Over the last few months, Ardern has received praise, both at home and abroad for her charismatic diplomacy and for the global spreading of the New Zealand image. She fraternized with American President Joe Biden, sat in a posh-looking chair in the White House and didn’t ‘reject the premise’ of any of Stephen Colbert’s questions.
Loath to take the world stage for granted, however, Ardern seems to be using her time in the limelight to double down on her concerns over ‘misinformation’ and ‘disinformation’.
It’s an issue that has ramped up in coverage since the onset of the pandemic, and the last few months have seen even more of an uptake from media and Government alike. Abroad, Ardern has raised the issue at her Harvard commencement speech, brought it up with President Biden and spoke about it again last week.
To the perceptive Kiwi, this obsession with misinformation might seem a bit rich.
At home, for example, we’ve seen the media frequently reference the ‘Disinformation Project’ - a research paper which makes outlandish claims about the intellectual capacity of the Parliament protestors and then tries to back them up by saying they ‘looked at memes’ online.
The paper also coined a new term - ‘malinformation’ meaning -get this- ‘true information used with ill-intent’. In other words; ‘things that are completely true but make us look a bit bad’. Directors of this project have refused to front on The Platform on several occasions.
We’ve also seen the Prime Minister announce the new publicly funded ‘National Centre of Research Excellence for Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism’ or ‘He Whenua Taurikura' (a country at peace) -the chief academics for which claim to be promoting 'social cohesion' but seem quite happy hurling abuse at those with opposing views on twitter:
Click to view
To the perceptive Kiwi, this obsession with misinformation might seem a bit rich.
At home, for example, we’ve seen the media frequently reference the ‘Disinformation Project’ - a research paper which makes outlandish claims about the intellectual capacity of the Parliament protestors and then tries to back them up by saying they ‘looked at memes’ online.
The paper also coined a new term - ‘malinformation’ meaning -get this- ‘true information used with ill-intent’. In other words; ‘things that are completely true but make us look a bit bad’. Directors of this project have refused to front on The Platform on several occasions.
We’ve also seen the Prime Minister announce the new publicly funded ‘National Centre of Research Excellence for Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism’ or ‘He Whenua Taurikura' (a country at peace) -the chief academics for which claim to be promoting 'social cohesion' but seem quite happy hurling abuse at those with opposing views on twitter:
Click to view
He Whenua Taurikura Co-Director Prof. Joanna Kidman having a crack at 'promoting social cohesion' online
The word ‘disinformation’ appears drenched in hypocrisy - the Prime Minister's own Ministry of Health lied about Covid death rates for two years, and now she jets to Spain and tells NATO that misinformation is a ‘threat to global security’.
Ardern and her caucus, along with much of the mainstream media have also openly and unapologetically mischaracterized the protesters at parliament - and continue to do so, in an attempt to demonize them for political gain.
Is it a case, then, of ‘it’s ok when we do it’? Who decides whether a case of misinformation is bad enough to warrant being stuck with the pointy end of a trademark Labour working group? Or whether someone is being a nasty ‘malinformant’ and using true information to hurt the Government?
I certainly hope that Ardern’s consistent spouting of misinformation/disinformation rhetoric is not foreshadowing the formation of more ventures like ‘The Disinformation Project’ and He Whenua Taurikura, which seem to me to be set up solely to give the Government cause to ‘select’ the truth.
Ben Espiner produces the breakfast show on The Platform. He has a BA in Political Science and English Literature from Victoria University of Wellington. This article was originally published by ThePlatform.kiwi and is published here with kind permission.
The word ‘disinformation’ appears drenched in hypocrisy - the Prime Minister's own Ministry of Health lied about Covid death rates for two years, and now she jets to Spain and tells NATO that misinformation is a ‘threat to global security’.
Ardern and her caucus, along with much of the mainstream media have also openly and unapologetically mischaracterized the protesters at parliament - and continue to do so, in an attempt to demonize them for political gain.
Is it a case, then, of ‘it’s ok when we do it’? Who decides whether a case of misinformation is bad enough to warrant being stuck with the pointy end of a trademark Labour working group? Or whether someone is being a nasty ‘malinformant’ and using true information to hurt the Government?
I certainly hope that Ardern’s consistent spouting of misinformation/disinformation rhetoric is not foreshadowing the formation of more ventures like ‘The Disinformation Project’ and He Whenua Taurikura, which seem to me to be set up solely to give the Government cause to ‘select’ the truth.
Ben Espiner produces the breakfast show on The Platform. He has a BA in Political Science and English Literature from Victoria University of Wellington. This article was originally published by ThePlatform.kiwi and is published here with kind permission.
3 comments:
Thanks Ben. I was reading about a jewish lady who was asked why they stood back and did nothing in germany prior to ww2. She said because it didn't happen all at once. The govt brought in new restrictions bit by bit and most people believed it would all calm down given time. Sound familiar? There is a similarity to us living in these times. Many kiwis have thought that things will calm down, that the control will stop once covid is over. Now the borders are fully open and the control and gaslighting is only increasing. An example is this topic by ben espiner.
Ardern is a consummate "disinformer", so feels suitably qualified to lecture her woke mates on how to do it better.
Step 1: Get the craven media to saturate news coverage with the terms misinformation and disinformation, even though most of them don't understand the difference.
Step 2: While shaking your head and looking solemn, give regular interviews and speeches about how mis/disinformation is making democracy "fragile".
Step 3: Tell everyone you can fix it by setting up an "independent" panel of woke tossers who are paid by the government so that mis/disinformation can be hunted down and exposed.
Step 4: Make the public think that they can only get the "truth" from you.
Step 5: Accuse everyone who disagrees with you on anything of spreading mis/disinformation then get your paid-for independent panel to back you up.
Step 6: Legislate to make anything you don't like or disagree with mis/disinformation, with a custodial sentence (plenty of room for real criminals now that the gang members have been released)
Step 7: Sit back and wait for the votes to come in confirming that....you've been kicked out on your arse for deceiving the public and taking them for fools!
Disclaimer: Step 7 only works if enough of the public are able to think for themselves and read websites like this!
Great article.
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