Digital Bill announced as Newshub murdered

National are ramming the Digital Bill through in the week Newshub dies so that National can pretend they are doing something.

Keeping Shortland Street while butchering news isn’t great optics, but for a Government who have abused power more than any other in recent history by ramming through more law under urgency than any previous Government, they would prefer more Dr Ropata than Jenna Lynch.

It will also allow TV to ram adverts down our throats on Sunday – charming, just what we need more of, consumerism.

Before you claim free market uber allas – American Newspapers in the 1800s received less than 50% of their revenue from advertising which highlights that media – even in your beloved capitalist America – has always been subsisdised as a common good for the betterment of society – NZ has a tiny population on two huge islands, it can’t support advertiser only revenue and requires subsidisation so we have Fourth Estate Journalism for the common good

It is in the interests of this racist, hard right, climate denying, beneficiary bashing Government to have less accountability and are quite happy Newshub is going under.

The Social Contract of the fourth estate has been sold off in favour of a consumer media network. The truth is paywalled, but the lies are free, we have a journalism crisis, the social cost of that is

• Citizens less informed about politics
• Citizens less civically engaged
• Citizens less likely to vote
• higher levels of corruption
• increased polarisation

And that’s the way the Right Wing wants it isn’t it!

Winston’s big lie is that the Public Journalism fund was a giant bribe and the entire media are bribed when really he’s referring to a NZ on Air funding note that set out their expectations of what applying for Māori media funding was – that funding note was quickly clarified by NZ on Air that it wasn’t an editorial declaration.

How much blame should Winston take for plummeting trust in NZ media when he is being purposely deceitful with his bribe claim?

The Big Tech Tzars have manipulated our collective fear, ego, anger and insecurities through social media in a way that has led to the largest psychological civil war ever launched against one another. Meanwhile, the planet burns and every aspect of our existence is monetarised for big data to sell us more stuff we can’t afford. We are alienated and anesthetized by a consumer culture that keeps us neurotic and disconnected. Our work, our existence, every move we make are all built to suck money to a minority class that sits above us while under neoliberalism, globalization, financialization, and automation, our existence as individuals has only become more disposable.

We should force them to pay for taking news content and advertising revenue.