Why we need a change of Media as well as a change of Government

By
Martyn Bradbury
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44
24

We don’t just need a change of Government, we desperately need a change of media as well.

Most mainstream media called the election wrong, they attempted to delegitimise MMP once it looked like National would lose and all tried to delegitimise the incoming Government.

The way the above rich white male broadcasters went after Metiria for her brave admission of how cruel our neoliberal welfare system really is was less journalism and more lynching.

Metiria’s crime wasn’t that she stole to feed her child 25 years ago, it is that she told her story with her chin up. White rich male broadcasters saw her defiance as a direct threat to their cultural hegemony and they tore her to shreds while turning a blind eye to claims a senior National MP is actually a Chinese spy.

Sickeningly Radio NZ and Newsnub were in a pissing competition to boast who had destroyed Metiria when she finally stood down.

Where’s John Campbell and Patrick Gower on a Chinese spy within the National Party? Are they saying what a solo mother did 25 years ago deserves more focus than a Chinese spy inside the National Party?

Really? That’s what John and Paddy are saying is it?

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Look at the mind numbing sexism that Jacinda had to get through, it made global news.

Look at the way the NZ Herald loaded up right wing columnist after right wing columnist to attack and savage Labour and the Greens.

Look at how every media panel in NZ simply rotated the same right wing pundits, look at how the ‘balance’ of those panels see a rabid right wing attack dog paired with some polite liberal. Look at how the same voices are simply regurgitated from The Spinoff to RNZs panel. Note how many of these right wing pundits are paid lobbyists.

Look at how The Daily Blog was the only media outlet to interview all 16 political parties so you could see the actual full political spectrum, and look how we called it for the Left on election night when everyone else wanted to start mourning a loss that hadn’t happened.

Most importantly look at how the media framed National’s dead cat lies in the final 3 weeks of the campaign.

When Steven Joyce said there was an $11.7billion dollar hole that never existed, what did the media do? Rather than say, “That’s a lie Steven Joyce, you are desecrating the mana of your position with such naked sleazy lies”, they said, “What do you say to that criticism Jacinda”.

Rather than denounce the lie, the mainstream media fed it.

The other naked lies were that income tax would rise under Labour and that the reason there was poverty and inequality was because of the Christchurch earthquakes. Rather than attack those lies for the falsehoods they were, the media legitimised National Party propaganda and it showed in the final result.

Look at the utter bullshit most mainstream media outlets have spread creating the insinuation that National won the election, unless a new Government is prepared to invest in a far more critical media, these rich white wing male broadcasters and the cultural and economic hegemony that they endorse will continue to manipulate the voters of NZ.

Labour’s plan to give RNZ more money for a digital TV station is fine, but without an active plan to force broadcasters to take current affairs shows that actually critically analyse not only the rest of the media world but their own editorial bias, we are only going to get more of this one sided crap.

NZ on Air must have a more open mind to funding current affairs that are not locked into the old gatekeeper media of TVNZ and NewsHub if we are to actually have genuine plurality of voices.

Corporate and state media are currently the problem, not the solution and if Labour doesn’t make the investment to see an ideological spread of opinions, they will be roasted to death by that corporate media.

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44 COMMENTS

    • An early kill on their contracts can be very costly ,just look what happened with John Hawksby. these greedy rite wing fake news pricks would be looking forward to this .

    • Finding the truth in the lie isn’t easy these days. Honesty and integrity appear desperately lacking in the creepy crawly world of modern media. Boycotting could have an affect but how many would be prepared to do it.

  2. Having followed some MSM over the last couple of days, there appear to be many now, who seem to be accepting of the change of government. The tone is a bit like: “Give them a chance”.

    So let us not throw the baby out with the bath water yet.

    As for media, there is so much radical change going on, many of the younger generation do hardly watch television or listen to radio. Some only do this sporadically or sparingly.

    Social media, and various web based media are taking over rapidly.

    Hence any new media policy needs to have a wider reach, and make itself available via all means of transmission and sharing.

    That is already happening, but there also must be a place for publicly funded and operated media, and so I welcome any extra money for RNZ, which even the Nats had finally given them.

    We definitely need more independent, less commercially driven media, and community based forums, as blogs have lost attractiveness for many. Few now rely on blogs, while a few years ago, there was a lot of readership and commenting.

    They have become echo chambers, hence are not that reliable, or considered reliable anymore.

    And with the many ways of communication that we have now, there also come dangers, look at Trump and his Twitter tirades, look at how the Russians tried influencing the US election, and also elections in Europe.

    China will play its role, somehow, and so many are out there, also dangerous forces, populists, radicals of whatever orientation, mischiefmakers, to misinform, to entice and misguide people and followers.

    That requires a strong public media, based on traditional values, of reporting facts and the truth, and to not listen to vested interest parties. Over the years of privatisation and commercialisation the Fourth Estate has lost credibility, being keen on sensationalising and being overly dependent or mindful of their private owners and advertisers.

    More needs to be done, we need a strengthening of community media, open up the access to various players, such as we had once, with Triangle TV and others in Auckland.

    • “Look at how the Russians tried influencing the U.S. elections and also elections in Europe”.If you believe this you presumably also believe in the fairies at the bottom of the garden! Try reading beyond the U.S.Empire propaganda media.

  3. Looks like my comments Martyn on the blog about the coming revolutionary changes of the new government would have been better articulated on this blog.

    If Claire Curran as minister of broadcasting does not act soon ( and i have serious doubts she is tough enough ) then the current unfettered media mafia will piece by piece destroy this government.

    Adern and Peters i am sure are under no illusions about their foes in the fourth estate it is what they do about it to bring about a culture change in these organisations that will count.

    It is not in the public’s interest and that is a good place to start.

  4. What about Mark Richardson ? He seems to be personally Jacinda-challenged, dim, and whinging that he might have to pay more for his coffee now, for heaven’s sake.

  5. These hacks (typical of such specimens all over the Western world) have an unrealistic inflated sense of self-importance due to having been duped into believing they are big fish in what the neoliberals (their puppet-masters who industriously and surreptitiously work on a long-term agenda) effectively see as a small antipodean pond with natural resources to freely and amorally plunder for pure profit and increasing control. Why do the dirty work yourself (and risk exposure) when you can buy the fanatical loyalty and weak minds of wannabe “players” whose skewed and manipulated logic has a subliminal affect on an unaware public’s opinion? There is another possibility of course – perhaps being a hack (like being a certain, commonly male, type of politician, economist, businessman, et al.) is the trial by fire that neoliberal neophytes are expected to go through to prove their resilient suitability for the club, lodge, boardroom, governing body or whatever long-term carrot is held before them? So what can anyone do about these low-level media hacks? (1) Don’t react to them – it’s what they want, it’s oxygen to their self-perpetuating fire. The squeaky wheel always attracts the most oil, so withhold it, i.e. your attention and energy. (2) Educate yourself (read, e.g., George Monbiot’s “Out of the Wreckage”; Naomi Klein’s “No is Not Enough”; Jacques Peretti’s “Done”; Andrew Sayer’s “Why We Can’t Afford the Rich”; Jason Knapper’s “The Real Truth Behind the Media”, etc.) (3) At the same time, for Christ’s sake do something, anything. Involve yourself. Protect your country at all levels for your grandchildren. Put your hand to the new broom.

  6. if they are so right wing please explain why they are so rabid in the constant bagging of Pres Trump. Nothing on the Uranium ! scandal?

    • I actually don’t think Trump is bagged because he is right wing. He is bagged because he acts like a buffoon and buffoons can be of any political ideology. I remember how Jimmy Carter (a Democratic President) was similarly treated by the American media.

  7. The Mickey Mouse media, – complete with far right Americana to boot!

    Guess what , Goofy , – they just lost.

    Cant you just hear the squealing and squeaks from here?

  8. A free-to-air, ad free, state run TV channel or two then watch the preening, over paid, sadistic fuckers wither and die. Oh, and sack kath ryan. For Gods sake, please , sack her first. If I hear one more slushy ‘S’ come past her Natzo arse kissing lips I’ll vomit.

  9. what a scabrous gallery of “coots in suits”–pic above this article

    they make one queasy just looking at them en masse, it would be great to see the back of the lot of them

  10. Problem is who do you replace them with?
    The standard broadcast “journalist” (and I use that term very loosely here) is a product of the Crosby Textor/Fairfax School of Journalism and very few who don’t subscribe to this ideology ever make it very far in this business.
    Journalists used to be taught that it was their job to look at every side of an issue, that they were society’s watchdogs and the success of our democratic system depended on them challenging the government and the establishment.
    Well that has pretty much evaporated over the years since the independent journalism schools have been taken over the political right (a deliberate strategy by them).
    The way it will change is to take the training away from the political manipulators and put it back into the hands of those who want to inform, educate and provoke people into thinking about things. Not those who want merely to grovel at the feet of the media corporates.

  12. Reading some of the sickening so-called “analysis” from media commentators was a dark day for the Fourth Estate. Thank god for independent voices that tied to speak truth to media power and raise public consciousness. The media do not challenge power,they reinforce it.

  13. Panic not my little droogs.

    These right wing male “journos” are all either elderly or in poor health (or drive flashy fast cars).

    Heard of the Grim Reaper?

  14. The pattern is clear, Mike Hosking leads in the Herald with daily fairy story’s of woe with the end being nigh.

    It’s followed by sundry other lobbyists or spokesman deriding any new announcement or one they think is pending. Angles on how much it will cost, or how the exchange rate will be effected or how a fuel tax will affect the poor that these fat cats suddenly care for.

    One thing is for sure, the lies and blatant dishonest that was a hallmark of the last National government is going to continue.

  15. Yes shake ot all the national ‘sleeping cells’ and others who are practicing bias.

    we need a media that is fair and balanced, not this crap we still hear and watch today.

  16. Considering the parties that compose this government each have varying public broadcasting orientated policies, it would be extremely surprising and disappointing if no reforms are made. Not just to news and current affairs media but quality informative and entertaining media as well.

    Importantly, is making reforms that will be robust and able to weather a future change of government. A problem in this country with broadcasting is the hyper commercialised nature of it. In comparison with other Western nations, they often have channels dedicated to news/current affairs, documentaries/arts/culture, and films, nothing of the sort here, eventhough many of them have conservative governments. Whether by design or not it appears if one wants such televised programming it’s in favour of Sky TV, the quality of that service it disputable as well. Another example of a socially engineered divide by paywall between “haves” and “have nots”.

    It’s easy to imagine any reform to news/current affairs media in this country, however slight, will be met with the highly predictable ridiculous cries of “censorship”, “propaganda” and/or “communism”. The record low ebb of broadcasting under the last government was shocking and should never be allowed to be repeated.

  19. It’s cyclical. Over the next six to nine years we’ll see a whole new generation of media suck ups develop who won’t ask the incumbents any hard questions. They are the lap dogs. Then when the Tories get in again it will start again. The problem is the lack of objectivity in NZ journalism. Gower spent the last nine years as National’s bitch so he would get the inside word, but now there’s a change of government and JK’s working on his golf handicap he might get the cold shoulder.

  20. OK but Hey. Be fair people. What about O’Sullivan, Young, Trevett? And I’ll grant you Katherine Ryan. Don’t look at the gender of the hacks. Look at the ownership of the media and who pays their salaries and where does Crosby Textor fit in?

    • Agree the NZ Herald needs to get rid of those dreadful financially and politically illiterate kunikuni’s.

  23. I noticed a deteriorating of good main stream media journalists once John Key was voted in the second time in 2011.
    And so between 2011 through to October 2017 the National government had conducted a witch-hunt on weeding out investigative and intelligent journalists. In place of the investigative journalists were a bunch of obvious National Party supporters who called themselves journalists.
    Fantastic journalists like John Campbell and the team from Campbell Live were thrown out like rubbish by a main stream media what was biased towards National. Even the tabloid that is now the NZ Herald has pro-National journos in the “Opinion’ section of the Herald.
    And in reference to the NZ Herald and its ‘Opinion’ section we now see that readers cannot post comments in regards to articles on that tabloid. Why? Is it because the National Party leaning Herald was receiving alot of feedback from readers that showed not everyone considered the National government of the time to be so perfect and ideal in NZ? Is it because most people were critical of the National government of the time and we all know National just hate being criticsed?
    Now we have a new government I am hoping the NZ main stream media starts to have some balance to its contents and journos.
    I am hoping the day of Mike Hosking and his ‘pearls of wisdom'(which is biased towards National through and through)is at an end. Please main stream NZ media and in particular the NZ Herald consign that idiot to the backroom of where-ever useless journos are sent. Just get him off the NZ Herald because he most certainly isn’t doing you as a tabloid much good at all.

  24. The new government must prune and replant. The CEO’s set the tone and culture. Start there. Give the public some quality, independent, ad free public broadcasting that is properly resourced and employ some tough minded, quality journos. And make it permanent. Our country deserves no less. Our dimockary depends on it.

  25. I watched Lisa Owen interviewing Grant Robertson on Q@A I thought she was rude she kept interrupting. And when he tried to do it to her she said “can you let me finnish”
    Then I heard Hilary Barry talking about the minimum wage being increased not sure if she was the right one to ask this questions given she probably earns more than our PM.
    I believe we need to get rid of some of our media as they are bias, rude, and paid far too much and during the election too many of them showed their true colors. We need a clean out just like they cleaned out Campbell.

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