MEDIAWATCH: Alt-Right Canadian Billionaire Grenon now has editorial control of NZME – our Fourth Estate Guard dog is about to be turned on democracy
Media firm NZME has a new board and new thinking, with Steven Joyce becoming chair and Jim Grenon appointed director after a somewhat lively, colourful and occasionally off-topic annual shareholders’ meeting.
The editorial advisory board will comprise lawyer, blogger and former ZB Plus editor Philip Crump and at least two others.
Who they might be, the editorial board’s scope and how it operates is still to be worked through by the new board and NZME’s executive.
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 leanest 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!
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I stopped reading the herald years ago and canceled my sub because of the constant right wing bias .And they are white supremist run now which makes them even worse .They will be filled with Maori bashing and beneficiary hate everyday ,blaming Maori and the unemployed for the failing economy even though the Maori economy is the biggest growth sector in the economy .
‘They are white supremist run now’ Actually Gordon this has always been true of the Herald. Its first 19th Century issues called for the extermination of Maori ‘rebels’ and the acquisition of their land.
Considering how Canada treats its Indigenous peoples this guy would fit right at home in Aotearoa as New Zealand values & beliefs share similar imperialist goals
As if ownership viewpoints have never influenced editorial leanings.
Unheard of.
We’re just seeing a cudgel replace cloak, dagger and quiet poinsons.
Yet, not a word about trademe’ parent company acquiring 50pc of Stuff. Or is it because those peeps are Left leaning oligarchs!