Fairfax threatened NZ they would gut local journalism if we didn’t let them merge with NZME and they’ve lived up to that threat by closing down local papers and are now just repeating the editorial content they already have…
…this echo chamber effect of content is seen on the NZ Herald site every single day. Because of their deal with ZB, we are presented with a tsunami of right wing National Party cheerleaders. Soper, Hosking, Hawkesby and du Plessis-Allan get coverage because of this content sharing deal.
This means right wing opinion becomes the overwhelming narrative that drowns out anything and everything else.
The news in NZ really is rich people telling middle class people to blame poor people.
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Well then the Letters pages had better be full of rebuttals or, even better, the outlining of a new agenda.
The Wairarapa Times Age (a daily morning paper) is now locally owned again, after the general manager bought it off NZME about two years ago and doing better than when it was with NZME. Unfortunately, it too still publishes a lot of NZME (NZ Herald) opinion pieces from Soper, Hosking, du Plessis-Allan and all the rest because of a sharing arrangement. It has recently formed a sharing agreement with Radio NZ as well. I guess the good news is that it shows an locally owned paper can actually survive.
May I propose the FINAL solution: A single daily private media publication, published by an alliance of media companies, including Fairfax, NZME, Newshub, et al, called ‘New Zealand Daily News’, publishing the same contents for the whole of the nation.
No more disputes, no more dissent, no more strikes, no more opposition, no more quarreling, no more nest polluters, only ‘pure’ NZ made ‘news’ for the happier being, the Sleepy Hobbit that pulls the yawn out of his or her face every morning, to go to work, and work, work, work, ask no questions, and spend their pay on consumer goods, before they go to bed, and repeat the same 24/7.
In short ‘Happy Society’ administered by the Ministry of Truth, and informed by the ‘New Zealand Daily News’ for easy digestion.
Spot on Martyn! MSM in need of a HUGE overhaul!
Where does one start?
And what about re-introducing the ability to comment on the online articles.
Appears to be this country’s paper version of the recent Sinclair Broadcasting Group controversy in the US.
Hilarious how the only diversity appears to be with the advertising.
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