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I listened to a Mediawatch bulletin from RNZ and heard the authors of the Trust in Media report exhorting news outlets to carry less opinion, emphasising that the issue of opinion, and the slant of such, was a major, very major, concern to news-consumers and a huge factor in the decline in trust we place in those outlets.
‘Thus refreshed I turned to local rag The Post to be enlightened by three long opinion pieces, all by academics, all criticising the Government. What an uncanny coincidence. One was by a fellow Davis, Peter if I recall correctly, head-spokesperson for a ‘Helen Clark Foundation’ which, apparently is ‘a non-partisan think-tank’, which, along with criticising the Government alluded to the importance of non-partisan think-tanks, especially his.
As an illustration of their very good ‘non-partisan’ think-tanking Davis highlighted a ‘recent discussion’ hosted by them: ‘a current policy debate’ which, encompassing the full breadth of New Zealand’s non-partisan political spectrum, included two former prime ministers, one named Helen Clark, the other Geoffrey Palmer. That’s about as non-partisan as you can get, I reckon.
As I digested those three long opinion pieces, all by academics, all criticising the current Government, I recalled the words of several BFD commenters who alluded to contemporary news outlets ‘not listening’ to their respective audiences, but frankly, I’m not sure what you’re all talking about. I mean: who wouldn’t pay $3.60 a day to read three long opinion pieces by three academics all critical of the current Government? I can’t fathom why The Post‘s readership is in a nosedive rate of decline, but I guess that’s because I’m not blessed with the same genius as their editor.
