Guest Post: The Herald’s $50 Billion Lie

A Guest Post by Danny Bright on GoodOil.

I opened the Herald online to find this headline:

“Donors to Trump’s ballroom project win billions of dollars in contracts, watchdog finds”

That certainly looks very much like exposure of corruption in high places and further confirmation that the man in the US White House isn’t fit to hold the office.

Matua Kahurangi: NZ Herald buys silence

Free speech champion gagged by contract

The New Zealand Herald has revealed itself as one of the biggest bullies in the media landscape, and the latest example is their handling of Jonathan Ayling, the recently departed chief executive of the Free Speech Union.

JC: Jim Grenon Hails Positive Changes at NZME

There have been some ructions in Canada of late – the Canadian election and Trump wanting to mastermind a takeover of the country. Some see these recent events as something of a bad omen. At the same time there’s been a Canadian causing some ructions here, but in a way that is a good omen. This gentleman chose New Zealand as a place to reside and we have every reason to be glad he did.

Professor Robert MacCulloch: Turning around NZ for a few million $.....

Turning around NZ for a few million $ by buying the NZ Herald is the Best Deal Ever. Calling on all Investors to fire the going-nowhere, lost Herald Board.

A private investor with $10 million has bought 10% of NZ Media and Entertainment, which owns the Herald. Anyone who reads that paper knows its boring, failing and is serving no purpose. Other investors should buy more stock and overthrow the old guard. Introducing refreshing ideas into our domestic scene has become a requirement. The reasons a potential investor should consider doing so are set out below. The article is based on the original version that the National Business Review commissioned me to write a few years ago. Since this Blog has many more readers since then, and I've put effort into revising the article to make it more relevant to what's going on these days, here it is again:

Philip Crump: NZME’s Future - Fresh Governance, Shareholder Value, and Balanced News

As many of you know, I’m one of Jim Grenon’s nominees to form part of a refreshed NZME Board. Since our nominations became public on March 6, much of the media commentary has focused on speculation around Jim’s motivations and intentions for the company, and in particular, what this might mean for the editorial direction of the New Zealand Herald.

Centrist: Is the Herald abandoning its role as a newspaper of record in favour of clickbait?

David Harvey of The Halfling’s View notes that NZME’s restructuring of the New Zealand Herald will prioritise engagement metrics over traditional journalistic values.

Editor-in-chief Murray Kirkness confirmed that the newsroom will publish fewer stories, cutting those that fail to “resonate” with audiences. According to Harvey, this means newsworthiness will take a backseat to digital metrics such as page views and video engagement.

Dr Don Brash: House prices in 2025 - Up or down?

On the last day of 2024, the New Zealand Herald ran an article under the heading “House prices start to rise”. The first sentence quoted OneRoof, an organisation owned by the publishers of the New Zealand Herald and specializing in promoting house sales, stating that “OneRoof’s latest monthly house price index shows prices are starting to climb again.”

While the article acknowledges that in some parts of the country house prices remained subdued in 2024, the entire emphasis of the article is that because house prices have started to move higher in some areas this would be a great time to buy.

John McLean: Pity the sexualized child

New Zealand Media Council joins the Herald in celebrating (Trans)sexualization of children

I’ve covered in a previous Substack a video published on the Herald’s website celebrating a seven year old boy performing a bit like a little drag queen. The video – funded they NZ On Air (i.e. your taxes) - was joyously entitled Seven-year-old quad-drifter in stilettos!

DTNZ: NZ Herald promotes harmful content – Counterspin

In a powerful critique of the NZ Herald’s declining editorial standards, Counterspin Media has highlighted a disturbing contradiction in the legacy mainstream media’s messaging.

The NZ Herald is facing mounting scrutiny over its apparent promotion of content that many consider degenerate, leading to concerns about the social consequences of normalising such material.

Nick Hanne: The NZ Herald and a not so “free” press

While it may seem impossible that this case could get any more ironic, let’s not forget the free publicity which Hobson’s Pledge is now getting due to the furore.

If Hobson’s Pledge, a lobby group led by Don Brash, wasn’t on your radar a few weeks ago, it will almost certainly be now. Of course, it ought not be confused with the ironic term ‘Hobson’s Choice’ which means ‘having no choice at all’, which in light of the NZ Herald’s actions only makes it all the more ironic. I’ll spare you, though, all the details from the controversy of the past two weeks, and deal here instead with two key questions.

The first is relatively easy: Can a newspaper like the NZ Herald lawfully turn down an advertisement?  

The short answer: Yes, they can.

David Farrar: Leave David Bain alone

As any long-term reader of this blog will know, I am no fan of David Bain. I am strongly in the “he did it” camp. However I was disappointed to read this article the Herald which:

Robert MacCulloch: The Herald Attacks the "Rorting" Rich with no Evidence

The Herald is running the headline, "NZ tax system is fairer than you think despite big earners rorting top rate, rejected report finds". The word "rort" is defined by most dictionaries as being a "fraudulent or dishonest practice". The article cites former Revenue Minister David Parker's IRD report on the taxes paid by the wealthiest Kiwis. It found no evidence whatsoever of fraud or dishonesty. Quite the contrary, the wealthiest Kiwis are dutifully paying the top rate of income tax of 39% and also, like wealthy people in nearly every nation, have significant capital gains on their assets. Those gains are not taxed in NZ. There are good economic reasons not to tax capital capital gains, by the way, since doing so can discourage savings and capital accumulation. So where is the "rort", Granny Herald?

Michael Bassett: Who needs Chippy when we have the Herald?

In case you are in any doubt, the New Zealand Herald, with TV1 in hot pursuit, has taken over the role of being the Labour-inspired Opposition to the new government. Chippy and Toni can take a holiday until the low-level editorial team at the Herald come to their senses, or the paper collapses.

Robert MacCulloch: The Herald calls Luxon untruthful and bases its argument on false numbers

What's gone wrong at Granny Herald? Why is the paper trying to swing an election using false numbers? Today one of its chief writer's, Simon Wilson, has a provocative column called, "If the numbers don't lie, do they always tell the truth?", superimposed on a photo of National Party Leader, Chris Luxon. Does the Herald think its being clever? Did its website layout people have a big giggle putting the word "lie" on top of Luxon's face. The theme of the article is that although Luxon says his housing numbers don't lie, they don't tell the truth.

Karl du Fresne: The Family First advertisement you didn't see

Too hot to handle: the Family First ad that six papers refused to publish.

Last Wednesday, Family First launched a campaign of resistance against the pernicious spread of gender identity ideology. The “What is a Woman?” campaign invites people to sign a petition that defines a woman as an adult human female – a proposition so self-evident that the necessity of affirming it would have been considered laughable only a few years ago.

Rodney Hide: Journalism in Aotearoa

If you want the lazy job in Aotearoa, be a journalist.

You write stories. Nothing could be easier.

You gather up some facts, get some expert comment, string it together with words to make a story -- or, in the sophisticated parlance of Aotearoa journalism, your narrative.

Cam Slater: It’s Called the Wrap up Smear

How state and media players smeared Avi Yemini

Yesterday we broke the story of how Police used a NZ Herald smear article written by an anonymous person to seek further information so that they could ban Avi Yemini from New Zealand. This tactic is known as a “wrap up smear” in political vernacular, and it is precisely what was done to Avi Yemini.

Here is a video from Nancy Pelosi who explains precisely how you conduct a wrap up smear.

Cam Slater: Leaked: Police Begging Interpol for Intel on Avi Yemini

Leaked emails show NZ Police wanted to ban Avi Yemini and desperately sought intel from Interpol to support their desire

Last week Australian journalist Avi Yemini was prevented by Immigration NZ from entering New Zealand. Media at the time suggested that the decision was made by Immigration NZ, but an investigation by The BFD suggests that it was in fact the NZ Police who were acting to stop both Avi Yemini and Rukshan Fernando from entering New Zealand and covering the protest at parliament in Wellington.

There is an interesting timeline in play here. An article appeared in the NZ Herald on 20 August that sought to smear the two journalists. The article was unattributed to any journalist. In that article they stated:

Cam Slater: A Ferry Breaks Down and Curious Coincidences

Today there is another protest against the Government in Wellington, and what do you know there are several curious coincidences all happening at the same time.

First up is Stuff’s egregious and shameless attack against a media personality who also happens to have a bigger audience than them. Shortly after the media attack the first curious coincidence occurs, Facebook moves to shut down Chantelle Baker‘s Facebook page just days before the protest

Guy Hatchard: Mainstream Media Stokes the Fear Factor

Our Covid-19 infection rate is declining, but the New Zealand Herald continues to stoke the fear factor.

They lead today with “Analysis: Covid-19 now one of NZ’s biggest killers” by ‘Science’ Reporter Jamie Morton. Statisticians are probably laughing into their coffee cups, and school teachers wondering whether to use it as an example of how to misuse statistics.

The Herald reports that Covid is causing 1 in 7 deaths (week ending July 17th). Their greatest fear is that we are becoming indifferent to the ‘dangers’.

Let’s fact check their figures: