MEDIAWATCH: Sunday’s demise = cowardice from the Board
TVNZ’s Sunday team bids emotional farewell to viewers as 22-year-old show signs off
The presenter of TVNZ current affairs programme Sunday has issued an emotional goodbye as the 22-year-old show signed off for the final time tonight.
Miriama Kamo was joined by the rest of the Sunday team as she bid farewell to viewers, after presenting the show for more than 13 years.
“The memories are precious. Thanks to all who have told their stories.”
Here’s the TVNZ Board…
Alastair Carruthers (Chair)
Ripeka Evans
Meg Matthews
Aliesha Staples
John Quirk
Linda Clark
…gutless cowardly quislings one and all!
How dare they allow News to be butchered?
How dare they protect their jobs first while strangling off their Fourth Estate Obligations!
I’m not looking for open rebellion against the Government here, I’m demanding courage to stand up to this Government’s vandalism of the institutions they are attacking!
This hard right racist climate denying beneficiary bashing Government has made the front line everywhere.
When will the Boards stand and fight back against this public good vandalism?
Destroying thew news arm of TVNZ isn’t a solution.
Yes the economics has changed, yes the truths told have to be far more universal, but the need for Fourth Estate Journalism in an ocean of disinformation and misinformation is more crucial than ever before!
Look, we need long form journalism and we need it on a Sunday night dammit! The problem was that Sunday always pulled its punches! Compare any story on Sunday with Bryan Bruce’s documentary last year on the cost of food. Bryan actually goes to the heart of the problem with the intelligence to analyse it, Sunday is bullshit emotional journeys, celebrity interviews, overcoming struggles blah blah blah. It became current affairs for Soccer Mums.
The legal damage the Union is going to cause TVNZ will be glorious but won’t force a change, that will need to be a political move.
What they should?
- They should cut journalists and producers from Sunday and deliver a far harder journalism and prove their worth for the Sunday timeslot.
- The should cut back on Fair Go but keep it. If Helen Clarke can keep Concert FM, she should save Fair Go!
- Dump Seven Sharp, send Jeremy to host the late news and make that a more studio based show. Send Hilary to Breakfast. Launch a new studio based 7pm current affairs panel show with hard hitting interviews on the days newsmakers.
- Keep Late night News but with Jeremy as host
- Dump midday news.
Studio based panel TV is far cheaper to make and there is enough talent to do that successfully in NZ week nightly.
TVs power is that it is live.
The problem with public broadcasting in NZ is that our population base has always been far too small to support advertiser broadcasting, that’s why it has always needed the State to support it.
How to Save TVNZ + Newshub + Public Broadcasting?
We need a mix of ideas:
Fund TVNZ 1 commercial free – If we can have commercial free radio, why not commercial free TV? By removing TV1 from the ratings, the advertising flow would immediately go to Newshub and allow them to stay on air. You save two birds with one stone.
NZ on Air ‘Read between the Flags’ Kiwi journalism – In a world of disinformation, we need journalism we can trust. We all get the ‘swim between the flag’ model of surf life saving, NZ on Air should be given extra funding for ‘Read between the flags’ Kiwi Journalism. This money is to ensure plurality of voice for independent media, Māori media, specific communities, news blogs and mainstream news media who become eligible if they agree to a set of Journalistic Principles. If you do agree and sign up, you are entitled to funding and must have a Kiwi Journalism flag on your site to show you are obliged to the Journalistic Principles Code of conduct. You would have an awareness campaign to urge NZers to ‘read between the flags’ for trusted information.
Promoting Journalism in the Pacifc to counter other influences – I think one way NZ could uniquely promote its interests into the Pacific could be via Journalism. AUT run the excellent Pacific Media Centre to promote quality Journalism throughout the Pacific. What if NZ saw the promotion of quality Journalism as a craft throughout the Pacific as a strong way to counter corruption and external influence? Scholarships, Pacific News Media websites and support of local ethical journalism, these could be the pillars of promoting corruption free politics and holding those Governments to account. Promotion of Journalistic standards throughout the Pacific could counter external influences and promote NZs strategic interests.
Māori Media – Māori TV & Māori Radio need a baseline increase rather than extra budget for collaborations because the bigger players give very little back.
The NZ population has always been too small for advertiser funded journalism, it has ALWAYS needed State support, add a broken market where social media takes all the revenue while providing none of the journalism and you have a hollowed out Fourth Estate that can’t be a watchdog to anything other than their own self interest.
Current policy is simply adding more money to Corporate News to cover the news they should be covering anyway and to fund echo chambers of elite opinion so that the Spinoff Story gets posted on RNZ who then co post it on Stuff who then co post it on newshub.
It’s the same people saying the same thing to the same echo chambers.
The last election was a warning that disinformation campaigns can wreck the trust in our system, a strong public broadcaster alongside an expanded NZ on Air journalism fund paid for via taxes on the social media currently gutting traditional journalism would be a bold vision that would seek to genuinely rebuild public broadcasting.
Unfortunately the Political Right want to keep you stupid and want to leash the fourth estate if not kill it off altogether while the Political Left want to control the debate!
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Slash Country Calendar that will get the sheeple running in circles…whoah steady on there Trev
I remember the 1980’s we all thought it was cringy. Little did we realise that was the hight of Western power and sophistication. I don’t know how to or even if it is possible to excise that rot.
I don’t think anyone is shedding tears about the sure death of TV news. I read blogs like this one.
What a cold-hearted bastard you are Ennius
Truthful
They said it themselves. Sometime time in the last few years, they lost the Trust of the audience and Failed to properly hold Power to account.
We even used to have brilliant satirical comedy with ‘A Week of It’. It was absolutely up to the minute and hilariously funny as well. Alright, we may not have the clever comedians who’d make it possible now, but we do have journalists who could and should give us completely relevant and immediately breaking news.
They have dumped the reasonable stuff and kept the rubbish. Cowardice is the only word one can use.
Imagine what McPhail and Gadsby could have done with the present crop of politicians. They are funny enough without meaning to be.
Advertising-funded media thrived in New Zealand until the arrival of smartphones. Simple as that.
Sunday was crap not worth watching . Good riddance. Seven Sharp ditto. Oh for some real current affairs.
Absolutely Brom!
News in NZ is mediocre at best and total shite most of the time.
Sunday might be crap to you Brom but for the many NZers who it helped even if it just raised public awareness of their issues OR plight this was enough.