Reflections of Mana – te Parti Māori war with mainstream media

I remember the day vividly.

It was the afternoon of August 24th, 2014.

I was excited.

After all the work I had poured into MANA/Internet Party, having helped set both parties up, merge them and write the policy, I was excited as hell at the launch of our platform, and what a platform it was.

Feed the Kids universal food in schools programme, massive Job training programmes, welfare increases for beneficiaries, 50 000 jobs in the tech sector, free tertiary education and a programme to reduce student loan debt and welfare debt.

Praise be.

The launch was amazing, incredible, the energy, the power and the fact a recent poll had launched us with 5% (an unprecedented debut for a Party), I was finally hopeful we could force progressive change for those on the bottom.

I had been at the launch and rushed home to see the 6pm news across all stations to see how our incredible policy platform was being covered.

Oh the horror.

The policy announcement disappeared, there was nothing, just Pam Corkery’s angry face screaming at journalists.

The journalist hated Mana/Internet Party.

They hated that as gatekeepers they had no gates to keep with our movement.

They hated that we were being too smart arsed with MMP.

They hated and hated and hated and when they had a chance to strike and kill, they sure as fuck did.

Not one TV News story covered the actual policy announcement, they just feasted on Pam’s angry performance.

It was and has remained a lesson, the mainstream media in this country are no friends to political movements that challenge the capitalism upon which their privilege is built.

Let’s NEVER forget that the very first editorial from the NZ Herald was calling oil white New Zealanders to go to war with Māori – THEIR VERY FIRST EDITORIAL!

The mainstream media are here to protect the economic system they benefit from so I understand the Māori Party’s animosity of the mainstream media and their refusal to front…

Opinion: By-election media exclusion – why it matters

Opinion: Māori Affairs Correspondent Te Aniwa Hurihanganui says the voters suffer when political parties shut out reporters.

It was one of the year’s biggest nights in politics, but you wouldn’t have seen how the night unfolded on TVNZ’s 6pm bulletin because we weren’t allowed to be there.

Te Pāti Māori candidate Oriini Kaipara won the by-election for Tāmaki Makaurau against Labour’s Peeni Henare by a landslide, and celebrated with her team at an event in Auckland last week.

“We have decided that TV1 cannot attend our function tonight,” I was told just hours before the event. 1News was not the only media outlet excluded.

Te Pāti Māori has since accused journalists of “predatory media behaviour” during the campaign, claiming reporters were “pouncing out of bushes” and “screaming” at them while demanding interviews.

Co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer said the party chose not to engage with “mainstream tabloid aggression” out of concern for safety.

I can’t speak for other media outlets, but I can say with certainty that none of those things occurred with 1News reporters. Ngarewa-Packer has yet to clarify who behaved this way, or where it happened.

But those accusations – baseless or not – aren’t the reason I’m writing this.

The real issue is what happens when a political party decides to pick and choose who is good enough to access a candidate or be in the room. Last week, 1News was shut out. And that matters. Because democracy only works when the public can see it working.

Politicians are elected by the people. Their positions are paid for by the people. And the people have a right to see what they do, hear what they say, and understand what they stand for. They have a right to question, scrutinise and hold them accountable.

Without the media, the public’s ability to do that is limited. Te Pāti Māori didn’t just shut 1News out on election night, they shut the door on you – our viewers.

Some might argue that’s not the case, because other outlets with predominantly Māori audiences were given access. And yes – it was absolutely right for them to be there.

But to assume the absence of our cameras didn’t hinder Māori access to such a pivotal moment in our political landscape is wrong. So is the assumption that 1News doesn’t serve or care about Māori. We do.

Hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders watch 1News at 6pm every day. And, while it’s true that most of our viewers are Pākehā, it’s also true that we have the largest Māori audience of any news platform in Aotearoa.

We want to tell stories that matter to them. But we can’t do that if we’re not in the room.

…because it’s hard and because the mainstream media are biased, that means you have to front foot those interviews and media and use them to platform their bias and challenge them for it on their own platforms.

Never turn down live interviews to call it like it is and always ask to record the interactions yourself so you can use it in your social media platforms.

This is a liberal progressive democracy, the Fourth Estate has an obligation to be critical and that is an obligation all Parties agree to as part of our democracy. The Māori Party should lean in, not away from that challenge.

In terms of that terrible day in 2014, I should have locked Pam in a broom cupboard.

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