TV REVIEW: The Nation, Q+A and Marae
The Nation:
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.
Then Paddy did 15 minutes on bloody time travel. Time travel.
Time.
Travel.
On a NZ current affairs show.
Time Travel.
Not a focus on the social housing lies, or Charter school lies, or the prison re-offending lies – oh no.
Time travel.
I don’t even know how I’m ever getting that 15 minutes back.
Then there was the panel and David bloody Cormack, the failed Green Party tactician (didn’t they go backwards while he was running them and doesn’t it raise serious questions about the Greens for hiring him in the first place?), the uber liberal Wellington Twitter weasel, the trolls troll, the man who threatened to reveal personal information about me online was on the panel????
How desperate has the Nation gotten for panelists if they have to scrape the barrel with David fucking Cormack?
It turned out to be bloody insightful because the shrill, snide, condescending tone from Cormack on every political issue, particularly immigration, highlighted the liberal disconnect with the working poor they pretend to care about.
Cormack and his ilk are the voice of uber liberals with cushy Wellington jobs who virtue signal their values constantly on twitter and would prefer to lose elections rather than allow working class people into the Left who might muddy up their identity politics liberal aesthetic.
They don’t care about winning if winning means allowing people like Willie Jackson into the tent because Cormack and his ilk aren’t going to lose their jobs. Sure the working class and beneficiaries who are suffering can’t tolerate another National term, but the twitter liberal elite can because they won’t lose their Union role or their beaurcratic job or their safe contract.
Cormack’s total disconnect to the realities of working people and the poor within our country sounded like Hillary Clinton Democrats and the anti-Brexit left combined. I hope David reads this column and pauses and reconsiders the wisdom of every threatening me.
Winston is going to storm through the provinces and the Twitter Elite can’t see it coming. Once Green voters learn to count, they are going to be shocked that the only way into Government will be with NZ First, currently they seem to be under some type of delusion that the Greens + Labour will = 51%.
Don’t get me wrong, I would love for Greens+Labour to = 51%, but it can’t and won’t. That’s why over the last 9 years I’ve helped start smaller political parties to the left of the Greens trying to use the MMP coat-tailing to give Labour+Greens a chance to get to 51%. That tactic of trying to win on the margins hasn’t worked, so any change of Government requires NZ First.
Like it or not, if we want to change the Government, it needs Winston.
Q+A:
Corin Dann interviews Winston Peters on Immigration. It’s funny how much more Winston respects Q+A than he does The Nation, that’s because barely anyone watches The Nation compared to how many people watched Q+A, I’ve never understood why any politician agrees to appear on The National, it’s a woefully small audience and it just allows the politician to be mauled by Paddy Gower.
It’s a no win for anyone other than Gower.
So Winston is being far more polite on Q+A, he’s in front of an audience he wants to win over and he brings all his charisma and anti-immigration rhetoric.
Of course Winston has bugger all to actually offer in terms of solutions but he is a master at highlighting the problems. His message will find fertile ground among the many NZers who see the current wave of immigration as a colonisation.
Corin tries to tie him down on actual policy and that leads Winston on some weird diatribe against the ethnicity of migrants and how it impacts feminism and bi-culturalism. It’s farcical and hilariously inane but some people will believe it. Corin challenges Winston on his claim that NZ Herald Journalists who were immigrants shouldn’t have an opinion on immigration, Winston responds with classic Winston.
The panel is excellent, and they manage to actually explain to NZ for the first time how a Labour-NZ First Government would operate with the Greens providing supply and confidence. This will come as a huge surprise to the activist base of the Left who don’t seem to have any idea of how the numbers are actually going to fall post the election.
A Maori Labour panel is on, Willie Jackson, the brilliant Kiri Allan and Peeni Henare. They all praise Winston which is an internal nod that Labour are already thinking of how they work with NZ First. They all attack the media over the spin used to claim Willie Jackson caused a tantrum over the Labour list. They each make excellent points about how important change for Maori and for NZ is this election.
The panel point out what a load of crap the Willie Jackson throwing a tantrum story was. They all point out that Maori within Labour have an amazing future if Labour can work their shit out. Corin Dann points out it was a lack of leadership in the Labour Party that screwed up the List announcement, not Willie.
It was a great show that actually managed to provide real insight into the weeks political events. Well done Q+A.
Marae:
The amazing Willow-Jean Prime is on with Willie Jackson. They both attack the media spin that labelled Willie as the problem over the party list fiasco. Strong piece on Tamati Coffey fighting Te Ururoa Flavell. Tamati will be a strong challenge but the chances of him taking Waiariki away from the great shark of Maoridom is highly unlikely.
Tamati has a real chance of getting in on the list if Labour can focus.
Flavell highlights the problem Labour have made for themselves by having no Maori in the top 15, but that is a fight Willie now has to win.
Flavell however still can’t tell the public if the Maori Party could work with Labour if the Maori Party are the difference between being the majority or not, and that inability ultimately explains why Willie couldn’t go with the Maori Party.
Today I can say there was nothing I could disagree with Winston on regarding immigration and the fake unemployment figures this govt has been feeding us. It is never reported that in South Auckland 25% of Maori under 25 are unemployed.
If NZ First would categorically rule out that they will never form a coalition with National the National party will be out in September.
My list below is my take on the issues that must be implemented as a priority to bring about a dramatic change to the lives of NZer’s and most of all equality for Maori.
Restrict immigration to returning NZer’s and skilled workers that we are need but honour our commitment to our refugee quota
Prohibit overseas investors buying residential and large iconic and rural land
Capital gains tax on residential investment properties
Build more state houses and units with rent to buy initiatives
Stop the theft and export of our water
Kill the TPPA – no resuscitation under different name
Independent Foreign Policy
Withdraw from 5 Eyes
Cancel 20 billion dollar military budget
Implement trade apprenticeships
Provide professionally run mental health facilities throughout the country
Separate prisoners with mental health conditions from prisons to secure facilities where professional treatment can be provided
Reciprocate policies implemented by Australia against NZer’s to Australians in NZ
Compel Australian banks to guarantee deposits of NZer’s as they do for Australians
I watched The Nation yesterday morning and was also very unimpressed by their program, the only interesting bit was about the poor manner in which mental health sufferers are treated in prisons.
The interview that Lisa Owen had with Winston was predictable in form and contents, and I learned little more than what I knew already.
Paddy Gower’s interview with an author on time travel was a bizarre piece to have on such a supposed current affairs program.
The panel was absurd, so damned biased, it was not funny.
As I have only seen bits of Q+A this morning, I cannot comment much on their show. I may see the repeat tonight. But past shows are not as great as Martyn describes today’s program, I must say, and an interviewer like Corin Dann is at best mediocre, with his high school grade wannabe graduate questions, betraying sometimes he has not all that much knowledge himself, and he also jumps from topic to topic.
Overall “current affairs” programs in NZ leave a lot to be desired, I watch more Al Jazeera on Freeview and listen more to National Radio or RNZ than I bother with TV1 and Newshub or TV3.
Most info I gather online these days.
I’ve come to the conclusion but not with 100% certainty that the current govt holds too much sway over both Q+A and the NATION not so sure about Marae though I do watch that show also and does have segments I find interesting and usually has a wide range of opinions from the panelists so I would rate it higher than the other two shows at this moment in time. The current bias/disdain almost , shown to all other political players apart from National surely can only be coming from the top down? Look what happened to John Campbell or that 3D series they were both programs where the truth was the only narrative that mattered.what happened to those shows? Yeah they were assassinated. I believe that’s a warning to paddy Lisa and Corin DONT BE BRAVE DONT BE BOLD DONT EVER SEEK TRUTH AND NEVER STRAY FROM THE NARRATIVE WE GIVE YOU. You could see the narrative when Winston was making his points succinctly when Lisa out of nowhere brought up health and safety?WTF hadn’t she seen the footage of the the solid energy employees already down the mine. Made her look dumb but she had to follow the narrative maybe? Same thing with Corin he had to bring up ethnicity when he thought Winston was getting his message across to the viewers . If he thought Winston is a racist why not just accuse him or ask him? I think the guy who got rid of Campbell was a good friend of John Key? I think both main stream media entities have turned into the laissez faire Neo liberal propaganda wings of the National party. But it doesn’t stop there Radio has its own demons to excorcise Radio live for instance used to have a very balanced mix of hosts IE Michael Laws Marcus Lush Paul Henry Willie Jackson John Tamihere ect At the time of the last election Radio live was so pro National it was hard to stomach.Even Willie who had at that time been given the liscence to build a charter school had to respond every time almost when Nationals negatives were brought up with a response similar to”Labour were just as bad”?Radio live now is basically Radio National now.One of the worst of all time even worse than Paul Henry who never disguises his leanings is Duncan Gardner . He wanted Judith Collins for PM FFS.Basically if you don’t speak your mind or speak truthfully you might survive in that industry …. If you want to progress in the media you have to become an acolyte…that’s the way I see it at this moment in time
good observations