Geoff Parker: Waerenga-a-Hika - The History RNZ Left Out

This article is not intended to deny Māori suffering, but to argue that historical events must be examined in their full context.

RNZ's recent article, The Deadly Battle New Zealand Forgot, is a moving account of the Battle of Waerenga-a-Hika and the suffering endured by many Māori communities. No fair-minded New Zealander would deny that lives were lost, families were torn apart, prisoners were exiled, and communities experienced hardship whose effects continued for generations.

But history deserves more than sympathy alone. It also deserves context.

Chris Lynch: Social media post featuring presenter removed after failing to meet RNZ editorial standards

A social media post of RNZ host Mihingarangi Forbes at a hīkoi has been removed after it failed to meet editorial standards.

ACT Public Service spokesman Todd Stephenson criticised Forbes, co-host of Saturday Mornings and host of the RNZ podcast Mata, for posing for a photo with a protest leader, and using social media to promote the protest.

Mihingarangi Forbes is a co-host of RNZ’s Saturday Mornings and hosts the RNZ podcast Mata.

David Farrar: The Atlas conspiracy theory continues

Joshua Drummond writes:

To recap, quickly: The Atlas Network is a “think tank that creates think tanks“; a global network of more than 500 right-wing think tanks and lobby groups. New Zealand members of Atlas include the Taxpayers' Union and the New Zealand Initiative (formed from a merger of two think tanks, one of which was the infamous Business Roundtable.)

This, like everything else, is wrong. Atlas does not create think tanks. It did not create the NZBR, the NZ Initiative or Taxpayers Union. I know. I co-founded the NZTU and don't think I had even heard of Atlas when I did.

Graham Adams: Mihi Forbes and the great Atlas conspiracy

The TV presenter counts on her audience being uncritical and ill-informed.

Last week, Mihingarangi Forbes made an extraordinary claim while interviewing David Seymour on Mata Reports, a taxpayer-funded current affairs programme which, she says, looks at events through an “indigenous lens”.

Mike Butler: The Voice and our choice

A current affairs report on “the vote that shocked Australia” by activist Mihingarangi Forbes shows what to expect as the New Zealand Left struggles to cope with the ACT Party’s Treaty Principles Bill.

This call-to-action piece titled “Trick or Treaty? Indigenous rights, referendums and the Treaty of Waitangi”, posted on the 1 News site, conveys dire warnings to no-vote campaigners in any New Zealand treaty referendum from Australian Yes Vote activists dismayed at the failure of the Voice referendum on October 14.

Graham Adams: Media knives flashing for Luxon’s government

No one is going to die wondering how some of the nation’s most influential journalists personally view the new National-led government. It has become abundantly clear within a few days of the coalition agreements being signed that they both loathe and fear it.

It is often said that the National Party attracts people who imagine they are born to rule. But since the details of the agreements between National, Act and New Zealand First were announced on Friday, it seems it is the left-leaning media who see themselves as the nation’s true aristocrats, endowed with a perpetual mandate to decide which ideas are suitable for public discussion. And which should be allowed to be put to voters in a referendum.

Mike Butler: Maori TV ambushes blogger Ansell

Native Affairs tried to host a debate on Monday night on the Littlewood Treaty, on New Zealand’s “alternative history” and on groups critical of the treaty industry. What this state-funded television service delivered was a two-on-one ambush featuring Mana Party candidate Annette Sykes and Maori TV presenter Mihingarangi Forbes against Treatygate blogger John Ansell.

If the debate was an attempt to show that Maori TV was making a genuine effort to present other viewpoints, as is required in broadcasting, staff there need some guidance. The two-on-one harangue was framed by an anti-Titford tirade by Reading the Maps blogger Scott Hamilton plus a repeat of comments by grievance specialist Ranginui Walker, who spoke on the previous week’s feature on the same subject titled “What lies beneath”.

Mike Butler: Maori TV shows anti-white bias

Bias is prejudice for or against one person or group, especially in a way considered to be unfair. Maori TV showed anti-white bias as it launched an attack on jailed Northland farmer Allan Titford and supporters on Monday night, failing to treat the subject fairly and accurately as required.

What lies beneath revisited the Te Roroa claim at Maunganui Bluff north of Dargaville, Titford’s battle with claimants, his conviction for allegedly burning his home, and included interviews with claimant Alex Nathan, Maori rights academic Ranginui Walker, activist/unionist Justin Taua, treatyism critic John Ansell, pre-Maori New Zealand researcher Martin Doutre, treatyist academic Paul Moon, and old footage of former MPs Muriel Newman and Ross Meurant.