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Following on from Cam’s excellent piece on the subject of the broadcasting merger I would like to share my thoughts. As someone who has worked in the media (radio), I find it obvious this dreamed-up self-serving nonsense will never work in practice. The reasons why, I will explain later.
Watching Jackson answering questions from National’s Melissa Lee on the TVNZ/RNZ merger was nothing short of comedy gold. His answers were a reflection of the contents of the bill: rubbish. It would be difficult enough for a person of reasonable intelligence to defend this piece of left-wing ideology, but for Jackson it is impossible. He has been presented with the Everest of his political career but, to use a skiing analogy, his crampons have failed him.
There is no way Jackson is going to get traction with this piece of blatant leftist ideology. There is no secure travel for the obvious commandeering of the government-owned media for purely propaganda purposes. Jackson knows full well the real intent of the bill is to promote his version of what he thinks the government-controlled media landscape should look like and how much Maori language and culture we should be subjected to.
The only way Jackson is going to achieve this is through political interference. This is happening already with the Public Journalism Fund. If a media outlet accepts the money on offer it must adhere to the strings attached. As Cam points out, one of the major strings is adherence to the Treaty of Waitangi in every single topic they write about. This is not only impractical but is government interference. To control the media in this way is bribery pure and simple.
Any media outlet that has succumbed to this rort should be ashamed of themselves. They might like to deny it but in doing so they have forfeited their political and journalistic independence. This is exactly what Jackson and the government want.
Take the filthy lucre, toe the party line, and print the appropriate narrative.
It’s a disgrace, and the merger bill he is promoting aims to cement this sort of behaviour as the norm.
TVNZ and RNZ should be objecting in the strongest possible terms as they must know this is designed to benefit no one but the government.
If they are happy to acquiesce to what is proposed in the bill then they can only be described as a gutless lot who have no interest in independent media.
It is of interest that television in New Zealand was funded from the proceeds of commercial radio. On-air staff worked across both mediums. Once they were separated, ironically by a Labour government, television assumed a superior attitude and regarded radio as the poor relation. Television staff became the champagne socialists and regarded their radio cousins as akin to working-class Lion Red drinkers.
Allowing for the fact that Jackson inherited this bill from the departed Kris Faafoi, it is right up his alley. He is trying to make the raison d’être for the bill about culture, not just Maori culture but the culture of all races. Yeah right! He doesn’t care about wasting $374 million of taxpayers’ money because he says it’s not about the dollars. He accuses those on the right of having no culture and of only being interested in dollars, dollars, dollars (well someone needs to be). Speaking of dollars, I presume TVNZ will no longer be required to provide a dividend to the government.
It might interest Jackson to know that the colonists brought their culture with them of which cannibalism was not a part. Colonialism brought the Maori a system of government of which he is now a part. Colonialism introduced Maori to the wheel as well as many other inventions that greatly enhanced their wellbeing and lifestyle including radio and then television.
Jackson, as always, is only looking after the elite Maori activists. His desire to control the media is solely based on this motive, a platform for them to spout their divisive separatist views. If Jackson is genuine about introducing the culture side of it then he needs to instruct TVNZ to turn TV One into a non-commercial channel and sell off TV Two. Why not? Advertising dollars will not be important to Jackson.
This is a nonsensical piece of legislation which will serve no useful purpose. National and ACT need to reverse it and preferably cease ownership of commercial television. There is no good reason for the government to be involved in media other than RNZ and even that is somewhat questionable. “Red Radio” is not an unreasonable tag.
The future of independent media in this country is with the likes of The BFD and is why I encourage readers to help fund the BFD NewsDesk. This country desperately needs a reputable organisation to take the fight to the government and the likes of Willie Jackson and his henchmen. That organisation is The BFD.
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