Some of the ridiculous things claimed by the mainstream media last week over the Labour’s Party list was really disappointing and reminded me how voters need to always be wary of media personalities more interested in putting their so called ‘style’ into the story rather than sticking to the facts.
TV3 Political Editor Paddy Gower is one such media personality.
“Indonesian hospitality was given a rave notice this week for hosting World Press Freedom Day 2017, but it was also given a huge black mark for its ‘gagging’ of free discussion over West Papua violations.” The author was one of just two New Zealanders among 1300 media people at WPFD2017.
Predictably, opposition to the Commerce Commission`s decision came from Fairfax and NZME; their own submissions had argued strenuously for a merger go-ahead. Accordingly, the New Zealand Herald`s May 5 editorial was entitled `Blocking this merger is a big mistake.`
Less predictably, Duncan Greive on `Spin-Off` was even more virulently opposed to the Commerce Commission`s decision.
I expected a more considered argument from an on-line magazine which is said to employ `some of New Zealand`s best non-fiction writers to create smart, shareable content`.
This week really highlights why you can’t trust mainstream corporate media.
I haven’t watched the Nation much of late. It’s just the same talking heads all agreeing with each other. I tuned in this week out of mistake and Jesus it’s a hot mess. Winston Peters is on with Lisa Owen and his disdain for the mainstream media is just glorious to watch. I felt like I should have called the Police because it was an elderly Maori male beating up on a white privileged woman for 20minutes.
The latest blog rankings are out, The Standard are no longer making their stats publicly available to Ken for the blog rankings and that makes The Daily Blog the second largest blog…
This week New Zealand Commerce Commission released its final decision to refuse the proposed merger of two of the countries biggest newspaper networks: NZME and Fairfax. This is a decision worth celebrating, as the proposed merger would have seriously weakened an already diluted quality of news and diversity of voices in New Zealand media.
I think any incoming Government needs to urgently check the powers granted to Netsafe as a State sponsored censor and recalibrate those to where there are actual problems. Allowing a state backed censor to secretly attempt to censor legitimate political opinion online is a god damned outrage that no one in a free society should tolerate.
We are in denial about how our neoliberal welfare state and free market consumer culture has contributed to the zeitgeist of suicide and we don’t have the maturity to confront our delusion which is why it’s easier for us to slap some censorship on an internet series that talks about it.
Interviews that don’t promote heat or light simply champion shadows and that’s what this series has disappointingly given us. Leaders white washing their past using the shadows of time isn’t holding them to any account.