Without the necessary analysis of government ownership of media, the answer is probably ‘yes and no’. There are pros and cons. How they play out very much depends on the guidelines put in place by the government of the day. Other questions come into play. Should there be a level
Well, not in those exact words. What he did say in the headline to his opinion piece in the Weekend Herald was “Full credit to the Labour team – they deserve it”. A more appropriate headline might have been ‘No credit to the Labour team – they didn’t deserve it’. They
Three words beginning with the letter M – mindset, media and Maori – combined to ensure the demise of the Labour Government. These three entities, representing the political apparatus required for Labour to win an election, all let them down. In those three words Labour should have had the winning of the
‘Getting the country back on track’ was the National Party’s election slogan: a good one, bearing in mind the perilous economic situation we find ourselves in. Achieving it means some slash and burn is required. This will include promises made prior to the election. The Public Service will be
The election result has almost biblical connotations, such was the magnitude of the defeat. As one who believes religion and politics should be kept at arm’s length, I hesitate to draw any similarities. But politically speaking we have had the parting of the Red Sea of many of the
This is starting to look delicious. Christopher Luxon has upset the precious little darlings in the media. Their knickers are in a humongous twist. They are immediately realising that their friends are no longer there. They are highly irritated that rather than being able to set and dictate the narrative,
Memo to Jenna Lynch, Amelia Wade, Jessica Mutch McKay, Tova O’Brien, Maiki Sherman, Simon Wilson, Luke Malpass et al: If the election result told us one thing it is that you are irrelevant. The vast majority of the country took no notice of what you had to say. Your
While I personally am not yet convinced, it does seem increasingly likely that Winston and New Zealand First could well be a part of the next government. While that gives me cause for some trepidation it is not beyond the bounds of possibility that there are gains to be had
I will commence with a fun fact which will go some way to explaining the ‘Ides of Labour’. In Ancient Rome the Ides (the 15th of March, May, July or October) was a day for settling debts and balancing the books. It was the 13th in other months. It is
This election is very much shaping up to be a vote to rejoin the real world. It’s very much a return to political normality. Many of us have woken up to the con job we enabled the Queen of Lies to execute at the last election and the farmers
As the election draws ever closer so does the bond between the Labour Party and their media luvvies. The journalists are so unprofessional they don’t even try to hide it. Any little chink they can find in Luxon’s armour and they’re like flies around a rancid leg
Allow me to preface this contribution with the following statement: If I were asked to express a preference between a National/ACT coalition or a National/ACT/NZF coalition then it would be the former. This week Luxon declared his position, which was if Winston is needed he will pick
The media need to start being honest with New Zealand’s voters. As heartbreaking as it must be to find themselves on the losing side of the political divide, they should not be in the business of taking sides. The job of a journalist is to report without fear or
Mike Munro, writing in the Weekend Herald, as usual, did not fail to disappoint. To most people this government has been the worst in living memory, but not to Mike Munro. On Munro’s bucket list of people to criticise is one, not unsurprisingly, Christopher Luxon. Mike is convinced that
David Seymour has another Ministry to blow up, or to put it more kindly, dispense with. Oh, wait, no he hasn’t, it’s the same one he targeted last time. The Ministry of Pacific Islands Peoples. I have to admit it’s not needed, along with a number of
Labour and the Greens, in fact, the political left globally, are addicted to two things: tax and spend. The more they tax, the more they spend. So we end up as a country like a dog chasing its tail because the tax take, no matter how much, is never enough
