MEDIA WATCH: Come on David Farrar – don’t be a dick
Ok, I think we can all accept there will be very few times ever where I will agree with the cloven hoofed Faun of the right, David Farrar. As a right wing Blogger, he’s made less venomous only by his proximity to Cameron Slater who manages to make Chernobyl look less radioactive, but Farrar can still manage to cause an intellectual gag reflex when he goes Farrar Feral.
And he’s done that with this post…
Govt closes down all non daily newspapers
This is a terrible decision.
The media pay an essential role in society, and this extends beyond the daily media. Some of the best investigative reporting can be done by non daily media.
The role of the media is not just to disseminate news. It is to hold the Government to account. It is to scrutinise. And while daily media do this also, they are sometimes so caught up in the day to day, you need non daily media also.
If the media companies affected had any fortitude they’d take this to court for judicial review. I do not believe any court would find such a narrow definition of media as an essential service to be acceptable.
…this is dangerous right wing scare mongering by Farrar.
The reason non-daily Newspapers were closed was not an attempt to stop critical examination of the Government, it was to stop unnecessary movement and physical transmission of objects. That once every 3 day local newspaper stuffed full of junk mail flyers being delivered to every letterbox during a pandemic makes for a perfect vector for transmission and as such is a really bad idea.
Media have been included as an essential service, so Farrar pretending that stopping the local rags from being delivered and possibly transmitting the virus is somehow a move against democracy is as irresponsible as National promoting far right UN refugee conspiracies that inspired the Christchurch atrocity.
The Right like to paint the Left out as dangerous, but insinuating conspiracy where there is none to Right Wing audiences who are unbalanced, armed and constantly angry at the best of times is far more detrimental to society.
Stop being a Dick David.
“The reason non-daily Newspapers were closed was not an attempt to stop critical examination of the Government, it was to stop unnecessary movement and physical transmission of objects. That once every 3 day local newspaper stuffed full of junk mail flyers being delivered to every letterbox during a pandemic makes for a perfect vector for transmission and as such is a really bad idea.”
That is the salient point.
Martyn has nailed it 100%.
Community papers can indeed go on -line. Some already are.
Continuing production and distribution simply adds another hole in our lockdown shield. And all for what? Kittytray liner?
No one is suggesting the msm is closed down (ok, except for Mike Hosking, please, for the love of Thor!), but community papers are not, by nature, an essential part of the Fourth Estate to scrutinise the guvmint.
It may make us uneasy, and so it should. But these are dangerous times and we need to be careful how much we keep things open. Otherwise we might as well not bother and keep the economy open.
But where will we put all the corpses?
And you can get the local Rag (If you want to read it) online. Just google the name Stuff, Herald, etc and our MSM rears its ugly Nat empowering head. With its Right wing Journalists still praising the policies of Key and English to strip the beneficiary of their safety nets, and ruin the housing market for renters, but making it a Buyers Market.
Is David Farrar still relevant though?
If so ,… how?
Is he a microbiologist?
Did you actually read the words in the article. It. Is. Open.
This should have displayed as a reply to MikeSee above.
So I gather that extends to printed versions of MSM media? If not then that’s a pretty thin excuse….. Given too this govts propensity to challenge free speech using the Trojan horse of “hate speech”, using as a foundation laws imported from govts with dismal track records on human rights like France and the UK no less.
Also if memory serves me from the same Labour party who wanted to strong arm voters by make voting compulsory a few years back. They have a bit of a heavy handed track record here, don’t they? Small wonder there are people who question their motives.
“So I gather that extends to printed versions of MSM media?”
No.
You made that bit up.
Mate we are living in a police state right now, i agree that we should keep the press open.
No, Mikesee, this is not a “police state”. Not even close. (Thought the GCSB “reforms” certainly took us a step closer, and Police harassment of Martyn could be called that)
We need to take this thing seriously. As infectious disease epidemiologist Jonation Smith said, the virus is unforgiving to our mistakes.
Read his article and tell me it doesn’t give you pause for thought: https://elemental.medium.com/hold-the-line-17231c48ff17