Ani O'Brien: Behind the curtain of a NZ media scandal

Appointing the aligned is democracy, not corruption

Contrary to the breathless reporting we have seen this week from The Post and Stuff, it’s both natural and necessary for ministers to staff statutory boards with people who are willing and able to contribute to the objectives of the current government. By law and custom, ministerial appointees must have “appropriate knowledge, skills and experience” to fulfil the board’s functions and inevitably that also means picking individuals who support the government’s policy agenda.

JC: Media at Airport Failed To Fly

A humorous and short clip was shown on the Stuff website on Tuesday showing the predictable media scrum made up of the predictable so-called journalists at Wellington Airport lying in wait to pounce on their posse, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon. They had no doubt risen early to ready themselves for this momentous moment (men smartly dressed and ladies with lipstick and powdered noses) when they could destroy the man there and then. These leftie luvvies appeared to be in a high state of excitement: salivating at the opportunity, following a bad poll, to relieve him of his prime ministership on the spot.

Graham J Noble: Leftist Media Grudgingly Concedes on Trump Trade War

It still seems they are rooting for ultimate failure, but some are giving Trump his due – for now.

Just a few months ago, the left-wing legacy media was decidedly Chicken Little on President Donald Trump’s tariff talk. Jobs would be lost, inflation would explode, the markets would tank, businesses would be crushed, and, yes, the sky would probably fall. Fast forward to the present, and some of those doomsaying news organizations are quietly – and even not so quietly – admitting that, at least for now, Trump is winning the trade war, and the US economy is feeling relatively few adverse effects.

JC: NZME = New Zealand Muddled Entity

The Media Insider in the Weekend Herald focused on TV One’s 6pm news, asking if it was in for a shakeup, followed by a piece on the financial plight of NZME. Shayne Currie was talking about the plight of the media overall. The article was quite an eye opener. As one who spent many years in the media I was left scratching my head.

It would appear these people can’t see the wood for the trees. They are either ignoring, don’t realise or are deliberately in denial as to the main reason for their financial predicament. Certain things like the obvious loss of audience in some areas were mentioned but the usual excuses were trotted out, such as increasing competition. All the more reason, then, to address the root cause of the loss of audience and/or readership.

Karl du Fresne: The media needed a line of attack, and they found one

The left-wing media pack wasted no time identifying the new government’s weakest point.

Seething over an election result that they didn’t like, they have searched for a convenient line of attack and found one in the proposed repeal of Labour’s extremist smokefree legislation.

This has been a running story for the past two days. The media have collectively decided to frame the government’s proposal as an attack on the poor to benefit the rich. Even the BBC picked up on it.