I paused in my boycott of TV3 to look at what is supposed to be the great ratings saviour for Mediaworks – the new ‘Story’.
My verdict?
They replaced Campbell Live with that?
It. Was. A. Train. Wreck.
Yes the first show shouldn’t be judged too harshly, but seeing as they were supposedly planning this as the great ratings miracle for TV3, it should have been far better than the tedious crap they finally served us up with.
Story managed to make Seven Sharp look clever and cosmopolitan. The lead story about prisoners cutting off their ankle bracelets (the real story here is how home detention has actually blown our incarceration rate well over the 8000 in jail) looked like it was set up so that Duncs could blow some faux rage and mutter ‘scumbags’. It’s like your provincial brother in law getting drunk at the family BBQ so he can get all ruddy faced and rage against PC madness gone mad.
Ugh.
Heather was a waste. She used to do great political interviews on Q&A, but on this she’s relegated to making comments about how turtles get hyperthermia.
They cut to a live shot from Kelly Tarletans that didn’t have any of the fish they were describing in the shot and seemed to have only found out about E-games.
It was crap, just total crap. The only nice thing you could say about it was that it only took 30minutes.
I saw an advert for a version of the Dragons Den and briefly wished Walden and Christie could be dragged onto that to try and sell their decision to gut and kill off an incredibly successful show like Campbell Live to replace it with this dross.
Story is like a whiskey and sour minus the whiskey. I’m not looking for a ‘story’ I’m looking for daily current affairs with hosts not afraid to challenge power. This comes across like a dumbed down Seven Sharp, a feat I simply couldn’t believe was possible.
You are not missing anything on Story. I can’t see anyone wanting to seriously watch this.
Thanks Martyn,
Especially for confirming to me that what I am missing is nothing, or meaningless again from TV3 stable of Jolly Roger-ing along.
We do need someone spying for us and telling us none of us are missing anything of worth.
kind of supports our faith that we were right about this shallow TV channel.
FJK is on CNBC a lot today as his new global “reach” telling the financial gulags that he believes the TPPA wil be concluded successfully.
Thanks traitor.
The episode I watched had a very interesting backgrounder on real estate as the lead story. I thought the programme had a good start, but then I was not a Campbell Live supporter.
Come on, they simply tried a higher level candid camera stunt, nothing much else. The woman agent they first “enticed” to enter a dodgy deal, she deserved to be sacked. But the second one, the man, he seemed to take it all as a joke, and only went along, not taking the man they sent in too seriously, I thought.
This is fabricating “stories” or “news”, this is shocking.
What about traditional, decent, honest research and investigation, without all this hype, and then ruthless public shaming?
No, this is not how such a program should be made.
Rubbish, Campbell Live had this weapon in their armoury.
And even better tonight – imagine how good the show could be if they lasted nine years like Campbell Live.
I noticed that if you removed the letter “s” you are left with “tory”…. Just saying. ..
If you understand the importance of ratings then you will understand the reason for the content on Story. Bit like winning an election, you have to appeal to the majority who just happen to occupy the middle ground. This is who Story is designed to appeal to. I feel they will give Seven Sharp a run for their money which is what the programme is designed to do. Until there is a TV equivalent of RNZ then we won’t get serious current affairs, as commercially, it doesn’t rate.
Ah, smell the defeatism.
Presume this is the “jC” time will tell.
Oh dear….
That’s what happens when you put a ‘wide-boy’ from the stock market, combined with the so called ‘Queen’, of so called ‘reality tv’, together.
They’ve got all the depth and flare of a ‘Big Mac’.
This formulaic ‘McDonalds’ of television is heading the same way as The Paul ….excuse me for a second ….. vomit …. Henry Show has gone.
A one way ticket to oblivion.
All the hype . All the the bullshit won’t put humpty back together again.
When you don’t possess any cultural capital .
When you don’t possess any real empathy.
When you are as shallow as a puddle.
Then it is, and will be, impossible to produce a show that is thought provoking and rich in substance.
Weldon , Christie and Garner are living examples of everything that is wrong about N.Z today.
Anti intellectualism , combined with superficiality.
The vultures will now be circling the toxic remnants of TV3 !!
What would a cowboy from the stock exchange know about running a television/media company, this is another example of New Zealand’s poor management and governance of business entities in NZ. Fonterra, Solid Energy and Media Works are the latest examples of cronyism and poor management decisions, children playing in a mans world.
Clearly you do not follow business. Prior to Media Works I understand Mark Weldon was an outstanding CEO of the NZ Stock Exchange
That doesn’t give him any credibility to run a media company, Grant…
Correct Frank, but he is a numbers man and does understand the difference between income and expenditure and presumably saw the need to do something about ratings.
For example, perhaps he could have increased the viewer numbers for such programmes as Campbell Live. With this programme viewer numbers reached almost all time highs in its couple of weeks. Where were these viewers when the programme needed them.
Media company managers got the the company into the position it is now. Unlike Solid Energy, and Fonterra Media Works is not a business operating in the sale of commodities.
“Wide Boy”??
Certainly it was more like talkback radio than TV – never mind the facts, lets go straight to the outrage. The stories had some interest but weren’t really developed. Take the GPS anklet story – the corrections bloke had a side to tell too – presumably the actuarial story that the bracelets were on the average a fairly good system – just that the failures were worse than incarceration failures. Garner should then have compared old system & new average + failures like the Gottingo murder. A bit like Gower really – lightweight.
You fail to mention that in the first five minutes corrupt real estate agents Story investigated into had resigned, and that the Corrections’ minister was choking on words in a heavy heated interview.
This boycott stuff is becoming a joke now Martyn.
I wont be watching it, some might say how can you judge something with out watching it, well I have never watched jonno and ben due to one of them being charged with some underage sex crime and still in emloyment, the ads for the show have them interacting with children, that just goes down all wrong for me.
during the election I read an article about garner saying he was non political due to his integrity and the need to be neutral being a journalist, sounded reasonable, then he fronted that kim dotcom set up – trying to make him sound bad, totally political and bent, so hes sold his soul out, I avoid him like Id avoid having my children around john key.
remember when he was first voted in he took that young girl in his car – some one elses kid, that seemed suspect at the time, far more so now
You should get your facts straight about Jono and Ben.
one of them was charged and convicted of an inapropriate act of a sexual nature with a child – he was still employed after the court case, put the facts straight for me
Saying unspecific “one of them” smears an innocent party.
If you can’t be more specific than that you should shut the fuck up.
I thought it was common knowledge, Im not sure of the legalities of naming the exact person therefore i didnt name him, if you are unfamiliar with the case your boyfriend whaleoil had an article about it, use google if you want more information
whaleoil article
http://www.whaleoil.co.nz/2012/04/we-still-arent-laughing/
I thought it was common knowledge,
You obviously don’t think at all.
Im not sure of the legalities of naming the exact person therefore i didnt name him,
So instead you went ahead and slandered at least one person and exposed the TDB blog to defamation action.
if you are unfamiliar with the case your boyfriend whaleoil had an article about it
Well obviously you are familiar with that particular sewer.
Sicko.
It wasn’t Jono or Ben but another person that they worked with, that guy has never worked again on tv since.
Yes, it was rather shocking, I must say. This is a show where they “make” news, yes, “create” news, by sending persons out (paid by the MSM, that is TV3), to set people up, and fall into traps, like that first bit about trying to entice real estate agents to do dirty, dodgy deals in house sales. One bit, the second one, that involved a male agent, was really bizarre. I think he just went along with the guy that pretended to want to buy a home, to do it up, and then re-sell it, but did not take him serious.
Like the woman in the first bit, they were later exposed, and a rather shocked and intimidated real estate boss only answered questions, because he was forced to explain things, otherwise Ray While would lose reputation and business.
That bit about the ankle bracelet was just made up nonsense. Some anonymous underpaid security man, supposedly on the minimum wage, explained how bracelets could just be cut off. Hey, wow, did anybody guess, yes you can cut them off, but hey, once this is detected, which will happen, they will be sent straight back to prison, thank you. You cannot simply refit such bracelets and pretend they were never cut off.
I stopped watching after that. Duncan Garner making crude, redneck, derogatory remarks about prisoners with bracelets, he showed, he has no scruples and no shame.
And they tried to tie it up to that case in Lower Hutt, where the child molester escaped for a day or so, trying to suggest, that there are hordes of convicted molesters out in communities with bracelets, about to cut them loose.
How is rehabilitation going to work, when all persons with bracelets and out on leave, on parole or in rehabilitation are thrown into the same drawer, as suspected molesters? We may as well pack in the resocialisation attempts, lock the all up and throw away the key, if we have such “media” fabricate such “news” stories, all made up, just to get some persons’ adrenalin running.
Indeed, not worth watching, as it can only get worse, after what I saw last night. A big thumbs down in my view.
Yes Mike in Auckland,
They are making a “sensational show”
No substance all rumour mill banter, and here we are back in Hollywood, to take peoples minds off the failing economy and increasing debt and unemployment.
This show just came in time didn’t it all you Tory’s?
Mc Cully’s probably selling more of NZ to China now as it looks here like FJK is hooking us onto the Chinese yuan not the US dollar the bloody fool, so as we go under China’s control FJK and his sidekick Mc Cully will just be the NZ salesman for “NZ On Sale”
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/BU1508/S00341/nz-dollar-drops-sharply-after-china-devalues-yuan.htm
NZ dollar drops sharply after China devalues yuan
Tuesday, 11 August 2015, 2:37 pm
Article: BusinessDesk
NZ dollar drops sharply after China devalues yuan
By Tina Morrison
Aug. 11 (BusinessDesk) – The New Zealand dollar dropped sharply after China’s central bank devalued the yuan following recent poor economic data, which will help exporters in Asia’s largest economy.
The kiwi dropped as low as 65.50 US cents, from 66.27 cents at 1pm, and was recently trading at 65.60 cents. The kiwi rose against the yuan following the statement. It was recently trading at 4.1341 yuan from 4.1150 yuan at 1pm.
The yuan fell to its lowest point in almost three years after the People’s Bank of China said it had changed the way it calculated the currency’s daily midpoint against the US dollar. China manages the exchange rate through an official midpoint, from which trade can rise or fall 2 percent on any given day. The central bank said it would now base the yuan’s midpoint on market makers’ quotes and the previous day’s closing price. The move comes after weaker Chinese trade and manufacturing data was released at the weekend, raising concern about an economic slowdown.
“They are trying to bolster their economy and the easiest way of doing it is by making it better for their exporters and make themselves more competitive again globally,” said Tim Kelleher, head of institutional FX sales New Zealand at ASB Bank.
“It’s more monetary easing in Asia, theoretically it will decrease our competitiveness as well.” Kelleher said. “If all the countries are easing their monetary policy then it puts further pressure on the RBNZ to ease as well.”
The New Zealand dollar increased against the Australian dollar, reflecting the Australian economy’s bigger exposure to China, Kelleher said. The kiwi was recently trading at 89.44 Australian cents, from 89.13 cents at 1pm.
(BusinessDesk)
© Scoop Media
Hey, I’m surprised they didn’t do a story on the new flag designs…..!! Move along ….. nothing to see here!
“It’s like your provincial brother in law getting drunk at the family BBQ so he can get all ruddy faced and rage against PC madness gone mad.”
Excellent metaphor. Garner seems incapable of probing behind the facts of the matter to look at the causes of things. H is analysis is always shallow and biased towards the conservative point of view. His columns for the Dompost are like that. He’s essentially a right wing populist.
Didn’t watch. Won’t watch.
They got rid of JC, “because current affairs isn’t entertainment” only to replace it with a current affairs show. My intelligence hasn’t just been insulted, it has been assaulted with a 4×2. Fairy Story comes to mind.
As Helen Clark said during the corngate debacle JC is a “sanctimonious little creep”.
Opinions are not always in alignment.
Any journalist that has politicians stooping to childish personal insults is doing his job. Quoting one to support your own opinion is a similar endorsement. I hope you’ve learned something from all this.
I hear the term “make news” rather a lot these days. REAL journalists do not make news, they don’t have to. REAL journalists recognize news when it happens around them. There is always something happening around them. If they don’t notice anything happening around them it is because they are not good enough journalists. Journalists who think they have to make news are invariably bad journalists, or not journalists at all. Hmm……who does that remind me of….?
More crap tonight, another “mysterious” security man revealing “blackmail” attempts by crims, when it comes to ankle bracelets and so, a story about mum’s worries if a child wants to eat stuff in the supermarket, before paying for it. I missed the beginning, but I hear it was about racist comments during sports events.
A brief follow up re the real estate bribe attempts, and agencies now may want to look at practices.
“Wow”, or rather yawn, what “shocking” revelations these are, about stuff, that seems to be deemed so important, society needs to be informed about it.
We see again, like most other “current affairs” shows, it is shallow, trivial, made up, sensationalised marginal stuff, that may grab the attention of bored middle class mums and kids, who want some infotainment during dinner, but who could not care a damned sh*t about where society as a whole is heading.
NO REAL social issues, NO REAL stories, rather made up, or exaggerated, wannabe “stories”, for the kiddies who are bored with themselves, and have nothing better to do at 7pm.
That will be it for me, two first shows full of ridiculous, whipped up brown crap, not worth watching.
no tv3 ever again
garner is well positioned since key – joyce took control of mediaworks, he has taken over jc’s prime time spot, high paid job at radio works, did that show that tried to set up dotcom with some disgruntles
(entitled) ex employee, a couple of days out from the election. mutual hand jobs between the boys
Yep – sorry – I donned my tin-foil hat and broke the boycott to watch Story on 12th August, based on your blog Martyn.
Absolute shite. Unadulterated shite. Garner is wooden. The co-host looks like Tracey Barlow from Coronation Street, but with half the brains of Tracey.
It makes even Come Dine with Me NZ look like something off Channel 7.
I’m going back to watching grass grow, and paint dry. God it was enough to make me want to read Colin Craig’s booklet, which incidentally came in the mail – WTF?
Sorry for sitting on the fence, but I had to vent somewhere!
Good to see Heather and Duncs read the blog and have voted
The country is going to the pack, the quality of the journalism is shite, I think playschool would be more educational.
We have our star weasel Mike Hoskings on One and blowhard Garner on Three, piling shite on the uneducated masses.
Gee – to think I’ve another week of this to endure – promised myself to try to be impartial and give it 2 weeks grace ;-(
Who exactly is the target demographic ? 6 – 12 years ??
As for a previous comment – playschool may be too intellectual for the plebs.
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