Nation is show they’ve actually learned something from Corbyn’s recent and dramatic jump in the Polls.

Corbyn’s incredible rise is due to the media restrictions that go on all mainstream media over the election period. Coverage can not be the usual one sided anti-Labour Party garbage, media are obliged to give balanced coverage of policy. The moment the Media are forced to be balanced and Corbyn cuts a 20 point lead down to 5.

Labour in NZ are just realising how important those fairness obligations are when confronted by a media more interested in creating heat than light.

Consider the current tsunami of biased narratives and political double standards attached to Labour.

Gerry Brownlee openly contradicts the Government’s position on Israel, Alfred Ngaro from a  prepared speech threatens critics of failing social policy and the Government release an abortion of a budget that is criticised here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.

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So what dominates the biased mainstream media news cycle? Some nobody listed 72 on the Labour Party list throwing a wobbly and the budget described as ‘left wing’ and fucking ‘family friendly’.

Screw playing the mainstream media’s game.

The Nation has a tiny, tiny audience and its schtick is to generate a Paddy Gower gotcha moment which is re-edited for the 6pm news which does have a large audience.

The Nation has done this to Labour time and time and time again. Labour agree to give the Nation an exclusive on policy and The Nation shouts some small detail question over and over and over again and that’s the interview.

It’s what they do, this is their modus operandi and they willingly indulge in promoting this style of ratings designed aggressive ‘journalism’…

…so why Labour would pull out of The Nation and focus on Q+A (which has a far larger audience) is as understandable as Hillary Clinton turning down appearing on Fox News.

Gatekeeper mainstream media shocked that Labour has little interest in playing their game is as tedious as it is self interested.  Government Minister’s refuse to appear on media almost every single day of the week, yet its Labour’s resistance to get Gowered that is the outrage.

Doesn’t this actually highlight the media’s double standards towards Labour?

 

 

 

35 COMMENTS

  1. Wow! Labour might be getting some back-bone! Can we welcome the beginning of the Corbyn effect?

  2. Good article Martyn ….It brought up recollections of last week when I stated basically “without a shadow of a doubt in my mind Bill English has got a copy of all the questions Gower was gonna ask at least 24 hours earlier” The nation replied to me something like this” good theory there but paddy probably doesn’t know what questions he’s gonna ask 24 hours earlier”wtf I said to myself are they trying to say to me he’s a dufus?…I laughed out loud and replied . Let’s see if he interrupts over answers…shapes the narrative…shows no respect…looks uncomfortable and short on time.. Ect if he shows none of these actions and everything is opposite to what I just said then I believe that it wasn’t an interview it was an act…if you watch the interview with English you can see for yourself how smooth it went? ….long story short …they didn’t reply(I slowly shake my head)

    • Remember one statistic when consuming nz mainstream media especially financial news. Only 7% of them are Labour members.

  3. ” The moment the Media are forced to do that look at how Corbyn’s rise has occurred”
    Its not just the media with a problem.
    Labour NZ has never done anything that would, in any way, signal their approval, belief, alignment, sympathy or even vague interest in ‘Corbyn’ or his policies
    I suspect that this is a time for the “New Labour” members of the Labour Party, both here and in the UK, to maybe try and get their heads around Corbyns rise.
    Unfortunately for them Corbyns ‘super power’ is that he actually has unshakable principles and beliefs in a fair and progressive society. He sticks by those principles, through thick and thin, winning or losing.
    That’s something you cannot adopt as a strategy.

    • Agree.
      Maybe Labour needs to contact UK Labour opposition neo-lib dissidents and tell them how ashamed they should be for trying to undermine Corbyn, as I did months back.

      ‘Corbyns ‘super power’ is that he actually has unshakable principles and beliefs in a fair and progressive society. He sticks by those principles, through thick and thin, winning or losing.’

      So do I. NZ has turned into a nasty greedy backwater; it’s time to turn it away from the Roger Douglas/National/Act/ nightmare that has destroyed Kiwis’ lives.

      I continue to laugh at the ‘extreme left ideals’ which were only ideals that put people first. What the fxxk is wrong with that!

    • They have. Cunliffe was far closer to Corbyn’s rehetoric, the media shafted him.

      Look at Lisa Own stuttering her way through an ill-prepared “interview” with Joyce on the budget. An empty bag budget, and she couldn’t evn pin the fact that NZ’s poorest got nothing because of TAS.

      This is good game from Labour, they don’t need the Nation, and it’s a warning shot to the rest.

  4. Loving it !!
    It doesn’t matter what Labour does or says it is treated all the same ….big sighs and tutt tutting and then a whole lot of negative bile comes flowing.
    It’s the same on Radio Live with the ‘political panel’ from 2-3pm on Thursday afternoons with Chris Trotter and Rodney Hide .
    It nearly always turns into the slag Labour off hour and how maaaarrvellous National are.
    Winston Peters gets the same treatment….if I her another commentator or journalists mindless sheep like parroting, “well that’s just Winston being Winston “, again, I swear I am going to hunt them down and subject them to 1000 hours of Chinese water torture for being so boringly unimaginative.
    Labour are showing some steel …..however , watch the toys go out of the cot by media works…..ear muffs will be required to block out the childish whining and slagging.
    Things just got a whole lot more interesting..

  5. Dream on NZ Labour would have to do a lot more than an anti-Nation grandstand to turn around their polling.
    A good start would be to ditch the neoliberals especially a leader who rated growing his organisation above his members welfare so much that he signed up to a workplace agreement with such lax safety standards that 28 kiwi workers were killed.
    How can anyone put their trust in such a man?

    • At last, someone sheets the blame for Pike River home to the person really responsible for it: Andrew Little. Sometimes I can feel the will to live just slipping away…

    • Good article alright and very full of deeper insight than normal so 150% to you Martyn,

      Yes standing up to the corrupt biased media here and in the US has served to make Americans connect to Trump because they are so sick of being daily insulted by the rubbish that the media attempt to shove down our throats, so the Trump & Corbyn affect may truly come to visit labour’s fortunes too.

      I can just see SS Joyce squirming in his chair as he realises his Nazi style Propaganda machine has now lost some spokes that he cant fix!!!!

      Ha ha ha.

      Message to SS Joyce is from Abraham Lincoln = “You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time!!!!!

    • You have some sort of evidence for that, Debsisdead?? Because from what I remember the mining inspectorate was all but closed down after the Nats (under Bolger) removed workplace safety and replaced it with watered-down Health & Safety laws. This happened in the early 1990s at the same time building regulations were watered down, and hence leaking buildings.

      So I look forward to your citations of Andrew Little’s involvement.

      PS, I’m not a Labor voter.

      • OK first apologise for the lateness of the response. I don’t know if it is time differences or what, but I never seem to be in sync with this site’s moderators.
        After I posted here, I came back and checked a few times to find no sign of my posts so I assumed they must have disappeared ‘down the black hole’ or the blog shut over weekends or whatever.

        In no way did I state that Little was solely responsible for the Pike River, but I consider that his decision to involve the then Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union in their first ever site agreement for a mine, at a time when as you correctly point out that the Department of Labour had cut back on their mining inspectorate resources, to be one of the major causes of that preventable tragedy.
        The logical union to have coverage by way of a site agreement was the union which covered all the Solid Energy workers just up the road, but the company didn’t want them in because the Pike River Mine wanted to keep costs down and accepted the EPMU’s agreement which had been negotiated by unionists who had little or no knowledge of mining and the tricky OHS issues that required a huge institutional knowledge for OHS negotiators to comprehend.
        The failures of safety despite members expressed concerns were documented at the enquiry. THe EPMU had no way of knowing how serious issues were but WTF they were empire building.
        The EPMU under Andrew Little took a gamble that the company wouldn’t do anything too silly and they lost, largely because punt (EPMU) was an uninformed gamble it wasn’t them on the line it was underground coal workers desperate for work in a labour market that was shedding coal miners around the world.

        It is that simple. I notice that since then the EPMU has gone on to more mines and now does have coverage of Solid Energy something that their Solid Energy members must now rue since their union (now called E Tu) seems intent on going along with the now privatised mining corporation’s closures.

        http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA1610/S00467/solid-energy-debacle-a-sad-indictment.htm

        The Trots have quite a bit to say about that and while I have a great deal of reservations about them, they do make some good points about the performance of E To on:

        https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2015/10/03/coal-o03.html

        The issue is that with Pike River, in my mind Andrew Little showed a recklessness about details and the safety of those he was charged with taking care of, and that bodes badly as an indication of his decision-making should he ever be PM of Aotearoa.

        I listened to NZ National radio over the net a couple of hours ago and judging from the ‘debate’ Matthew Hooten and the ‘host’ on one side and Stephen/Steven ?, on t’other, the issue of Little being PM strikes me as pretty academic.

        Both Little and English have a bad case of the Hillary Clintons, they are offering more of the same when the voters have had enough of the same old shit but, given the advantages of incumbency, plus Little’s neoliberal instincts which prevent him from offering any real solutions to Aotearoa’s particular problems means that there is going to be another three years at least of NZ’s wealth being leeched away.
        Even worse the crew currently sitting as opposition MPs are not even vaguely likely to ennoble a leader capable of devising then articulating a solution.
        It makes me sick to say that but there you go, in no time at all NZ’s biggest advantage – that it produces a large food surplus, will have been pissed away because lazy politicians, bureaucrats, and corporations prefer to grow the numbers of citizens for short term pseudo gains, than actually grow market share, develop other exportable revenue sources and increase productivity.

        Aotearoa seems intent on a death of a thousand cuts which is fine if no one looks eh!

  6. About bloody time Labour woke up to the games Gower and others play.

    The Nation has long been an anti left bashing machine serving up the usual victims for the 6pm sound bite.

    I am surprised it has taken Labour so long to work out that Gower and co are no friend of the Labour party considering the damage inflicted on Cunliffe in the 2014 campaign with Gower calling Cunliffe a liar live on tv when Gower knew it was a jack up over Don Wah Lieu.

    After all the deceit that Key was involved in and THEY knew he was a habitual liar where Cunliffe was always direct and honest.

    If i was advising Labour about the coming campaign i would not appear on any debates hosted by Hosking, as they are a pointless exercise, completely bias and hostile to any candidate from the left who wants to project his or her message to the public.

    NZ Labour could learn a lot from Corbyn and the current U.K campaign.

  7. I dread the Corbin effect has nothing to do with this decision by NZ Labour. They need time to analyse the Budget and to rethink how to respond to it, i.e. to get new policy ready for the election.

    Corbyn is only gaining, with UK Labour, because May has done such a shoddy job as of recent, voters there wonder, wtf, are we going to rely on her crap government, or maybe vote for the lesser evil, which may be Labour.

    The polls in the UK are highly unreliable and volatile, the Brexit vote proved it, it continues to be a game of chances, little else.

    Jeremy Corbyn may have a chance, but Labour NZ should not at all rely on what happens in the UK, we have a different situation, and different voting system also, all Little et al need to do is to get some damned sensible policy ready and robustly sell them to the electorates, nothing else. It is too late to discuss leader issues, it is a matter of being honest, bold and to present a damned good alternative to this rotten government.

    Surely, if you are honest, committed and have the needed advice and resources, that cannot be all that difficult.

    The Nation may just have to be a bit more patient, Joyce was selling his budget today, to Lisa Owen, who failed to ask the hard questions, yet again, as she and many other journos have NO clue what it is like living on the breadline, especially depending on benefits.

    If they would have a clue, they would know that much of the announced “benefits” for middle and lower middle class, and especially beneficiaries, will be empty words and little real results and help.

    The MSM is a void brain space, they are brainless talk festers, who celebrate each others individual career aspirations and indulge in endless Twitter gossip, that means nothing at all to people who care about what really matters, and what facts are about.

    • [I dread the Corbin effect has nothing to do with this decision by NZ Labour. They need time to analyse the Budget and to rethink how to respond to it, i.e. to get new policy ready for the election.]

      And yet Grant Robinson appeared this morning on Q&A.

      • Yes, I saw that, and it was good to see him and James Shaw there together, which appeared at times as being more about damage control re their different voting on the Budget.

        But yes, after the not so nice interview that Lisa Owen had with Phil Twyford not long ago, some in Labour may have thought, is it worth going on the Nation, given their bias, which I think comes largely from that Paddy Gower twit face.

        He deserves to get a sack and get a “real” job working with his hands and less with his mouth for a change, there are many labourers needed in construction at the moment, Paddy!

      • Q+A had a good program on this morning, those who missed it can see a repeat after 11pm some time late tonight – or get it via TVNZ’s website. The panel there was interesting and somewhat refreshing, with a business man who did not necessarily cheer on the government, something not heard and seen that often these days.

  8. gower is a fucken wanker boycott the prick boycott fucken tv3 i haven’t watched tv 3 since Campbell left

  9. Gower just shows the low grovelling standards our MSM has got to.
    So glad I can ‘choose’ my own news sources. Won’t be going back to the box anytime soon!
    Come on Labour change it up this election, so we don’t have to put up with the ‘ Nasty party’ any longer.

    • Absolutely 100 % Shona

      Interestingly though, there are still some here who will bag Labour for making a stance. I guess you’ll never please some people.

  10. Great points! If the MSM can’t be fair then screw them and they can have Bill’s spaghetti pizza and exercise videos as fodder. See how far that takes them in the ratings…

  11. ” …cold, cold heart… ”
    I don’t think so. You might be many things to many people but there’s nothing cold about your heart @ Martyn Bradbury.

    Is what’s happening re Corbyn/NZ Labour an uprising of awareness from ‘normal’ people who’d long given up trying to rely on the corrupted MSM for unbiased info? Are they only just discovering the awesome power they have in the collective ‘We’ made available to us by the equally awesome power of the internet?

    Should the Right Wing night crawlers be very, very worried?
    Should the Right Wing be equally worried that their convoluted litany of lies and cruelties be untangled by brilliant minds, such as those found here from time to time, mine being perhaps the only exception. My mind is still attracted to thoughts of kissing girls, walking my dog, driving my car WITHOUT my seat belt buckled and now and then I’m drawn to cigarette smoke like a mouse to ripe cheese on a trap. I Know! Rebel right?

    When trying to figure out narcissists like gower there’s one question to ask that might reveal a clue to his motivations.

    How much money is he paid to do what he does because he must spend a fortune on tooth paste?

  12. I think this is strategic genius. They ban The Nation who few watch and go on Q and A. Q and A will be feeling very pleased with this scoop and hopefully give them better coverage. Potentially this is a very smart move.

  13. The only problem Labour are been very hypocritical as on many occasion accusing the government of not fronting, likewise opening them up to been gutless and no ideas , a gift from heaven for you paddy

  14. Way back I remember reading the Insider NZ Herald being told why is Lisa Owen coming back; we don’t need her?
    I was pleased to see her back as I imagined her realjourno ethics would cut a clean path through the crap which is NZ political spin; how wrong was I. She’s just another cheap ring-in.

  15. The last interview I saw that Gower did, he seemed more interested in the sound of his own voice than actually hearing answers from his guest. I enjoy Lisa Owen’s style but Patrik Gower annoys the fuck out of me.

    • I watched that interview, SH. Gower’s style was abominable and left me none the wiser. An interviewer puts the question, then gives the guest a minute or so to reply. Jumping in after the first sentence is barely completed is a waste of my time as well as the guests’.

  16. The only news programmes on radio or TV that I ever take any notice of are Checkpoint and (sometimes) Morning Report which by co-incidence are both on RNZ which we used to call National Radio.
    The rest are either made unlistenable or unwatchable by screes of idiot ads, clowning presenters or third rate pseudo-journalists making it up as they go.
    That’s news and current events in NZ for you.
    How sickening.

  17. Anyone or any party that has the guts to stand up against biased and controlled journalism both in writing and on TV shows has got my respect. The Nation has been awfully boring and uninspiring anyway.
    Good on ya Labour.

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