David Farrar: The soft media treatment

I blogged yesterday on how Labour’s Associate Foreign Affairs Spokesperson, Damien O’Connor, retweeted a tweet that Hamas had every right to do what they did on October 7th which is the day they murdered, raped, tortured and kidnapped over 1,000 Israeli civilians.

The media treatment of this has been incredibly light. Don’t get me wrong – NZ Herald, Stuff and Radio NZ did run stories on it – but simply reporting that there has been criticism, and that the tweet has been deleted.

There has been no apology, and no statement from the leadership denouncing his views. So we must assume that the official position of the Labour Party is that they agree with O’Connor that the murder, rape, torture and kidnapping of 1,000 Israeli civilians was justified – but that O’Connor shouldn’t have stated his belief publicly.

There was no coverage of this by TVNZ. There have been no editorials or op eds condemning what O’Connor retweeted. There has been no hunting him down on camera to demand him to clarify his views. There has been no asking other Labour MPs if they agree with him. There has been no questions (that I can see reported) to the leadership asking if they will sack him, whether his views are the views of Labour etc.

Now compare this to a recent incident where an attendee at a Matamata quiz night, where the theme was black and white, turned up in blackface. No one there objected, but someone got offended by a photo on their Facebook page. How it is inadvisable to wear blackface, so a story could be warranted but look carefully at the story:

A Waikato RSA is under fire after a community member turned up to a quiz night at its club rooms in blackface, then the club told people who objected, “it’s humour”.

Matamata RSA president Dennis Greaves told the Herald there was nothing offensive about the guest’s costume.

“It was a fun night and we had lots of people painted in white faces. Is there any disagreement with people turning up in white faces?”

Greaves said he saw no need to speak to the person who was wearing black paint on their face.

“To us, we’re a small community and to us, it was not offensive.

“It is only people with nothing better to do than to pick on stuff like this which is not really warranting worrying about it,” he said.

“The Matamata RSA do not see it as an issue because it was a fun night and that was all that was intended. There was no racial slur or anything like that.

“It was a black and white night and it was up to them how they come dressed.”

Now the story at this point was fine. It reported some people online were offended by the local RSA stood by the quiz night, But look at the next sentence:

The Herald has also sought comment from the national RSA body.

This is when they go from reporting news to creating it. This is what the media do if they agree with the complainants – they escalate it in the hope of finding a pressure point, and it worked. The next day:

The Matamata RSA has apologised “unreservedly” for any offence caused afterphotos emerged of a man at a quiz night in a minstrel costume, days after it said there was no harm in wearing the outfit to a fancy dress event.

So in this case the media kept on with the story, until they achieved the desired backdown. But with Damien O’Connor supporting murder, rape, torture and kidnapping they drop the story after one day.

Now compare the difference between the two situations.In one case the person complained about is a local in Matamata who attended a quiz night from the local RSA. In the other it is an elected Member of Parliament who is the official Associate Foreign Affairs Spokesperson for Labour.
In one case they wore blackface to a black and white themed quiz night. In the other case they endorsed a tweet which said the murder, rape, torture and kidnapping of over 1,000 civilians was justified.

And again the media wonder why trust keeps declining.

David Farrar runs Curia Market Research, a specialist opinion polling and research agency, and the popular Kiwiblog where this article was sourced. He previously worked in the Parliament for eight years, serving two National Party Prime Ministers and three Opposition Leaders.