Why Jacinda’s star keeps rising

Admittedly, it was the weekend, and the news situation was obviously a bit light, but while the well known Auckland newspaper continues to push Clarke’s experience as the first man ever to become a parent, Stuff, not to be outdone, published an article from Next Magazine, which shows how Jacinda’s star just keeps rising, as she is hailed all around the globe for being an amazing leader, an amazing woman and an amazing mother.

Many of us disagree with the world’s assessment of Jacinda, but that is because all they see is photos, and by and large, she photographs well. They have seen her in a hijab. They have seen her looking serious. They have seen her overruling our democratic process and amending gun law. They don’t know how vacuous she is, or how limited her knowledge of economic matters is. All they know is what they see. And, as I said, she looks good. So there it is.

I expected the usual photos of Jacinda in a hijab and the usual congratulations on her empathy and ability to hug. But when I read the article, I was completely stunned. This article was published by Stuff on April 13, 2019.

The original article, from Next Magazine, was published 2 weeks before the Christchurch massacre.

So this article, published on Stuff on April 13, was actually written around the beginning of March. But Stuff is publishing it now… 6 weeks later.

What exactly is going on?

Herein lies the curious duality of our 38-year-old PM.

On one side of the scale, she’s the fiercely intelligent, steely and devoted politician who’s firing on all cylinders when negotiating international trade deals, protecting our national security, pushing for solutions to child poverty and climate change, and deftly shutting down her adversaries in Parliament.

She is neither ‘fiercely intelligent’ or ‘steely’. She is vacuous and weak. Poverty is getting worse under her government, and her idea of ‘shutting down her adversaries in parliament’ is to either snarl, endlessly quote ‘9 years of neglect’, or bat her eyelashes at the speaker to get her out of trouble. There is nothing ‘steely’ or ‘deft’ about any of that. Also, let us not forget her giggling like a silly schoolgirl at Winston Peters’ disgraceful mocking of Simon Bridges’ accent. Yes, Jacinda is the epitome of kindness too.

But what is it about all the puff pieces? Why does the media feel it has to tell us, over and over, how wonderful our prime minister is, particularly when she is failing on all counts as a leader and as a politician?

The media milked the Christchurch massacre for all it was worth, in terms of pushing Jacinda’s saintly status, and I had expected that this article would be another one of those. That it now sees fit to republish an article over 6 weeks old tells me that there is a conspiracy going on. Week after week, articles abound about Clarke and Jacinda, as if they were something special. But tell a lie often enough and it becomes truth. That is what the media are doing.

Here is my favourite part of the otherwise vomit inducing article.

Does that not sum up Jacinda brilliantly? When it is a toss up between a photo shoot or doing her job as prime minister, the photo shoot wins every time. The journalist writing this puff piece clearly never saw the irony, or it would never have been mentioned.

Jacinda’s star keeps rising because the media makes sure of it. They keep her at the forefront of people’s minds, and if they are short of articles about the princess, they will simply regurgitate an old one. Anything to keep her in the public view.

We are being told what to do, what to say and what to think. Even though this government is failing on every front, the media just keeps pushing its agenda to keep them in power. The only hope I have is to hark back to 2014. In spite of everything the media threw at the then National government, they were returned, almost with an outright majority. I just hope the people of New Zealand are still smart enough to see what is really going on, and that they will not be fooled this time either.