Willie Jackson, the Labour Party MP who was in charge of the media portfolio in the former government has called Media and Communications Minister Melissa Lee “stupid” and says she “doesn’t know what she is doing”.
Jackson’s broadsides come as Lee finds herself under increasing pressure to explain what the National-led coalition government may do to help the media sector, which is in crisis.
“Why can’t they mediate some sort of business deal? Why can’t they facilitate a process? It seems like they are just bereft of any idea or strategies whatsoever,” Jackson said.
“You’ve got a stupid minister who doesn’t know what she’s doing.”
Jackson said the writing had been on the wall “for years” and that his government had sought to assist the sector through merging RNZ and TVNZ.
But it was “overwhelmed” by the cost of living, he said.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday afternoon, Lee said she had been working “very hard” to find a way to make the country’s media industry sustainable.
When a reporter asked whether Lee thought she could save the media industry, Lee said: “I don’t think I can save anything. I’m the Minister for Media and Communications. What I can do is provide a level playing field so that media can be more sustainable, modernise and innovate”.
Lee said the sector needed to work together to understand the “different ways people are consuming news at the moment. We need to figure out how and why people are moving away from traditional mediums”.
Stuff
Melissa Lee is actually right here. Note that when legacy media companies are struggling the first and the last thing that they call for is for the government to DO something to save them. When we here at The BFD need help we ask our readers, our community, and the same goes for Reality Check Radio. We’ve both built a community, while the legacy media have built white elephants.
Willie Jackson thinks that a law will force Facebook (Meta) and Google to pay for news. He’s wrong. They won’t. They will simply stop doing it for New Zealand. The reality is our revenue from New Zealand to Google and Meta are rounding figures. If a law is passed forcing them to pay, they’ll round out those figures and just stop. Then what is Willie Jackson’s next brilliant idea?
Legacy news media failed to innovate, failed to see technological changes, and loftily mocked other industries that were similarly nobbled by innovation. Examples include what Netflix did to television channels, what Uber did to taxis and what satellite technology did to terrestrial broadcasting.
The wailing about blows to democracy and losing people who will tell Kiwis’ stories, is facile and arrant nonsense. Something or someone will replace those failing businesses. Stories will still get told, but they will be in the marketplace of ideas where their woke nonsense won’t find any buyers.
Bari Weiss, Michael Shellenberg and Matt Taibbi all left their salaried position in legacy media and actually spoke truth to power and are now enjoying a whole lot of subscribers willing to pay for the privilege of reading what they write. They are making money, and their costs and overheads are a fraction of those of the legacy media giants they left. They are earning more than ever before. They haven’t stopped telling stories; they’ve actually started telling important stories that people are willing to pay for.
Newshub staff like Patrick Gower arrogantly think the end of Newshub means no one will tell stories. What did we do before TV3 existed, what did we do before television existed, and what did we do before media corporations existed?
The one thing legacy media failed to do is build communities of interest, and those of us who have, they sought to destroy, and yet here we are – laughing at them.
Cam Slater is a New Zealand-based blogger, best known for his role in Dirty Politics and publishing the Whale Oil Beef Hooked blog, which operated from 2005 until it closed in 2019. Cam blogs regularly on the BFD - where this article was sourced.
9 comments:
“But it was “overwhelmed” by the cost of living, Jackson said”.
I bet Jackson’s not overwhelmed by the cost of living? After all, it was his governments policy to create runaway inflation, or stealth tax by another name.
Willie Jxn - to be ever remembered for saying that more people would watch Maori Television if they broadcast more programs in English !
When he was Minister for Broadcasting he wanted to spend $330M, I repeat 1/3 of a billion taxpayer dollars on merging Radio NZ and TVNZ.
Everyone knowledgeable about the industry knows that the actual cost was zero above their normal operational budgets.
Who is calling who an idiot Mr 3% Maori Jxn ?
Hmm the writing has been on the wall for years, he had 6 years to do something and didn't....or what he tried f$%&@d it up like the left always find a way to do so.....yet he's calling minister Lee stupid. He has a very warped sense of reality, like the left always have!
Willie's most memorable statement was, at a ceremony in the Chathams to compensate Moriori for historic wrongdoings, he stated that the current generations should not be held responsible for the historical actions of their ancestors. A comic genius. (Willie's tribe was, I believe, the one that was taken to the Chathams by a British vessel, and decimated the Moriori population).
And Ihcporo, he paid compensation to Moriori with taxpayers dollars ($18M, I recall) not his tribe's money for the genocide his tribe perpetrated in 1835 - some 5 years before Britain had any responsibility for NZ.
Yeah Willie, another example of your warped sense of justice.
To ihcpcoro, brilliant. Shame there isn't a link to that speech!
How can an industry that showered bullshit and racism upon us be saved when the population finally wakes up and flicks the off button? Kiwialan.
Anon 10:04.
Also during that speech in Parliament, which was an apology from the Government to Parliament for something that happened way before it existed, Andrew Little had the balls to say that Taranaki Maori came across to the Chathams and "settled there".
Worth looking up the references to that settlement for appalling distortions of the truth.
Note that Moriori history now has to accurately taught in schools, at the same time it was mandated that the true pre-1840 Maori history was not allowed to be taught.
Jackson is worse than an idiot, he has high octane mega-ego running his mouth.
Melissa Lee however has some answering to do, and she'd better look lively in her portfolio to provide NZ'ers who voted in the coalition, with at least a 'letter of expectation' regarding balanced media reporting.
There is no saving of the current media, most are self-destructing, and the mere notion that they should be rescued by taxpayers whom it serves so badly is patently risible.
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