Prime Minister Chris Luxon opens a bottle of diet Coke and takes a sip. As is fairly common, there happens to be a television camera filming him at the time. He drinks his diet Coke and thinks nothing of it, until 6pm that evening.
The lead story on TV One news is ‘Luxon Declares War on Sugar Industry’. Simon Dallow informs his audience ‘One News has obtained exclusive film footage which purports to show Chris Luxon launching his campaign to destroy the entire industry. We intend to bring you those exclusive pictures in a moment, but first this report from Maiki Sherman...’
In predictable fashion Sherman reports in an increasingly shrill and hysterical voice how this will lead to job losses and business failures the length and breadth of the land. She interviews a couple of people, purportedly working at the Chelsea Sugar Factory (but are actually a couple of actors with a talent to cry on cue), saying how this cruel, heartless prime minister will cause them to not only lose their jobs, but their houses as well. Sherman’s sickened expression says it all. She ends her report with ‘We spoke with Labour leader Chris Hipkins, who promised that, if elected in 2026, he will protect the sugar industry and the jobs of its workers from this sickeningly cruel prime minister and his lack of moral compass.’
Back to the studio, where the ‘exclusive film footage’ is shown. But Dallow and Sherman, not being complete muppets, leave nothing to chance when showing their viewers Chris Luxon drinking a diet Coke – Dallow: ‘What do these exclusive pictures tell us Maiki?’
Sherman: ‘Well, Simon, viewers need to understand that Mr Luxon had a choice, and by choosing the option he did is clearly giving a very strong signal of a secret agenda to destroy the jobs of sugar industry workers. Remember – he had a choice!’
Dallow: ‘So are your sources telling you this secret agenda was planned some time ago?’
Sherman: ‘They are Simon – all part of an anti worker, anti humanity and pro cruel heartlessness agenda cooked up in the Beehive. Oh, and it is racist too, if you consider how many people dependent upon the sugar industry for their employment are people of colour.’
I shall stop at this point, as I think you get the general idea of the biased lunacy at TVNZ. Their sole intention – on a daily basis – is to run endless anti-National and pro-Labour stories in a desperate attempt to elect Chris Hipkins in 2026, however ludicrous and lacking in any sort of professionalism or fact they may be. There is just one itsy-bitsy problem, and one that surprised even my good self – nobody is watching any longer.
There are around 2,144,000 people in the 25–54 age bracket in New Zealand: the most important age range for advertisers. Of those, around seven per cent (not a misprint) are watching TV One news and around 2.5 per cent TV3 news. Over 90 per cent of people in this age range are not watching television news – rather like it was sixty years ago when television was in its infancy. Not only can everybody see through the nonsense of these fake news broadcasters but it is only themselves it is hurting; they are the ones losing their jobs.
What intrigues me is how there is not one solitary executive at TVNZ who can see what is happening, who will crack the whip and return it to professionalism and truthfulness that it had thirty years ago.
