Gareth Morgan bewilderingly strangles a cat in Mt Albert
It must be the year of political fuck ups.
The Greens with their misplaced sense of ambition standing in Mt Albert.
Poto Williams desire to undermine the Labour Party despite having assured Labour leadership she wouldn’t take her concerns public.
And this cock up by Gareth Morgan.
Mt Albert is heartland Radio NZ, and most in the electorate would know TOPs candidate Geoff Simmons from Radio NZ, so the haphazard manner Morgan has gone about releasing his broadcasting policy has seen him accidentally unload a magazine clip into his own foot.
His “Democracy Reset” on broadcasting was clever enough, but why sell TVNZ off rather than re-regulate them to do what he’s asking? I think you’d get maybe $200million for TVNZ, that money is going to run out pretty quick once handed over to NZ on Air, so his “Democracy Reset” will last maybe a couple of years at best.
The very short term thinking TOP are against.
The real issue however is that he clearly hasn’t thought through this agenda when it comes to Radio NZ – threatening to sell RNZ off when it’s seen as the last jewel in a rusted broadcasting crown to an electorate like Mt Albert is on par with strangling a cat on Dominion Road.
All Jacinda has to do is point out that Gareth wants to kill Radio NZ and she’ll be able to scrape through.
Poorly judged call there by Gareth, he’ll be hoping that doesn’t scupper his Mt Albert chances, but it very well could.
He is an idiot!…another idiot!
I think you underestimate Morgan’s ability to exit bad positions, which is a reverse trump, on second thoughts, it’s complicated
It all hinges on whether or not the electorate knows how Media works or not. Just like people new that cats kill birds, and birds are important to ecology.
You can’t time markets even though timing is everything, that may sound like a contradiction but not if you place bets either way on the collapse of RNZ or scaling it up.
I’m sure if people asked the Mt Albert electorate what online content is they wouldn’t have a clue, even though they are being spooked into it. We can all see that digital print is real, but that only indicates what is relevant and not what people buy into.
Isn’t that policy precisely what the National voters in Mt Albert might go for? You know, the very same ones that English potentially might try and convince to vote for TOP. I think it’s just as potentially evil genius at play as it is the self-immolation you say it is. Time will tell.
Surely the best strategy for TVNZ would be to sell-off enough crappy program rights & space on TVNZ Freeview transponder to a new operator (ie effectively sell TVNZ 2 and Duke), and Re-tool TV1 as the public service broadcaster. Combine the TV1 & Radio New Zealand newsrooms under strict instructions that RNZ is to pull TV1 up to their standard. Boot any TV1 staff that don”t fit the new culture (ta ta Hosking..)
Or sell Duke (basically a Freeview spot, plus some program rights) , keep TV2 as a money-making cash cow & use that the subsidise TV1 as above.