So will the public purse help top up Mike Hosking’s salary?

By
John Minto
-
34
2546

We are surrounded by market failure in every aspect of our lives and the media is no exception. The whole neo-liberal mantra about “the market knows best”, “greed is good” and “the super-rich are our saviours” is coming apart at the seams in private sector media.

And once again it is the public purse which will bailout struggling private sector broadcasters with Broadcasting Minister Kris Fa’afoi announcing plans to bail out the likes of Newstalk ZB and Magic FM with a new contestable $55 million for NZ on Air.

We need a free media and free speech alongside a wide variety of voices and opinions being heard for our democracy to flourish but that’s not what we are talking about here. Newstalk ZB and Magic FM represent the views of the monied establishment and rely on advertising income from – usually wealthy – capitalist enterprises to spread their political messages. From this vantage point they typically attack public services and public servants of all kinds and do their best to leverage open social fracture lines on religion, race, ethnicity, gender etc

Their standard approach is to blame the victims, pick on minorities, beneficiaries, the poor, state house tenants etc and dog-whistle racism. They make a living picking at our social scabs and exploiting issues to divide New Zealanders against each other. And now we could be paying them to continue to do this. All they will have to do it seems is to employ a few journalists to “hold power to account” (one of the criteria for funding)

The private sector commercial media should be left on their own. They should live or die by the market forces they are so enamoured with.

The new contestable fund should be an important contribution to getting voices out there that are currently buried and expanding the range of viewpoints we hear from. Bailing out failed corporate broadcasters will not help build and strengthen our democracy – a new range of challenging viewpoints from within our society will.

Newstalk ZB and Magic FM should be left to fail – they shouldn’t get anything from public broadcasting funding. Not a brass razoo.

But the signs are not good with the government’s announcement saying it will be “open to all media organisations” and that “NZ on Air has hired former MediaWorks news chief Hal Crawford as consultant on the project”. Meanwhile NZ on Air said in 2016 they are “platform-agnostic” ie they are happy to use public funds for private benefit.

TDB Recommends NewzEngine.com

A big bonus for Mike Hosking could be on its way – paid for by you and me!

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34 COMMENTS

  1. So you want to silence people you don’t like and only have messages approved by yourself John?

    Slippery slope.

    What happened to “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it”? It seems that lefts cancel culture is just getting started, and state government approved news agencies is where they want to go. What next? Prohibit opposition parties altogether?

    • ‘So you want to silence people you don’t like and only have messages approved by yourself John?’

      But that is EXACTLY what the corporate media do on a daily basis! (or should I say every second of every day?)

      Do you hear the corporate media mention that we are in the early stages the Abrupt Climate Change that will terminate most life on Earth, or even allow that topic to be discussed? despite thousands/millions wanting that topic discussed.

      Do you ever hear the corporate media mention that global extraction of conventional oil peaked in 2007 and that the peak of liquids extraction was 2019, so industrial society in in its last years, or even allow that topic to be discussed? despite thousands/millions wanting that topic discussed.

      Ever hear the corporate media mention that the global financial system is a gigantic Ponzi scheme held together in the short term with money-printing at historically low interest rates, and that it could collapse in a matter of weeks, or even allow that topic to be discussed? despite thousands/millions wanting that topic discussed.

      The truth you will not acknowledge is that the corporate media are masters of censorship and manipulation of the masses for short term gain of a tiny minority of sociopaths and eco-vandals. And are one of the prime reasons there is no hope for NZ society.

      Whether the collapse will come this year or next year is still open to debate. But you won’t hear any debate on our so-called news media; just business-as-usual bullshit, even as business-as-usual falls apart.

      • And who instructs RNZ to fill their news with US propaganda from Reuters or BBC. The lies are never challenged so no balance news happens.
        China, Syria, Russia Iraq, Iran …. on the list goes with pronouncements with no hard evidence except hearsay from dubious individuals.
        Journalism is all but dead.

  2. Radio N.Z. sport and Radio Pacific were left to die and had yards more intellect than the crap Hosking espouses. Given his free market thing, perhaps Hosking himself can come up with the millions to keep Newstalk ZB on air.

    • Don’t be salty Bertie. Hosking constantly outperforms all his competition (indeed laps them). Do you really want media to be a cheer leading echo chamber and be left with 2nd rate entertainers like bi-polar Dunc and Simple Simon reading propaganda from an autocue.

      • You miss the point Frankie. How many settlements against Hosking that Newstalk ZB has had to fork out. The guy may out perform his competition but has still been caught out lying on several occasions. As I say it is the crap he espouses and if you’re happy with that and indeed many others agree with him then I guess it says more about them and you than me.

        • Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I’d argue he deserves a medal for at least trying to hold this government to account. No one else can be fucked it seems.

          However if it’s a woke echo chamber you want well that is your given right to demand this.

          • It appears it’s your wokism getting in the way. I say my piece yet your hypocrisy of me doing so shines like a beacon. I suppose if Hosking held Keys government to account rather that being in bed with him you’d have a point, however you dont. Ask John Tamahere if you believe Hosking deserves a medal. No you’re in your own little woke echo chamber Frankie my boy.
            And are you suggesting Collins and co aren’t holding the government to account?

  3. Disgusting. The problem is that media is so far removed now from millions of people in NZ who don’t follow the rich list, globalist, pro woke (distraction) and right wing agenda. So the people are turning off media.

    In a fuck you to the people (and against market forces the globalists pertain to follow) the taxes which should be being used for hospitals and schools and social welfare are now diverted to propping up the poor media offerings in NZ who have less people using them while global ‘sharing’ media like facebook pay almost zero taxes on their profits here.

    This also means there is almost zero career opportunities for investigative journalists.

    • They shouldn’t get any dosh, the market the market it rules, oh no the market has failed, well they can dam well fail as well.

  4. A far better plan would be to let the whole sorry mess sink beneath the waves. As far as I can see, with the exception of Country Calendar 🙂 ,none of it is worth a cent. Or am I supposed to be watching The Bachelorette or the Block in the evening? Really?

    I haven’t watch broadcast TV in a decade. Similarly I haven’t watched a local ad over the same period. Instead I save the things I like on Sky. I watch Netflix and I have excellent sources of news online that aren’t tainted by the bias and sheer incompetence of the local yokels at TVNZ and TV3. As for newspapers, most aren’t even fit for kitty litter.

    Local media is about the same quality as locally made cars used to be – crap.

  5. “live or die…”–its a die from me for Newstalk ZB and Magic.

    Filth like Mr Hosking, in the service of their masters, have slandered and attacked the NZ working class for many years. They do not deserve one cent of taxpayer funds. I hope he is down to his last Ferrari and gram of coke already.

  6. Too Late!
    Hosking made a (dubious) name for himself, nation-wide, as a Rorting Righty when fronting Morning Report a couple of decades ago – with his total salary all paid for by you and me, Mr Minto. Remember? The station the Rorting Right snowflakes used to call Moaning Report because they thought it so left-wing. Year, right!

    That’s when Hosking was first anointed as the darling, poster-boy of the Rorting Right.

    He endeared himself to, and became just another male, pale and stale bloke; aka yesterday’s man backing yesterday’s politics.

    • I’d be careful with throwing around the ‘male, pale and stale’ rhetoric. It’s racist, ageist and sexist. Ah but it’s ok, because you’d allowed to be all those things if you identify with the correct minority group is it?

      Please also note that those three labels can also be used to describe our good friends Mr Minto, Mr Bradbury, Mr Trotter, Frank en tal

      I know a Green MP used such disgusting labels, and is a classic example of hypocrisy from the media, where if a, for example, male in the Act party had said it, he would be run out of town.

  7. Hoskings represents the wealthy white right wing neoliberal sector of NZ, time for this white trash dinosaur to be put out to pasture imho.

  8. Hoskings represents the wealthy white right wing neoliberal sector of NZ, time for this white trash dinosaur to be put out to pasture imho.

  9. It ought to go to outfits with professional standards. Hosking is not qualified, and should not receive anything.

  10. “So you want to silence people you don’t like and only have messages approved by yourself John?”

    Don’t be a dick, he’s talking about corporate welfare hand-outs from the public purse to private enterprise companies with no system of accountability to ensure remotely balanced political representation, not endorsing censorship.
    Brain-dead right-wing shock-jocks will still free to say what they like, just not on taxpayer dime.

    • I somewhat agree, but ALL media shouldn’t receive a cent of govt funding.

      Not one cent. In a proper democracy the govt should stand well away from any media finding

  11. But Hoskings believes in the free market and has stated how much he despises those groups which receive taxpayer’s money.
    Surely this honourable man will refuse to have his pay topped up from the public purse? This will be his opportunity to display his integrity.
    I mean it is not as those he, and his missus, are short of a bob are they?

  12. Great Post @ JM.
    The crypto-fascist parasitised msm must retain their logical fallacy spewing mouth pieces lest a proper reporter digs up the dirt.
    My worry is would most AO/NZ’ers care? What would the murmuring masses actually do with the facts? And would they have the intellectual capacity to understand what it was that they were being presented with?
    For example, while ‘Kiss The Ground’ was an excellent documentary on global heating and looming and catastrophic food shortages in the U$A due to soil biome failure the documentary makers thought it necessary to use Woody Harrelson to narrate it. He spoke in simple, single syllable words and using sentences that any 7 year old could understand. Just like the AO/NZ MSM does to us.
    Our television, radio and print media is coated in sugary gibberish just to retain the status quo that Herr roger foisted on us for his masters hiding in the shadows. And even here, we can be forgiven for thinking that logical fallacy spouting confederate Machiavellians are scuttling around at the edges of the light that shines from the likes of John Minto’s excellent work.

  13. Great stuff, Mr Minto.

    —————

    ” The private sector commercial media should be left on their own. They should live or die by the market forces they are so enamoured with”….

    —————

    In short, – fuck em. They are the scumbag juniors mentored by the likes of Bernie Madoff and his arsehole treasonous ilk. Any decent society would treat em as they deserve, ”If you live by the sword, – you WILL die by the sword”…

    Let them die by the sword they carry, let them fall on it. We never wanted them and never needed their high paid salaried bimbos and mild mannered politically correct cis males.

    Fuck em.

      • Crawl back to the heart of neo liberal, free market America, fool. Try downtown Louisiana or Idaho mate , Any talk of George Soros or Rupert Murdoch in your scummy little world, idiot?

        Nah.

        Didn’t think so in your one dimensional cookie cutter B.S crass Americana swamp buggy single barreled shotgun kind of way, eh champ.

        Jeeeeeepers, mate. You sure you got the right plane ticket?… seems you’d be better off in Australia, mate.

      • Or ” blue radio” with Mike Hosking Newstalk ZB or ” blue radio” with Peter William’s and Magic Mornings.

  14. Surely it should be the NZ National Party paying Mike Hosking’s salary and not the NZ taxpayers??!!! I mean I am sure many of us know that Hosking is the Mouthpeice of the NZ National Party!
    Why should our money be wasted on such a gutless wonder as Hosking????!!!!
    His ‘articles'(if really written by him) in the tabloid NZ herald renders that media rag unreadable i.e not worth reading any of the articles.
    In the tabloid NZ herald Hosking comes across like a Village idiot who knows everything and has an answer for everything. The ONLY National party MP that was like that was John Key. And so hence me thinking Key pens the various articles because he wants to in a stupid way to be in the news whilst Hosking applies his name to the stupid articles.
    Hosking is so deep into the NZ National Party pocket that he can no longer see daylight.

  15. “We need a free media and free speech alongside a wide variety of voices and opinions being heard for our democracy to flourish but that’s not what we are talking about here. Newstalk ZB and Magic FM represent the views of the monied establishment and rely on advertising income from – usually wealthy – capitalist enterprises to spread their political messages. From this vantage point they typically attack public services and public servants of all kinds and do their best to leverage open social fracture lines on religion, race, ethnicity, gender etc

    Their standard approach is to blame the victims, pick on minorities, beneficiaries, the poor, state house tenants etc and dog-whistle racism. They make a living picking at our social scabs and exploiting issues to divide New Zealanders against each other. And now we could be paying them to continue to do this. All they will have to do it seems is to employ a few journalists to “hold power to account” (one of the criteria for funding)”

    Agree 100%.

    But then… free speech and all it entails?

    Personally, I’d rather the money was flushed down the toilet than funding thos private radio broascasters. The effect is the same.

    And yet… free speech?

    But not-so-free if the taxpayer has to fund them.

    But for conservative/right-wing NZers… free speech.

    Time for a whiskey and a lie-down…

  16. What a pathetic opinion. Take your concerns up with the government, rather than creating a straw man, I suspect any responses to my thoughts will include “neoliberal”, “neoliberal”, “neoliberal”. How sad.

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