What is wrong with our Media?
I’m serious, I’m not trying to be facetious (for once).
The Prime Ministers personal lawyer, Ken Whitney, gets caught out emailing a junior Minister like Todd McClay in 2014 that Key has spoken to him about regulation of the very trusts that Whitney not only uses for the Prime Ministers interests, but also for Whitney’s own business interests and lo and behold the planned crack down by IRD on these foreign trusts gets dumped.
To make matters worse, Key threw his lawyer under a bus yesterday on Radio NZ by claiming Whitney had lied to McClay about discussing the issue with him – yet this is Key’s long standing personal friend who Key was only telling the country last month was totally trust worthy after it was revealed that Key’s lawyer did in fact create a trust for Key using these foreign trusts.
We didn’t need to investigate that trust because Key has complete trust in Ken, yet here is Ken lying to a Minister, using Key’s name and then getting what he wanted with no IRD crackdown.
This isn’t so much ‘trust’ as we all understand it. it’s more like ‘trusty’.
So where are the media? Thee are excellent journalists out there, Matt Nippert, Dita De Boni, Andrea Vance, John Campbell, David Fisher, Simon Collins, Rachel Smalley, Mihi Forbes so we know we can do investigative journalism, yet the majority of media outlets seem to have focused on the Batchelor, Game of Thrones spoilers, Beyonce singing songs about Jay Z cheating on him, Hilary Barry leaving TV3 or this story about women unhappy that their VIP tickets for a fashion show didn’t have any nibbles.
Tragic as it is to not have nibbles at a fashion show, the Prime Minister’s personal lawyer lobbying to have his business interests and the interests of the rich protected seems to be a far more pressing issue to the nation.
The quality of news media at stuff and NZ Herald have managed to get worse as every month passes. The clickbait rules that the journalists now have to play by have denigrated news to a pitiful level and there seems to be very little pushback.
The gutting of any true journalistic talent at MediaWorks, the attacks on journalists by the Government, the inability for the media to hold John Key to account and the fetish with the trivial and petty creates a hyperreality that has little to do with reality.
No wonder National are so high in the polls, with zero accountability expected by the media, voters are lost in a sea of social media garbage that distracts rather than engages.
Yes ,…. it would appear that the main media outlets do as good a job as the Diplomatic Protection Squad when it comes to protecting Key,…
One focuses on physical harm the other focuses on political harm.
Hmmmm… totalitarians do that , don’t they?
Yeah , nah…
Yes and Parliament today was just a joke, so if the opposition want a fair deal here they are just going to have to go out and seize a channel of TVNZ as their rightful part of the public media they represent but it will take a first with the three labour, Greens and HNZ First to make it happen so they now getting desperate enough now?
Exactly – is anyone really surprised at their lack of ethics and the idiot msm and the stupid sheeples continued defense of a serial liar ?
Thanks Martyn.
Having just briefly had the TV on this morning, I know exactly where Martyn is coming from. Even Paddy Gower was saying something a bit critical of Key on the Paul Henry Show this morning, but Paul Henry put him straight into line, saying, there is nothing there, nothing to see, just move on, kind of.
So Paddy pulled back, and conceded, it was “normal” what happened with Key, his lawyer and the IRD trust review plans that were ditched after talking to the Minister.
At least Paddy asked, why it was “normal”.
You see, it is peer pressure, those that are still “employed” by the media, they get pressure to conform. This on the Paul Henry Breakfast Show was a prime example of peer pressure – from a “senior” running HIS show.
And as under this government the MSM have become totally “tame”, that is with exceptions, and as certain key persons have been allowed into top and front line jobs in the MSM, we have these, mostly supportive or sympathetic of/with Key and the government, set the tone and pressure others to conform.
Add the commercial pressure from advertisers, who also have certain “unspoken expectations” and do not want their business interests “upset”, and we have what we have, a conformist society, where journalists that say and write what they think and know, are isolated, shunned and fear for jobs and income.
No pressure works more effectively than the job security, income and pay pressure, which turns people into nothing but mercenaries. The same has happened within government departments and agencies, and with NGOs and other contracted providers they work with.
Even “advocates” are now a shadow of what they once were, as they themselves often depend on some government funding to run their support agencies (budgeting advice and social support, depending on MSD and so).
It is a perfected control system we have here now, you do not need rules to censor, you just put on the money pressure and brakes, and so all gets sorted as Key and his gang want it.
Remember also the cuts and stricter rules for legal aid, years ago, now few have the change or means to take any legal action, hence less problems come to our attention, as people just choke on them, in their private silence, boiling in anger and desperation.
A perfected control society, almost a proper kind of sophisticated dictatorship, I dare say.
It is an imperfect control system because it is unsustainable like all capitalist theory in practice. Soon there will too many “boiling in anger and desperation”, with no pathway (advocates, legal aid, media) to voice their unjust and often inhumane suffering. The silence is a pause, a huge inhalation before the thunderous roar of the single voice of revolution.
You forget the “law enforcement” powers there are, police, military, SIS and GCSB all working together, and finding the “trouble” that may evolve.
It is my immense disappointment, how naive so many on “the left” in New Zealand are, hence they make no progress, but talking about stuff, but not managing to really challenge the power base of the elite that runs the show.
Talk is cheap, living in your own space achieves nothing, the majority of people are brainwashed and conditioned to the extreme and simply condone the status quo.
MARTYN BRADBURY, THE SAME THING IS HAPPENING HERE IN AUSTRALIA , THE ABC WILL MOST LIKELY BE PRIVATISED BY THE WAY THEY PRESENT THEIR NEWS, NOT GOING AFTER THE CRUEL AND INHUMANE POLICIES BEING IMPLEMENTED IN THE NAME OF NATIONAL SECURITY
So what can we do? How does one reach the mindless, how to remove the blinkers? It is getting worse. Amongst like minded individuals we can talk raise issues, petition, educate our children and ourselves,but I believe the only thing that will wake up the bourgeoisie is major personal crisis, a personal financial crisis. Until there own hyperreality bubble is popped they feel nothing. It seems they have no empathy. They truly believe they have worked hard and deserve everything they have and this is how they raise their offspring. They believe the disadvantaged souls struggling to pay extortionate rent, student loans, feed and cloth their children just haven’t worked hard enough. It explains everything and they don’t need to question why the emperor is naked, also any one who does is mad and will be marginalised for the good of the bubbleheads. VIVE LA REVOLUTION!
Thanks for asking those questions. It’s reminded me of what I want to do when I encounter that sort of thing in the media.
We can educate ourselves so we are ready to respectfully challenge those opposing viewpoints. Then do so.
For instance, I wondered how many actual “dole bludgers” there are in NZ, so I went to Statistics NZ and found out. Turned out that it’s less than 1 person in 200 in the workforce. Way less, as much long-term unemployment is almost certainly due to other factors.
So now I can point that out with confidence if anyone is putting down the unemployed.
I think it’s dangerous to treat the “bourgeoisie” with contempt. It results in alienation for both sides. I think they are reacting more from fear than greed.
There are probably lessons to learn from the Occupy movement. We need to ask why all that momentum disappeared.
My bet is that what will happen is that when things are at their worst (housing, trade, health, corruption the Govt will fall over (essentially falling on their sword; Key moves to Hawaii), the Left will come in and have to take radical steps to right the ship. (Including a number of unpopular measures). They will make a few mistakes then will be pilloried by media and the Right wing opposition and before you know it they will be out of office for another nine – or twelve – years.
Any takers?
This correcting by leftwing governments happens all the time. Right lose power, left comes in, cleans everything up, fixes the stuffups, then gets dumped for their trouble and then we set off again.
The NZ Herald have been particularly woeful and typically one-eyed on this.
Yesterday’s “story” comprised John Key’s soundbite for a headline, with his uninterrupted version of events beneath. Apparently, the gospel according to Key is good enough for the Herald. No further questions needed. I suppose the Prime Minister has such an exemplary record of telling the absolute truth, that no one at the Herald feels the need to question the gospel.
The fact that Ken Whitney has gone to ground and isn’t speaking to media – not relevant, according to the Herald.
The opposition’s point that Key’s claims of being “misrepresented” by his longtime friend and lawyer are just not credible – not relevant, according to the Herald. Not even worth a mention.
The New Zealand Herald have stopped even pretending to be anything other than a vehicle for John Key’s spin. No fairness, no accuracy, no balance. In short, no journalism.
Is it time to boycott the Herald the same way thinking New Zealanders have boycotted TV3? Is it time to make an example of these shameless propagandists, and really hit them where it hurts, just like we’ve done to TV3?
Surely New Zealand deserves more from it’s largest daily newspaper than the gospel according to Key.
I like your thinking…
I wonder what Ken Whitney thinks of his “salubrious” client now, after being made the fall guy for this?
yes, it is odd. normally the last person you would throw under “the bus”, is your lawyer. after all, if they are any good, they can pull you out from underneath it before someone tries to reverse back over you.
but not teflon john apparently…
I bet John has sent him a few bottles of his wine. That’s how he usually patches things up. And it works on sycophantic toadies supping from the same trough.
In my view what has happened is that one day the execs and owners of the large media companies realised they had a problem. News was getting more expensive to make, viewers/readers were down with the amount of new media available and the costs to compete and change to new media were high.
So the brainiacs had a great idea. Why not get paid retainers to NOT tell the news or to tell favourable news for people and organisations? This could all be run under a PR umbrella, nothing to see here. So politicians, CEO’s, corporations could all pay to make sure they were always reported favourably or their logo could appear in stories for bonus fees. In addition get rid of expensive journalists and local news just use ‘filler’ articles and get Politicians and PR people to write opinions to fill up the newspapers and news panels.
Unfortunately this had a knock on effect, people who paid for good press got more power, their bad deeds were never reported and they were shielded from their actions which made them richer and more powerful and more able to pay to control the news. The news became very skewed. Elections were influenced, inequality increased, people stopped trusting the news and also politicians and journalists.
As viewers/readers stared to get tired of not hearing real news and stopped watching or reading, the media companies started realising they were destroying their own vehicle of propaganda. Less MSM started to gain more traction.
So there is a sea change in the air.
With apologies to Blam Blam Blam.
Sing along everyone !
“There is no corruption in New Zealand.
there is no collusion with foreign banks.
There is no corruption in New Zealand,
we can all keep perfectly calm.
Everybody’s talking about nice John Key
everybody’s talking about nice John Key,
but he’s as nice as nice can be,
there’s no unrest in this country.
We have no corporate lobbyists,
they are not tax dodgers,
they are not dictating policy,
we are not a tax haven, tax haven, no, no.
There is no corruption in New Zealand,
we have changed those laws.
There is no corruption in New Zealand,
Corporates sleep in well-made beds.
Oh, but everybody’s talking about nice John Key,
yes, everybody’s talking about nice John Key,
but he’s as nice as nice can be,
there’s no unrest in this country,
because it’s a clause in the TPP.
There is no corruption in New Zealand;
there are no bones in our closets,
there is no corruption in New Zealand;
oh we can all keep perfectly calm,
perfectly calm,
perfectly calm,
perfectly calm,
perfectly calm…
GT 29/4/2016
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