In the old days, you had one career and you stuck with it. If you became a teacher you stayed a teacher till you retired. If you became an accountant, a plumber or a secretary that was the rest of your life sorted.
Likewise, when it came to politics you picked a side and you stuck with it. You were on team red or team blue. You voted the way your parents had voted or rebelled by voting differently to them. The one thing however that didn’t change was your political views, you stuck with them no matter what happened.
As editor of The BFD, my goal has always been to challenge readers to question their beliefs, views and assumptions and to do their own research rather than blindly follow Red team, Blue team, Yellow team or other.
The BFD has writers who support National, ACT, Labour, New Conservative and NZ First (some have even voted Green) and I am proud of the diversity of political viewpoints that we offer our audience. We live in a democracy where we are free to express different views, some of which may be challenging. The BFD does not have a cancel culture and welcomes guest writers from across the entire political spectrum from libertarians to socialists and everything in between.
If Julie Anne Genter wanted to advocate for cycling and wrote an opinion piece and submitted it to The BFD we would happily publish it. Similarly if Andrew Little wanted to explain why he thinks hate speech laws are a good idea we would publish that too. It doesn’t mean that we support their position but it does show that we do not want The BFD to become an echo chamber.
Simon Bridges and other National MPs have been offered the opportunity to write for our audience and for their articles to be published in full and unedited and they have declined. I do not know what they are scared of. Our audience is very pro-National. They would receive a very warm welcome no doubt. Writers on The BFD who write pro-National posts always receive positive feedback from readers. It is the National Party which is letting our readers down. We want their input and our readers want it too.
No one complains about Willie Jackson writing at The Daily Blog. If Willie was smart he would write for The BFD which has a far larger audience.
No one is going to die wondering where our writers’ political allegiances lie. Most have declared it clearly in their Author bios. They write from the heart and are completely transparent. Contrast that with the Media Party whose journalists will not reveal who they vote for even if you ask.
Like every media organisation, we have sources and contacts and gather information. If we believe it is the public interest to discuss what we have learned then we publish it warts and all.
Balance on The BFD cannot be expected from individual writers. Balance comes from reading a range of viewpoints. That said, most of our authors have a conservative outlook on life and that is reflected regardless of which party they support.
The ONLY source of revenue for The BFD is subscriptions and advertising revenue.
We are 100% funded by our readership either actively through subscriptions or passively through advertising on the site.
Subscriptions and advertising pay for our platform. If you value a wide range of political views then support our platform. Unlike some other political websites, we do not receive money from unions (The Daily Blog) or the National Party (Kiwiblog)
Our readers are the ONLY financial support this platform has.
We offer you many different articles to read and many different viewpoints. If you disagree, that is what the commenting section is for, a respectful place to debate views and ideas.
I am no longer a High School teacher. Just as I changed careers I am equally able to change my political allegiance, and I encourage you all to be the same. If you blindly support the same party no matter how they let you down or change until they are almost unrecognisable then you are stuck in a rigid groove of Blue team good, Red team bad, or vice versa.
We often mock those who say “Orange Man bad” no matter what wonderful things Trump achieves for America. I challenge you not to be like that with ANY political party. No one party is all good and no one party is all bad. I will give ACT my party vote this election but I HATE their kill Granny bill and their stance on late-term abortion. All of us have to weigh up the pros and cons of each party in turn and then choose the one that sucks the least.
You don’t have to agree with anything our writers say but their views are here to challenge yours and any complacency you may have. I have voted for National a few times and I have voted for ACT once. Every single election they both needed to EARN my vote. If I blindly follow a party election after election what motivation do they have to change? They’ll take your support for granted and treat you with disdain.
At The BFD we are true to ourselves and if we stop being true to ourselves then we cease to be an honest outlet. What you see is what you get.
We are here to inform, entertain and challenge you. We value our audience and are very grateful to those of you who support us with subscriptions as we cannot do it without your support.
It is election year and we don’t want you to miss out on the rollercoaster ride.
The BFD is the place to be as we rocket towards the election result.
Buckle up and pay for your ticket. It is going to be a whole heap of FUN as the battle of the teams hots up.
