Government’s don’t like well informed electorates, it makes it very difficult to sneak things past voters who are aware of the issues than those who aren’t.
Currently we have a Government who have gleefully underfunded public broadcasting and allowed the free market to dilute the rest.
This failure of a free market will see a monopoly of newspapers in this country. People who buy monopolies fight to keep that monopoly and what ever political party that guarantees no regulation will get the support of this new media empire.
That’s one less voice to ask questions.
That’s one less voice to pay attention.
That’s one less voice to demand accountability.
That’s one powerful owner.
Combine this new monopoly with a strangled public broadcaster and a Prime Minister who has attacked critical media anytime it’s reared its head.
John Key’s crimes against Journalism
- Killing off Public Broadcasting TV by shutting down TVNZ7 and having Minister’s lie about how many people watched the station.
- Raiding newspapers and broadcasters to stop them publishing the tea pot tapes.
- Defaming investigative journalist Jon Stephenson who questioned if NZs SAS had committed war crimes in Afghanistan by handing civilians over to known torture units.
- Defaming investigative Journalist Nicky Hager by calling him a communist conspiracy theorist when Hager opened up the Dirty Politics black ops team working within Key’s office.
- Calling award winning Journalist Glenn Greenwald and whistle blowers Julian Assange and Edward Snowden ‘Henchmen’ when they revealed the truth of Key’s mass surveillance plans.
- Having all of Andrea Vance’s emails and phone records taken.
- Using far right hate speech merchant and Fascist Cameron Slater to smear public servants the Government didn’t like.
- Falsifying SIS information and working with the state spy service to smear Phil Goff in the media months before the 2011 election.
Well funded Public Broadcasting is a watch dog on democracy, an underfunded one becomes a lap dog to authority. There’s a reason those in power want to keep voters distracted and stupid.
This is a failure of the free market the same way the free market has failed housing in Auckland.
I can’t help but feel a goodly dose of schadenfreude as the majority of journalists in this country watch their careers disappear down the toilet.
But not to worry! There’s a job waiting for them at McDonalds.
You are downright nasty, Andrew. I don’t even understand why the mods allowed your offensive comment to be published.
I don’t know exactly what sentiment was behind Andrew’s comment but do know that the journalists I have had dealings with over many years -and that is quite a large number- have been quite deceitful -bordering on the malicious- and have deliberately misrepresented situations and failed to report what needed to be reported.
That may well have been because they were instructed by managers what they were allowed to write/say and what they were not allowed to write/say. Nevertheless, the average journalist is seen to be very much part of the problem and not part of the solution. That is why TDB is a breath of fresh air, insofar as ‘awkward’ issues are tackled.
Orwell summed it up many decades ago: “I have never known any newspaper to report any event accurately” -or words to that effect.
My sarcasm to Andrews sarcasm, was in no way supportive of his sick sarcasm.
As Andrew usually presents always as obscene as “a bucket of cold sick”, a term aptly depicting Andrew’s comments as Martyn has used this analogy recently also.
Exactly my point Afewknowthetruth! (But you said it much better than I did)
I long ago ceased to listen to TV news and read newspapers because of their inaccuracy, incompetence, and often blatant bias (one way or another). Despite this I am far better informed than most and vastly so more than the previous generation. All thanks to the internet.
By Bye NZ media. Shut the door on your way out!
Don’t worry, Frank. Given Andrew’s penchant for spiteful comments and malicious glee at the misfortune of others, nobody takes him seriously. He’s like Nelson from The Simpsons. All he can do is sit at the back of the class and say, “Ha ha!”
Absolutely, Andrew.
No room for any genuine journalists in your scheme of things.
Only room for dullard, stenographic copyholders trained to act and think like John Key toadies.
Just what we need for a positive and progressive New Zealand.
No brains and mindless obedience.
“I will work harder”
“Four legs good, two legs bad”.
(That was a quote from George Orwell’s Animal Farm that entirely sums up the political right’s wish for only dumb obedient Boxers and sheep to be in charge of our media).
Sounds like just the job you’ve been waiting for Andrew.
Well said Andrew………
Our’s and the media rights to freedom of speech has been trashed by FJK and he has circumvented it as a dictator would do here in NZ now.
And it will get worse as time goes on, until we rise against his evil dictatorship we are now over us all.
playing devils advocate a bit, the merger may provide opportunity for a good new media of some form to get onto the business of providing appropriate political coverage.
yes we are already thinking of cancelling ‘The Press’….this will absolutely do it
There was a time, I don’t know how many years ago, when the ABC investigative program Four Corners was shown on our TV.
Four Corners is still on TV in Australia;recently Four Corners produced an exposé of the shocking scandals uncovered in the Panama Papers.
This is just one example of how badly served we are.
here it is:
‘The Panama Papers: Secrets Of The Super Rich – Four Corners’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1-JCf1P8o8
Sounds like time for a hostile takeover.
If they merge they will probably put a paywall on all their internet based news. And their papers will get crappier.
The corporate media are very much part of the problem: I therefore welcome the demise of the professional liars and censors who have remained silent on all the important issues, who have denigrated truth-tellers, who have downplayed the seriousness of our predicament, and who have promoted the continued destruction of society and destruction of the Earth for short-term commercial gain.
We desperately need locally-owned and locally-operated news media, free from all the political and commercial influence that characterises all mainstream media (and public media), and that will only be possible once the corporate lying machines have collapsed and once the government is seen for what it really is.
Word of mouth is the most effective means of promulgating the truth, though the Internet will continue to play a role until it gets shut down or full censorship is applied…..coming to a fascist police state you live in soon.
In the meantime, everything that matters gets made rapidly by those who in control e.g.
Daily CO2
May 10, 2016: 408.08 ppm
May 10, 2015: 403.50 ppm
Up 4.58 ppm (versus the recent norm of 2.1 ppm per annum ) = rapid termination of most life on Earth in a matter of decades.
And the corporate media fail to report the rapidly worsening predicament, continuing to churn out consumeristic garbage that makes everything worse faster -as they must under the deceitful, destructive, suicidal system we live under.
sounds like another monopoly to add to all the others we now have here is our divided country thanks to the greedy tories
Just noticed this, in which Snowden reiterates what we already know:
‘Journalism as a weapon has never been stronger, but has never been less willing to serve the public good, says whistleblower Edward Snowden…..
Part of the reason is capitalistic greed and the 24-hour news cycle, according to Snowden. There is a conveyor belt of information that is aimed more at competition and staying afloat than at questioning the official line or writing a story that would set a source apart from competing outlets’
https://www.rt.com/news/342691-snowden-interview-nsa-leaks/
Yep as my son says, “its all about the money”
So until we engineer new “MSM standards” and provide a free public TV/Radio network to provide real news and investigative journalism we will loose everything to these greedy corporates, who are going in for the kill at the most venerable time in our history.
Thank God Labours’ Media spokesperson Clare Curran who Martyn fished out of her about Labour’s plan, as he/she spilled the beans last night 11/5/16 on WAATEA 5th estate.
Apparently this long overdue plan of Labours election plank on a proposed return to this (free speech media) that will hopefully close down this Corporate filthy media coverage of their greedy ways.
It has been a long, long time since I have read or watched or listened to most of the media mouthpieces associated with these megacompanies. I like to check the ownership and contributors information and avoid things associated with Rupert. My dad receives the Guardian every week, but for some reason cannot cancel his Herald subscription or resist his Saturday walk to the dairy for the paper. Perhaps the habits of an older generation, I prefer reading print to online, but for quality it is rarely possible. Unfortunately the population at large actually cares about little more than the car they drive, the school their kids will go to, and which island they will visit this winter. By large part I mean those with largesse, for the rest it is about putting a decent meal on the table. Media has only every really been about adverstising anyway. We lost the fourth estate long ago. May the 5th live long and prosper!
The Commerce Commission will have proved itself to actually be corrupt if it lets this merger go through.
I don’t actually see a need for a Commerce Commission or an Overseas Investment Commission here in NZ, they are basically a waste of space, time and taxpayers money ?
The Commerce Commission will have proved itself to actually be corrupt if it lets this merger go through.
I don’t actually see a need for a Commerce Commission or an Overseas Investment Commission here in NZ, they are basically a waste of space, time and taxpayers money ?
As we know from history this is how totalitarianism controls the masses except now as you explain it has been a plan which most of us are aware of by this govt as a process to stay in power by not having to answer to the people by picking off key independent journalistic enquieries of depth in order to keep the news they way it suits the govt and those in it who refuse to accept that they are responsible to the people not some modern day totalitarian regime who we as people know not who is our real govt but we do so long as we are able to stay informed thank the www and it’s founders or we would all be slaves to the intellectual misery this govt dishes out
Bomber, you forgot “killing of CampbellLive”, which was also more than likely a government (Don Key) black op.
Any other country and this government would have been removed.any other country and John Key would be in jail. What the hell is wrong that we are so weak in letting this crap happen.
Really Elle could you name a country which has removed its government and put its leader in jail? Could you tell us which criminal acts Key has committed in order that the Governor General should dissolve this parliament and for which the judicial system should send him to jail.
So where does leave marketforces, competition, and other much-revered dogma from neo-liberalism?
If a private monopoly is a good thing, why isn’t a State monopoly good for us as well?
I await the likes of Gosman to venture forth and share the Gospel of Act to explain all this to us. Oh, and don’t be a toady by telling us to “set up our own media if we don’t like it”. I doubt any of us have a spare 100 million to set up our own newspaper and radio stations.
Meanwhile,Lynton Crosby gets a knighthood…
What we need is to bring back blokes and blokesse’s like …
Philip Sherry
Brian Priestly
And Perry Mason,…. with a bit of this thrown in for good measure …
http://www.dailymotion.com/…/x3ce0f_ozzy-osbourne-pe..
Geez…
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3ce0f
Internet….grrrr.
See… if there’s one thing the Left are suckers for…
Its being diverted/subverted.
Pity , really… it happened with the Panama Papers… instead of being aware for tricks , it falls headlong into the trap. It happened yesterday with the incident of Key getting himself thrown out of the chambers.
” Look over there !!! ” …
”Where ? ”…
” Here comes Jeanie with her new boyfriend”….
‘ Is she really going out with him?
Cause if my eyes don’t deceive me,
There’s something going wrong around here ‘ …
See what I mean?… the Left lacks mongrel. And how does this tie into having the news media locked into a monopoly?
Reference the above.
You think I posted about Brian Priestly , Philip Sherry and a track from Ozzy Osbourne for shits and giggles?… well in a way I did… but I did it to illustrate the difference between ‘ now ‘ and ‘ then ‘.
There was a time when hard core investigators ( albeit Perry Mason being a fictional character ) and ( relatively ) credible unbiased media was the norm. So what if the media is going through a technological change?
Haven’t we all in so many occupations?
So then … so fucking what?
Is that any excuse to arse lick to the new moguls/ Quislings who give handsome donations to political party’s to keep them and the politicians of their choice in business?- and that usually being of a neo liberal bent because it gives them full reign in the free market to grab even more profit from advertising?
Is that any excuse to have the sort of bullshit tinsel used toilet paper that passes for informative news that we have witnessed over the last ten years?
Is that any excuse to have to go to major overseas news outlets – usually online – to get anywhere near any semblance of reality other than this fucked up dumbed down version we get here – particularly surrounding this absolute dork of a PM?
You know what I mean – the one that pisses in showers and pulls pony tails then bullsarses his way through parliament yesterday with ease because the Left is too stupid and blind and asleep to realize he’s doing that to divert from the real issues about this country being a tax haven ?
And why is the opposition like this ?
Well partly because of the useless gutless biased fucks who call themselves reporters.
And if you think its bad now- just wait until the media in this country is all enveloped under one major umbrella.
Until then …
When you think about it the MSM has been so dumbed down and trivialized over the last decade that the merger might not change things much in reality.
The merger is more about the political right standing up and boasting that they have done what they set out to achieve – dominance of the MSM
“We have won so f….you thinking New Zealanders!”
They are proud of themselves now, but the same political right will, within a few years, start moaning about how New Zealanders lack leadership, skills and willpower as the overseas doctors, engineers and technicians sweep in to take advantage of our dumbed down culture of indifference.
You reap what you sow, people, and if you sow poor seeds don’t be surprised if you produce poor crops.
John Key will be delighted, fewer journos asking questions, and fewer to bribe with a bottle of Pinot Noir next Christmas.
And government ministers can reduce their media staff, as they will have to deal with fewer outlets and have more easy and willing prey to put pressure on.
Most journos are so worried about their jobs, now, they will not dare rock the boat, not with their employer, not with the government, as falling out with either means, nobody wants you, or talk to you, so no “news” about who was speeding on the weekend, and thus no place to fill.
The dumbing down machine can be put into higher gear, to do the rest of the job, who needs media, it is so bad already, it is not even worth turning the telly on anymore.
I cannot believe there are still people watching breakfast TV on One and TV3, but it seems there are still some doing so.
Then we have channels on Freeview that broadcasting nothing but advertisements and infomercials, basically “shopping channels”, having no other focus than sell stuff to people.
Public broadcasting does almost not exist anymore, even TVNZ fills its airtime with so many ads, it is shocking.
Radio NZ barely survives, as in effect, having not had a funding increase for years, they are facing funding cuts (after inflation and so).
Maori TV is no longer what it used to be, so I hardly watch it now.
Sky costs too much and offers too little for the money they ask for, also losing subscribers now, as Netflix and other new online video services take away their viewers.
Radio is as shockingly commercial as television is, and most just present endless music, ads and a few silly jokes and chatter.
Even Radio NZ has more chat shows than it ever used to have, it disturbs me.
Talking with people shows me all the time how little informed people really are. So many now pick their “news” from Facebook, Microsoft and various email service providers, they do not realise they are mostly enticed with click bait stuff.
There is NO in-depth reporting in any of the “news” we now get, current affairs are also almost dead, or choking on their last breath.
People walk the streets gazing at flashing smart phone screens and the odd tablet, mesmerised by games, pics and snippets of “infotainment”, they are like zombies these days. Try having any real conversation, they do not even learn to communicate anymore.
And at work places where computers are used it is the same, staring at the screen all day, when not for work, it is some silly or lighthearted stuff off the web, if the boss allows this to “relax” and “stimulate” the left over parts of the brain that may still function to some degree.
Brain-dead is perhaps not the right word, but I struggle to find a better one for it, what so many are becoming.
John Key, who is that? Panama Papers? Is that a new toilet tissue, mate? I want to get my fancy ice cream and a snack, thanks, all else is not important.
And I have to decide what dress to buy tomorrow, what colour should it be?
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