Quietly, surely, the spider creeps as he prepares for editorial domination of NZME before next years election…
NZME shareholder Jim Grenon lifts investment in media firm
NZME shareholder and director Jim Grenon has lifted his investment in the media business for the second time in recent weeks, to just under 18%.
A notice to the NZX on Monday stated Grenon had lifted his shareholding from 15.963% to 17.932%, after acquiring 3.7 million shares for $4.07 million.
It follows a similar move in late August, when Grenon lifted his stake from 13.002% to 15.963% – at that stage, acquiring just over 5.64 million shares for $6.12m.
The moves further cement Grenon’s position as a substantial shareholder of NZME, sitting just behind the company’s biggest investor, Australian investment fund Spheria Asset Management Ltd, which owns 19% of the company.
…Former Herald Editor Gavin Ellis has made the point earlier this year at the Better Public Media AGMA that within NZ News media the cultural convention inside the NZ Fourth Estate was a clear demarcation of power between the Editor’s Independence and the Owners interests.
He could not recall a moment in NZ Fourth Estate History whereby an Owner was attempting the level of editorial control that Grenon is attempting to take.
He points out that only convention has ensured the owner never compromised editorial independence and that an Owner with a very different editorial direction could easily ignore those conventions.
I think Grenon is exactly like Trump, in that he won’t care about conventions and just use the raw power ownership grants him.
Before he gains that power, he has had to trick the board into believing he has no radical culture war editorial agenda.
I believe Grenon represents a unique threat to NZ Democracy because what he as a radicalised culture war Billionaire could do to the largest media platform in NZ will have enormous damage to society.
Look.
NZME is already a hard right media platform.
From Radio Hauraki for private school boys to ZB Capitalist Mythology, NZME is as right wing as it gets, but within that paradigm, 2 plus 2 is always going to equal 4, from Mike Hosking Breakfast to Heath Duplicity Allen, they espouse their right wing nonsense from a reasoning landscape that acknowledges 2+2=4.
That is NOT the case with the anti-vaccine, anti-global warming, anti-Māori, anti-Treaty, anti-Trans alt-Right, indeed in alt-Right land (which is situated next to MAGAstan and Qanon Island), 2+2=4 whatever the fuck alt-Right claim it to equal.
The Right Wing Trolls scream, ‘who cares’.
We all should,
NZME is a huge media platform, Grenon gained the power he did by opening a mere $9m (which is chump change to a Billionaire), he holds editorial control over one of the largest media platforms in the country and could force people to believe an enormous amount of crazy alt-right culture war bullshit.
That should concern all of us!
I believe Grenon’s increase of share holdings is timed far next years election so he and his pet spiders can implement a radical editorial overhaul in time for next years election.
The Fourth Estate is there to challenge the powerful, it is not there to be used as a means of control by the powerful.
Increasingly having independent opinion in a mainstream media environment which mostly echo one another has become more important than ever, so if you value having an independent voice – please donate here.
Why do you think he got Joyce the crook installed as chair man ?so he could be his head CHEER man .
As the election draws nearer expect to see more and more Charlie Kirk type right wing propaganda in the Herald and NZME