Rodney Hide
Rodney Hide is a former minister and ACT Party leader.
Stuff has tried everything to rouse a falling readership.
Quizzes. Live blogs. Explainers. Podcasts. Vertical video. Then they let the kids take over the keyboard and reach for sweary words.
First it was Andrea Vance with the c-word – aimed at female ministers, carefully reviewed by experienced editors, of course. Now it is Verity Johnson, already exhausted by an election that hasn’t started, taking the Lord’s name in vain.
I doubt she would use Allah as an oath.
She’s not that brave. Or that progressive.
Will it work?
Nope.
Swearing in print is the last trick of a brand that has run out of readers and arguments. It is meant to sound authentic. It sounds like a teenager who has discovered the adults aren’t listening.
In an argument, the guy who starts swearing has already lost. He has traded the point for the noise. The room remembers the noise. It forgets the point – if there was one.
Vance’s column didn’t land because of the analysis. It landed because of the slur. Johnson’s fatigue piece will be shared for the same reason: the spice, not the stock.
Media managers call it cutting through. They mean clickbait with a pretend authenticity. They will not swear at the sacred cows of their own side. That would be brave. This is selective blasphemy – safe shock for a declining audience that still likes to feel edgy over coffee.
Circulation doesn’t rise because you said a naughty word. Trust falls. Standards fall. The next column needs a bigger bang.
If the product is good, you don’t need sweary opinion writers. The swearing is just reason 1,001 not to read Stuff – except to be impressed by just how far it can fall.
This article was originally published by Brash and Mitchell.
