tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post3969803083407971170..comments2024-03-29T14:26:19.827+13:00Comments on Bowalley Road: The People vs The Media.Chris Trotterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09081613281183460899noreply@blogger.comBlogger15125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-53353469809162341882020-05-02T22:05:46.304+12:002020-05-02T22:05:46.304+12:00I can't remember the Latin quote for 'foll...I can't remember the Latin quote for 'follow the money', which is the guide for journalists. Except when it comes to their own companies. The Roman Republic of our age, America, has a veto for the powerful via their owned media and more. The media should be in the hands of the people. Though we won in 35 despite them. The real crisis now is slow moving unlike the old times. When we realise it it will be too late. Where, finally, our sale of ideas come in.sumsuchhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03133092096534660472noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-22659257574303829802020-05-02T21:00:33.518+12:002020-05-02T21:00:33.518+12:00Journalists are the puppets of whatever hierarchy ...Journalists are the puppets of whatever hierarchy has power over them.<br />Shareholders, directors, chief executives, chief financial officers.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-32488291008323280462020-05-01T22:10:57.808+12:002020-05-01T22:10:57.808+12:00I have no doubt about the earnest beliefs of our p...I have no doubt about the earnest beliefs of our politicians. To believe opposite is to be a passing idiot. Or, yes, many many. Prebble was , no matter what, a believer (til the sick look on his face as ACT leader when Anderton convinced him of the pain of the neediest in the 1999 election debates -- he got over it!).sumsuchhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03133092096534660472noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-15855745624450732982020-04-30T16:32:05.396+12:002020-04-30T16:32:05.396+12:00Spruikers ....some by design, others through ignor...Spruikers ....some by design, others through ignorance.pathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08727942156598555852noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-8417266493966765412020-04-30T13:39:36.538+12:002020-04-30T13:39:36.538+12:00I turned the media questions immediately off after...I turned the media questions immediately off after the first couple of lockdown televised conferences. Far too many media who think they're "personalities" into senseless vanity grandstanding & egocentric partisan pointscoring at a critical national time when the PM, CD & health authorities needed our full support to manage this. <br /><br />I'd expect that nonsense from Hoskings, Richarsdon & Co, not the Press Gallery who are mostly supposed to have at least a basic understanding of journalism.<br /><br />I admire our PM & others for their patience in dealing with the inane & ignorant; I would just ignore them myself - saying "Frankly, you may very well think that however I couldn't possibly comment".Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-42016433143138215482020-04-30T10:47:56.629+12:002020-04-30T10:47:56.629+12:00Kia ora Chris
You wrote:
"the realisation is ...Kia ora Chris<br />You wrote:<br />"the realisation is dawning in the minds of media owners and editors that New Zealand journalism – and journalists – will only be saved by entering into an entirely new relationship with the state."<br />An altered relationship perhaps but not an entirely new one. The New Zealand media has always served the interests of the state (and very often the interests of particular governments) concurrently with the interests of capital. You would know scribes who boast that they are regarded as "a safe pair of hands" on the ninth floor of the Beehive. For most New Zealand journalists that marks the acme of their careers.<br />"That, pretty soon, most of the news media’s shareholders will be the ordinary citizens of New Zealand."<br />Really? Shares in the media could be equally distributed among the "team of five million New Zealanders" but it is much more likely that the government will step in to bail out the existing shareholders while taking a sizeable stake of its own.<br />That will allow them to extend the scope of the Orwellian "Media Freedom Committee" which was set up to work out what the New Zealand public can be told about the perpetrator of the Al Noor massacre (final decision of the committee: "Nothing at all").<br />So state and capital, with the backing of journalists, will decide what the public are and are not allowed to know.<br />The public will not, as you suggest they may, find new faith in politicians and journalists as a consequence of this chicanery.<br />The media and politics will become a standing joke, as they were in every other "dictatorship of the people".<br />Geoff Fischerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00509885628971898371noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-78021142500644699392020-04-30T08:29:24.285+12:002020-04-30T08:29:24.285+12:00Years ago, with a shiny new degree in English Lit ...Years ago, with a shiny new degree in English Lit from Otago University, I applied for a journo job at a major NZ newspaper.<br /><br />The Editor explained that I was probably over-qualified as the targeted audience reading ability for most NZ newspapers was that of the average 12 year old.<br /><br />Enough said.Flippernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-82204681220010805452020-04-29T21:55:34.597+12:002020-04-29T21:55:34.597+12:00Boris ' point - The MSM display a peculiar co...Boris ' point - <i> The MSM display a peculiar conceit that it is their role to “hold the government to account” ( as opposed to informing and explaining their readers/listeners/viewers about current events).That role properly belongs to Opposition parties, not self-appointed and self-interesting scribblers.</i><br /><br />That phrase 'holding the government to account' comes up quite regularly.<br />And another phrase I remember is someone I think from the NZ Herald after some change saying, 'We are not a journal of record'. That's what I thought I heard, and that was a shock as my point in getting a newspaper delivered is to have factual information in hard copy in my hand for reference if I so wish.<br /><br />Do political reporters take degrees or diploma in civics, government administration and the levers of power and how they can go wonky? There are many ways for things to go wonky in government, from the inept or inert to the meretricious or avaricious. I presume in this colourful and ever-changing theatre of human doings and beings, the journalists have good solid learnings about the delicate nature of our polity.greywarblernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-43265852374354116642020-04-29T20:16:07.162+12:002020-04-29T20:16:07.162+12:00kiwidave
There is a time for everything - and keep...kiwidave<br />There is a time for everything - and keeping up morale is for now. We are at war with an invisible enemy, it may be a phony war, but the knowledge that we have a worse future facing us than the present troubles is well understood by those who think, and don't just react. It's a sorry day for the people who have been enterprising and put their whole small life on the line making their own job by running their own micro business, and those workers oppressed with continuing law wages under the real, experienced annual inflation. Those pollies on the Right of Centre Left trying to keep their toes to the left of a shifting line, are even more stressed as their threadbare commitment to the people's welfare has to be strengthened or rip apart. <br /><br />But to general NZ Labour is doing a reasonable job, let's fawn over them and our PM Ardern with gravitas, and not cavil.<br /><br />This from Chris pretty much says it. <i>The Press Gallery didn’t – and still doesn’t – get this. The way a crisis instantly clarifies the nature and purposes of state power. How it sweeps away all the petty distractions which under “normal” conditions are the news media’s bread-and-butter. Nor do they appreciate how very unappreciative the public is of those who think that “good journalism” is about picking things apart rather than pulling them together. </i>greywarblernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-15865414897179635712020-04-29T14:25:57.792+12:002020-04-29T14:25:57.792+12:00Quite right Chris. The performance at the PM’s bri...Quite right Chris. The performance at the PM’s briefing this afternoon resembled a bunch of squawking querulous seagulls scrapping over a chip. The repetitiveness of their questioning over Public Health advice about border closing showed their unwillingness to accept a reasoned response to questions as well as revealing a lack of understanding of government process. Daily briefings seems to be an exercise in ego-driven and not-picking argumentation rather than an honest seeking of information. The MSM display a peculiar conceit that it is their role to “hold the government to account” ( as opposed to informing and explaining their readers/listeners/viewers about current events).That role properly belongs to Opposition parties, not self-appointed and self-interesting scribblers. And as you rightly observe, they don’t reserve their self-righteous interrogation to other power centres in our society with the same aggression.Borisnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-13132511911822886412020-04-29T13:52:24.751+12:002020-04-29T13:52:24.751+12:00Well said Chris! Love the last few paragraphs espe...Well said Chris! Love the last few paragraphs especiallyTimnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-90971109141135010102020-04-29T13:49:12.666+12:002020-04-29T13:49:12.666+12:00You don't give any examples Chris but from wha...You don't give any examples Chris but from what I've seen the MSM have been supportive if not a little too soft on the government. A quick scan of the headlines confirms that; the treatment of the PM looks more like fawning adulation than anything else.David Georgehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04883628159193125307noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-39875107567430152832020-04-29T13:27:35.924+12:002020-04-29T13:27:35.924+12:00We would have expected Simon to positively critic...We would have expected Simon to positively criticise the govt where necessary and to suggest positive alternatives. Same with the Fourth estate during lockdown.petes new writehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00256560029674496199noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-17825480237555271742020-04-29T13:07:25.890+12:002020-04-29T13:07:25.890+12:00Good piece Chris, the conundrum remains though is ...Good piece Chris, the conundrum remains though is how do editors have a change of mindset when getting the 'angle' is what sells front page news whatever the medium and bottom line advertising. Interesting times ahead for the media, attention to manners as Winston advised in his press conference today would be a good start. Katnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-36869769719204679182020-04-29T13:04:47.695+12:002020-04-29T13:04:47.695+12:00I think a little poem of instruction for journalis...I think a little poem of instruction for journalists who understand analogies or whatever, better than I do, would be in the 1700s long poem Who Killed Cock Robin? It's a complicated tale that offers possibilities for a documentary for the journalist undertaking the investigation!<br />https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cock_Robin<br /><br /><i>The rhyme has often been reprinted with illustrations, as suitable reading material for small children.[citation needed] <br />The rhyme also has an alternative ending, in which the sparrow who killed Cock Robin is hanged for his crime.[2] Several early versions picture a stocky, strong-billed bullfinch tolling the bell, which may have been the original intention of the rhyme.[3]</i><br /><br />Note how careful Wikipedia are about their references [citation needed], and that there are differing outcomes and only robust truth-checking will establish factual history. I hope we aren't tolling the bell on such reliable and responsible journalism today.<br /><br />Let's keep it seemly in NZ. We are devoted to the USA which seems to enjoy politics that unroll like a political satire or sitcom, but please just use it as an example of degenerate reporting of a declining empire, complete with a Nero type who isn't talented enough to play the fiddle; his fiddles are strictly around high finance and expansion of personal power. greywarblernoreply@blogger.com