The BFD | Premium Payment for Inferior Product

Dear Mr Kirkness

As you are the editor of the NZ Herald I am writing to you just in case you might be (although probably are not) interested in why I am not a premium subscriber to your daily publication.

If I did subscribe my main reason for doing so would be to avail myself of reading items of a political nature both domestic and global. On the political spectrum, I would describe myself as centre-right. This appears to be a section of the populace that you either have no interest in or would prefer to simply ignore.

In choosing to take this action you are not alone. In fact, the vast majority of news outlets, both government and privately owned, seem to have made a similar decision. They have, like yourself, chosen to go down the woke, PC path which of course leads to a one-sided journalistic approach to stories. This does nothing to foster an intelligent readership. Ever since time began there have been two sides to every story. That you choose to print just one side, the left-leaning side, does you no credit.

A prime example is your coverage of the aftermath of the American election. If I relied on your paper for what is actually happening I would consider myself very ill-informed. You appear to be happy to source your overseas information from just left-wing news outlets which, presumably, either you take as gospel or it is the narrative you wish to give your readers. I realise it might be difficult to find news outlets which provide an alternative viewpoint but I can assure they do exist.

I can only assume you are not interested in printing anything other than what you think your readers should read. Printing both sides of a story gives readers the opportunity to make their own minds up as to what they choose to believe. That, to me, is intelligent journalism. Sadly, there is precious little of it about these days. Unfortunately journalism has fallen into the abyss of taking sides politically. This is to the detriment of both the publishers and their readership or, in broadcasting parlance, listenership or viewership.

On the domestic front, you seem infatuated with the Prime Minister. An accurate description of her comes from Gideon Rozner, a journalist and Director of Policy at the Australian Institute of Public Affairs. “New Zealand is in for a dangerous three years — at the hands of a ‘brilliant politician’ but a ‘grossly incompetent administrator’”. We all know this to be true but if I read your publication I find myself swamped with articles re the former but virtually nothing on the latter. Again we are presented with one-sided bias. I would have appreciated you printing an article from your sister paper the Northland Age. This was a piece about Ms Ardern entitled ‘A slippery slope of political correctness’. I presume it didn’t fit your narrative.

The Herald used to be a newspaper of some class adhering to journalistic standards of research and objective reporting. That, for the worse, appears no longer to be the case. I often wonder what journalists do these days to justify their remuneration. If you think I am going to pay a premium subscription to be subjected to an article entitled “Clarke Gayford: Which is NZ’s best coast?” or “Playgrounds and toilets could be closed by Auckland Council” you are dreaming.

I receive daily emails from you regarding the top stories of the day. At the bottom of each one, after thanking your readers for joining us, you say the following: “We know you need quality, reliable information now more than ever, and we are committed to bringing that to you.” If only that were true. I await the day that might happen but I fear some things are too much to hope for.