There is nothing new in the New Zealand Herald’s cheerleading for the National Party. Herald political “reports” often read like National Party press releases. Angles spin consistently in John Key’s favour, with the Prime Minister’s soundbites becoming headlines far too frequently for any indignant claims of objectivity to carry credibility.
So, after a week of wall-to-wall US election coverage, broken only by a couple of vague attacks on the Labour Party, it was back to business as usual with this “breaking news”.
In a media environment where this is all many New Zealanders will see of this story, it certainly looks like a hatchet job on the Labour Party’s candidate.
For Mt Roskill residents heading to the polls, this may form their entire opinion, and the New Zealand Herald’s political editors know this as well as anyone. So at best, it is a case of picking sides based on the hearsay of National Party members, and at worst, it is a whole new level of abject bias aimed at directly influencing a democratic process with what amounts to a politically partisan slur on the Labour candidate.
The Fairfax-hosted debate took place on Wednesday night, and was reported by Fairfax to be a “tense and fiery affair”, notable for the loud protests directed at National Party candidate Parmjeet Parmar.
The Herald weren’t much interested in any of this, until Friday, when they published this one-sided slur of Labour’s Michael Wood. Of course, in the Herald’s report, there was nothing on the protests, and it was all about Mr Wood’s “man handling” and “threats” towards Mrs Parmar’s husband, Ravinder Parmar.
The room was full of senior journalists, but none from the Herald have made any attempt to present the facts as they occurred on the night, preferring instead to run with what might be considered the wilful defamation of the Labour candidate in a by-election.
Unfortunately for the Parmar’s, the National Party, and the New Zealand Herald, the whole incident was captured on film, and the footage emerging today clearly shows that this was a cynical indulgence in dirty politics, intended to harm the reputation of the Labour Party’s candidate.
Having viewed the footage – published by stuff.co.nz – here is what I see:
Mr Woods walks up to Mr Parmar, his body language is angry but calm, and he has a few direct words, then all the aggression comes from Parmar, and keeps coming from Parmar after others step between them. Parmar keeps mouthing off and sticking his chest out as Woods walks away.
Whatever subjectivity might be applied to the raw footage, it is clear that the accounts of National Party members forming the basis of the NZ Herald’s report were wildly and wilfully inaccurate.
Interviewed on ZB by Larry Williams late yesterday, an evasive Mrs Parmar stuck to spin and raised speculation on social media that the events described by the Herald and NewsHub were completely untrue.
As I write this late on Saturday afternoon, the Herald have made no attempt to update the angle of this story, or publish a fact-based account. In fact, the message Mt Roskill voters are still getting from the website of their regional newspaper, is that the Labour Party candidate is a bad tempered thug. It’s a message being shared across social media, and one that the Herald must know is inaccurate and hugely damaging to the Labour candidate.
“Granny” Herald have always reported politics from a Rightwing perspective, and have recently culled most of their Left-leaning columnists, but this level of partisanship during a by-election must be acknowledged and documented. Indeed, if Labour leader Andrew Little is serious about calling out the rising level of pro-National reporting in our news media, The New Zealand Herald is the obvious place to start.
Neil Watts is NZs best known online critic of the right wing NZ Herald
This seems to be one of those events where there is enough fact to expose who is bullshitting and who is telling the truth. Expose the bullshitter for all to see, dont take sides, just get to the bottom of it. There is video footage I think, no matter what side you may lean to, this is important and the truth needs to win. On an This ex exactly why trump won actually, others telling lies (just as an aside .
Nothing new.
Using the normal ploys of censorship and biased reporting, Fairfax have been deciding who gets elected, both nationally and locally throughout the whole country, for well over a decade to my CERTAIN knowledge.
Was it the Asian Businessmen’s Association?
Excellent expose of the Herald’s mis-reporting of that evening’s events, Neil.
I’ve shared this on Facebook and Twitter, and hopefully it will shame the Herald’s editor to make good.
With the rise and rise of social media, MSM like the Herald can no longer publish false stories with impunity.
There is a deeper strategy at work here. If stories like this give people the impression that electoral politics is a dirty, muck-raking, even violent business, they’re less inclined to be actively involved in the process, where they can find out stuff for themselves without the mass media spoon-feeding them a narrative. If stories like this give people the impression that the parties and the candidates are all as bad as each other, they’re less inclined to bother finding out what they really stand for, and what they do once elected. If stories like this give people the impression that all politicians are selfish, venal, seat-warmers, they’re less inclined to make any attempt to hold them to a better standard.
We desperately need properly-funded, truth-seeking journalists, from a range of political perspectives, who can give us rigorous coverage of politicians, the policies they stand on, and their activities once they gain power. We need to return to a kind of democracy where a motion passed by majority vote as a town hall public meeting actually has an influence on the political process. We need people to be actively involved in governance at every level, otherwise we might have the shell of democracy, but the system we really live under is elected dictatorship.
‘If stories like this give people the impression that the parties and the candidates are all as bad as each other, they’re less inclined to bother finding out what they really stand for, and what they do once elected.’
Hint: all in NZ parties stand for the exactly the same thing -control of society by banks and corporations, and looting and polluting the environment.
Please name a party that does not promote corporate interests above the interest of ordinary folk. Please name a party that does not promote meltdown of the planet.
‘We desperately need properly-funded, truth-seeking journalists,’
Hint: they all end up being dismissed, locked up, seeking political asylum or dead.
How long will it take for people to understand that the system is rotten to the core?
And how long will it take for people to understand the system is ‘progressively’ destroying EVERYTHING?
Our system is already a kind of “elected dictatorship”, I fear, given the way the media operates. I think you realise this. We have RNZ being put under pressure to sell their broadcasting studios in Auckland, as I hear, to then lease it from a buyer, to keep operating. That means the slow death of RNZ due to underfunding is foreseeable.
People need to realise this and take action, go to Action Station,, they have a petition to sign, which I think was started by the Coalition for Better Broadcasting!
Key and National are not keen on keeping RNZ alive, it is already rather neutered, when it comes to reporting on news. It will only get worse, if we allow this trend to continue.
Problem is, who cares? Look at the crap that ‘breakfast tv’ now serves up.
My advice to Michael Wood is to never ever demean yourself to the same level that the Parmars are intent on doing.
If the Parmars seem intent on demeanng themselves and the National Party then let them go ahead and do so. I admire the National Party for their incredible ability to demean themselves so well to ALL NZers. It all shows what is wrong with the Key government and the National Party.
And if the NZ media that are quite now so obviously in the National Party and John Key pocket want to partake of petty childishness then let them do so. It only demeans their value in the eyes who can see a dog for a dog that the government has quite obviously become.
If a NZ media outlet like the NZ Herald has become so controlled by the government of the day then….. well….. they are not worthy of reading or listening to let alone being taken seriously enough.
In the days that have gone by over so many years the NZ Herald had a great reputation. It was the paper/tabloid of choice. Many other daily papers have come and gone e.g the Auckland Star, The 8 o’clock. The Auckland Sun. etc.etc.etc. But the NZ Herald once seemed to be that ideal paper/tabloid that respected everyone no matter what political party they harked from. It was the bastion of freedom of speech.
Over the past 8 or so years the NZ Herald has demeaned itself. It has become almost the Mouthpiece of the John Key government. It is a media outlet that is too scared to write anything that criticises John Key or anyone of the Key government. It is an empty of true substance tabloid that no-one finds all that great or worthy of reading anymore.
And so be gone NZ Herald. If you want people to respect you then give respect. Do not write through quite obviously National Party supporters like Audrey Young and others as to what is so meritable about the Key government. Write the SHIT as well as the good to make it all more credit-worthy of a daily paper.You may as well get John Key to write the article and Audrey Young to sign it as her own article. And that is how it is coming across nowadays.The National Party Ghost Writers are alive and doing well in the NZ Herald.If you retain the bias towards the Key government then no-one will respect you. You know that and we all know that.
The main stream media in NZ have always been discriminative and racist have a look who owns the media an amalgamation between the two would be even worse. We already have racist writers and one sided news that is extremely bias we are becoming a little America thanks to JK
Never demean yourself but America ( who we take our lead from) have voted in a racist bigot.
We now have a newspaper that tells lies. I watched the video the instigator was Mr Pamar and he should have been thrown out of the room by security
When your candidate has a go at someone in front of TV cameras and it’s shown on the 6pm news, it’s pretty hard even for the left leaning Herald to ignore.
You haven’t bothered to view the video, have you, Andrew?
Old habits die hard 😀
Indeed, Sam… *sighs*
Nasty Nats, Misleading MSM and Crooked Key. All pretty hard to ignore for the hard rightwing Herald.
Andrew, you really are ignorant.
The Herald will tell you in it’s blurb it is not left leaning, never has been, never will be.
Watch the video.
The herald should do a retraction and apologize for lying. That is the ethical thing to do, but anything right wing is never ethical.
I think Mr Pamar must have thought he was back in India mouthing of and yelling out obscenities while Mr Wood was trying to talk sorry mate! you cant insult people like that and get away. Is this the sort of dirty wayward tactics the gnats are going to use if so it is going to be one dirty 2017 election campaign
If you think the Herald is left leaning, that’s because you are holding it in your hand and looking in the mirror as you lean to the right, you dipstick. And as others say, watch the damn video on Stuff. I’ll make it really easy for you, since you don’t seem to be too smart. Parmar is the shouty guy waving his arms and pointing his finger, Watts is the guy in the suit standing calmly. http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/86393170/footage-shows-altercation-between-labour-candidate-and-national-rivals-husband
Well done neil,
Worthy expose’ on this dirty little rag.
NZ is even more corrupt than the US and it is so plain to see thanks to you.
Thanks for bringing this to our attention, Neil. I’ve shared it far and wide as well. Shame on the Herald , TV3, and Mrs Parmer for their out and out lies!!
Desperate people do desperate things they ( the Parmers are hungry for power)
Come on Bomber are you surprised?
The NZ media are dirtier and have been so for longer than slater has been a glint in his daddy’s eyes.
Hager needs to publish a book showing how they corresponded with slater as they haven’t learned.
Neil – thank you for your hard work on this issue. Between you and Frank, you hold the msm to account for their mis-reporting.
Thank you all for the feedback and support.
This is just one example of the Herald abusing its position to set the agenda and distort the truth. It might be put down to coincidence if it were a one off, and if the National Party were not always the benefactors of such editorial shenanigans.
But this is clearly not the case, so it is important to inform as many New Zealanders as possible of the Herald’s staunch pro-Key agenda, and their ongoing contempt for democracy, open debate, and those long lost journalistic values; fairness, accuracy and balance.
If further evidence were needed, we could look at the way this story was dropped like a hot potato by the Herald as soon as the truth came out. You would think that National Party members being caught red handed running an orchestrated lie to discredit an opponent in an election campaign might be a big story in its own right, and the Herald certainly now have access to the full facts on this. But nope. Not a word. No biggie. Nothing to see here. Hey look everybody, John Key in a helicopter saving Kaikoura.
I will try to blog significantly more in the lead up to the election, but those with an interest may wish to join us on Facebook for regular updates and discussion about the NZ Herald and other biased media.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/fearfacts/?ref=bookmarks
Thanks again for all the feedback. Andrew, best of luck finding the corners of your flat Earth there champ.
Nga mihi,
Neil
Thank you all for the feedback and support.
This is just one example of the Herald abusing its position to set the agenda and distort the truth. It might be put down to coincidence if it were a one off, and if the National Party were not always the benefactors of such editorial shenanigans.
But this is clearly not the case, so it is important to inform as many New Zealanders as possible of the Herald’s staunch pro-Key agenda, and their ongoing contempt for democracy, open debate, and those long lost journalistic values; fairness, accuracy and balance.
If further evidence were needed, we could look at the way this story was dropped like a hot potato by the Herald as soon as the truth came out. You would think that National Party members being caught red handed running an orchestrated lie to discredit an opponent in an election campaign might be a big story in its own right, and the Herald certainly now have access to the full facts on this. But nope. Not a word. No biggie. Nothing to see here. Hey look everybody, John Key in a helicopter saving Kaikoura.
I will try to blog significantly more in the lead up to the election, but those with an interest may wish to join us on Facebook for regular updates and discussion about the NZ Herald and other biased media.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/fearfacts/?ref=bookmarks
Thanks again for all the feedback. Andrew, best of luck finding the corners of your flat Earth there champ.
Nga mihi,
Neil
Trouble is the media have their own agenda, and our blogs are just echo chambers, where like minded share their views. Some highly revealing stuff has been posted here, even by myself, the MSM simply ignore it, as they consider blogs as “unreliable” and “biased”, and no longer read them.
So bear that in mind, please, same applies to the endless individual and small circle bubble groups on Fakebook. It does NOT reach most.
I never cast my vote based on MSM reporting, they are not reliable, as has often enough been proved. Reading between the lines, cross and double checking of info, and attending meetings oneself, that is the only way to go about this.
But thanks for contributing your info.
[…] when the video was released, yet as long time critic of the NZ Herald and our guest blogger, Neil Watts rightly points out, the NZ Herald should have known […]
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