…. in the Reporters' Gallery yonder, there sat a Fourth Estate more important far than they all. Edmund Burke
One of the joys of visiting Australia is their free press and independent television channels. The Sydney Morning Herald and Melbourne Age are good papers and in The Spectator they have a genuine main-stream media (MSM) right wing paper. Top New Zealand journalists - Amy Brooke and Karl du Fresne - periodically feature, telling the truth of what is really happening in the “Shaky Isles”. And NZCPR’s Muriel Newman features occasionally on Fox News providing accurate and balanced coverage on the New Zealand political scene.
The Australian is the established national newspaper and even though it tends to be “conservative”, it often features journalists taking different angles on same issue, leader or event. Until 2017 it also had one of the best cartoonists in Australia and the World – the fearless Bill Leek who would take on any topic.
Another delight across the ditch is the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) which is not controlled by the government or the public service. Their independent television channels present the news without restriction or bias.
The MSM leftist bias
As readers are well aware, our MSM will not cover many important topics, and despite the change in government last year, generally retains its left wing bias and devotion to Labour, the Greens and Maori interests. Criticism of their leaders is a “no-no”. One wonders if the incredibly rich Maori Trusts and leaders have financial fingers in the media pie to sustain this woke emphasis.
Sadly some of the big papers have dispensed with the services of top quality writers and cartoonists. Karl du Fresne once provided an excellent weekly column in the DominionPost which provided a breath of fresh air away to the right of the left wing fug.
Along with the NZ Herald’s Emmerson, Garrick Tremain is one of the country’s best cartoonists. He has often told the story of his wife telling their daughter at their Central Otago home not to worry Dad in the front garden. “Why not, what’s he doing?” Trying to bring down the government.”
Tremain’s cartoons in the Otago Daily Times were always very much to the point and he did not mind who he offended. The ODT eventually sacked him, but fortunately he continues cartooning online.
To get any detail on what’s really going on in the country, people need to go online to sites such as Waikanae Watch, The New Zealand Centre for Political Research, and Bassett, Brash and Hyde.
What the mainstream media won’t touch
Here is a random list of some of the topics that are verboten. The MSM will not write about them.
· Ardern’s $30 million climate change gift to the UNFCC Paris Agreement without consulting the New Zealand public.
· The more than 100 items of legislation that make special reference to the Treaty of Waitangi.
· The Waitangi Tribunal (WT) not using the 1840 Te Tiriti o Waitangi in their judgements.
· The enormous wealth of Maori businesses and the special tax provisions for Maori Trust companies.
· The WT’s untrue statement that Maori did not cede sovereignty in 1840.
· The racist allocation of 7 special seats for Maori in Parliament.
· The benefits of colonization for Maori.
· The reality that all part-Maori today are descended from settlers as well as early Polynesian migrants.
· The wealth of the Maori elites –Willie Jackson. John Tamihere and others.
· The Maori “king’s” lack of Te Reo skills.
· The Internal Affairs Department hiring Three Waters staff late in 2023, many given five year contracts.
· The myths of climate change.
· The reality that more than 95% of carbon dioxide entering the atmosphere comes from natural sources such as the oceans, vegetation and volcanoes.
· The dangers of electric cars.
· 1080 drops killing birds such as kea, kaka and robins.
· The limitations of solar and wind energy.
· The miniscule amount of methane rising into the atmosphere.
· The efficiency of modern coal-fired energy plants overseas.
· The inappropriate use of matauranga in the History and Science Curricula.
The need for a strong, vibrant fourth estate
Burke (Edmund) said there were Three Estates in Parliament; but, in the Reporters' Gallery yonder, there sat a Fourth Estate more important far than they all." Thomas Carlyle
We need a free press, television channels and radio stations to give us the news and comment on current affairs without fear or favour. No topic should be off limits. It is accepted that some of the papers and stations may represent special interest groups, but outlets that claim to be “national media” should be independent, balanced and comprehensive in what they report.
The capital’s paper The Post should be leading the way, but instead it continues to back Labour and the Greens. Having given the Ardern and Hipkins regimes an easy ride, it now works on encouraging dissention in the ranks of the Coalition government. Its cartoonists are blatantly anti-government. The paper also adopts a strong pro-Maori position on many issues and frequently drops Te Reo words into articles as well as often referring to the country as Aotearoa. This week it had an article by German-Maori New Zealander Helmut Modlik about Te Tiriti that was riddled with errors. The Australian would have a piece alongside by John Robinson or Bruce Moon.
Television and Radio New Zealand announcers frequently introduce their programmes in Te Reo and finish off in the same way. Most viewers and listeners don’t know what they mean. What percentage of the country’s population has Maori as their first language? One percent would be over 50,000 people.
New Zealand needs a powerful, balanced and comprehensive fourth estate which can incorporate a range of opinions, but is not afraid to voice its views on any topic, much like the media across the Tasman.
Roger Childs is a retired teacher who taught History, Social Studies and Geography for 40 years.
10 comments:
And Roger does not even mention RNZ with its continuing pro maori bias, assisted by a string of trace maori blatant presenters and with the chair
intimately associated with the pro maori movement.
Still waiting to hear what our Coalition government intend to do about blatant bias in our state funded media and correspondents like John Campbell who can't stand up straight without falling over to the Left.
Still waiting....!
Well written Roger although l am surprised your list of quality Aussie newspapers doesn’t include the Australian which is arguably light years ahead of the rest.
I wouldn’t even have the Sydney Morning Herald on my list - too woke.
Roger. Need to pay a bit more attention to the ABC. Left bias and never a conservative in sight in any of their news and current affairs programming. Rural cover and classical music channel world class. Strange organisation eating 1 billion in taxpayer dollars with a “ staff collective” out of management control. RNZ on steroids.
Yes independent educated capable MSM is essential.
But I would be cautious about quoting the Australian media as an example. The media propaganda over the so called YES vote was overwhelming. The TV segments on NZ ‘indigenous’ people swallow the propaganda, hook, line and sinker.
There are many more examples…
"Another delight across the ditch is the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC)"
You've got to be joking. It is as left wing as RNZ.
Amy Brooke has a website where you cam read some of her articles for free. The latest excellent article on education is entitled "cleaning out the Augean stables -Daryl McLaughlin is quite wrong....... Is it too late for NZ Education?
It was always the aim of progressivism to control education and education to create a socialist society.
Tony Thomas who often publishes with Quadrant is a really interesting investigative journalist in Aus. Well worth taking a look especially given his interesting background. NZ journalists should take heed.
Yes, Roger. And rags, like The Post, carefully screen their 'letters' to ensure the leftist Govt narrative always prevails, along with columns from pro-Maori lobbyists like K. Gurunathan, and Helmut Modlik, who are only too keen to push their distorted views of the world. It's not unlike the Rainbow 'Community' pushing the current Hamas/ Palestine narrative - little do they understand what short shrift they'd be given if their rhetoric became true and they had to live in the societies they so actively promote. They are truly deluded idiots.
Plato taught us that an ideal can never be achieved but the essential activity is to move towards it. We will never be free of opportunists, fraudsters, those who abandon truth for their self-serving interests, manipulators,
criminals; the list is endless. The important thing is to be aware of them and not let them dominate. Perhaps the saddest are those who have been so indoctrinated that they cannot see they are going in the wrong direction. Roger has written an article here that helps us be aware of the negative trends with which we are surrounded.
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