Media missed the (trust) memo

The NZ media is facing criticism about its bias - from its own people.

Last November, I showed you an example of the NZ media turning on itself regarding its lack of balance, its bias, and the reason for its declining trust.

Newstalk ZB’s Heather de Plessis-Allan - who used to be a reporter on 1News (!) – went ballistic about the bias of TVNZ’s coverage of the hikoi to Parliament.

There was this interview from Breakfast on One (I’m not sure why anybody is expecting balance and fairness on that programme) but David Seymour obviously was and called them out for it.

Have a watch.

30.3K views. A similar clip had more than 260,000 views on YouTube and as with my post, the comments weren’t about which side of the debate people were on. It was about the bias of the media and its coverage.

We may not be in agreement on the Treaty bill, but we are in agreement that the media are bias and are letting down viewers in providing both sides of the debate.

And then again on TVNZ and on their Breakfast show.

Have a watch of this clip. As I said, if this reporter was interviewing me about my views on abortion, marriage, euthanasia, or abusing children with puberty blockers, you can guarantee that the questions would be aggressive, challenging, demanding evidence, pushing back with counter arguments. You would expect that. I don’t think I’ve ever had a patsy interview on mainstream media – ever!

But have a watch of this. See if you can figure out where the reporter stands on the issue.

OK that was a lovely lovefest.

You know I’ve never had an interviewer on TVNZ or any other media ask me to sing a song with them. Or be told how significant I was and how significant the work of Family First is.

And TVNZ’s bias was all sealed with this

The NZ Herald reported

One of TVNZ’s most senior executives – and the person considered most likely to fill the broadcaster’s proposed new supercharged news and content executive position – has taken annual leave this week to attend and support the North Island hīkoi.

TVNZ chief content officer Nevak Rogers’ presence in a personal capacity at the hīkoi - as well as several posts on her Instagram social media account - has caused consternation among some staff, but TVNZ has defended her position.

Just three months ago, the state broadcaster was championing the importance of the impartiality of its newsroom, releasing an editorial policy to enhance its “transparency” and “inspiring trust in news”.

So now you have the background – let’s go back to Newstalk ZB’s Heather du Plessis-Allan and her missive at TVNZ – a well-deserved missive.

Have a listen

Good luck to TVNZ. Good luck to TVNZ trying to convince anyone that they are unbiased, given what's just happened with them in the last week.

I just played you the clip of the Breakfast reporter singing with the organiser of the Hikoi - which I think any right-minded person would interpret as an endorsement of the Hikoi. I think this should earn her some serious trouble if TVNZ takes perceptions of bias seriously. What is much more serious for them is that the woman who was tipped to become the top news boss has just been outed today for taking personal leave to go on the Hikoi. The reason we know this is because she loves a social media post, and she's put it up on her Instagram. So just flaunted it for everyone to see.

If you are a news boss, or about to become the news boss, you should be smart enough to keep that private emphasis on private - especially if your organisation is trying to pretend that it's unbiased, which is what TVNZ is trying to do. Very hard at the moment in the face of falling public trust in media. Just a few weeks ago, TVNZ self-published its editorial guidelines for journalists. The point of that was to tell us that they take impartiality seriously and that they are impartial. Well, that's just been massively undone by finding out that the woman who will be in charge of all of the journalists actually doesn't really like the current government at all. So, good luck. …

TVNZ though was trying to convince us that they are neutral. The other important thing here is that TVNZ is the publicly owned broadcaster on television, right?...

So good luck to TVNZ trying to convince us from here on that they're impartial.

Ouch! When the media are turning on their own, this is not going to be pretty.

But Heather is spot on.

Yep – good luck to TVNZ.

Of course let me just put a little note in here to conclude. Newstalk ZB is not off the hook. Their newsroom is no better than TVNZ’s.

Remember their coverage of Trump in the lead up to the election?

Trump showed some humanity by halting a political rally so that sick people could be tended to – twice – and then turned it into a fun event of music and signing Trump caps.

But the media mockers pounced on it – and totally tried to fool you. Including Newstalk ZB.

Newstalk ZB

You can hear the sarcasm in the voice, can’t you.

Their written version said

Trump’s impromptu dance performance at Pennsylvania town hall raises questions, mockery

But the latest friendly fire was shot by senior business reporter Fran O’Sullivan who has been writing for the NZ Herald for the last 23 years - basically the whole time I have been reporting politics in firstly the media and then Family First.

Before we read the article, let me show you how the media covered the naming of Simeon Brown as the new Minister of health in the latest cabinet reshuffle.

And remember, Health is an Achilles heel for the government. ED waits. Security in hospitals. Dunedin hospital rebuild. Shortage of specialists and nurses who are going overseas. Significant cost-cutting measures. Disturbing shortage of local GPs (ever tried to get an appointment with your GP recently?)

NZers are right to be concerned that they’re not getting the health services they need or deserve.

But what key health issue were our good friends at Stuff and ThreeNews focused on?

Shout with me. ABORTION!!!

This article by Bridie Witton from Stuff is a completely one-sided tone-deaf article with no counter voice or view, contains misrepresentations of the law and of the prevalence of late term abortions (which have significantly increased since the law change - 23% since abortion was decriminalised. There has been a 15% increase in just the past 12 months alone, and a 67% increase in late-term abortions (20 weeks onwards) between 2021 and 2023 – but Bridie Witton just can’t bring herself to mention those inconvenient truths) …and the article even has a 10 minute puff piece interview with an activist from pro-death group ALRANZ who despite medical training doesn’t understand the biological truth that there are TWO lives involved in a pregnancy.

She is also American. Why can’t ALRANZ find some kiwi speakers? Don’t bring your US politics to NZ thank you very much.

But Simeon Brown has voted against abortion “reforms” while in Parliament – how dare he have an opinion and speak up for the unborn child - and was the president of a pro-life university group.

He actually has a very good voting record, in our view – including voting against euthanasia and against the deeply flawed conversion therapy ban.

Yep- shocking. You can see why the media loathe him.

But then ThreeNews’ Jenna Lynch went on the attack.

Remember – we’re all concerned about health and how the new Minister of Health might approach this issue. How will he deal with the workforce, the waiting times, having access to a local GP, the best medication, oh – and will he ban the highly flawed and ineffective and harmful puberty blockers. That would be a good question.

But for the media, it’s all about ABORTION.

And it reveals an ignorance and arrogance from the media. They know that Simeon is just one voice – one vote – and the only way the law might improve for the unborn child is for Parliament to have a majority of MPs who understand biology (which is sadly not the case at the moment) OR for Luxon to whip his MPs to support amendments around parental notification, late term abortions, born alive protections, foetal pain provisions, religious exemptions….

Sadly, you’ll also see in this news coverage a Prime Minister who is more afraid of the media than he is of betraying his core beliefs.

VIDEO

Yes – appalling.

So this leads to senior journalist Fran O’Sullivan’s article

Entitled Challenges face media integrity amid cultural shifts, it says:

News media went for Simeon Brown with the cheap shot that his appointment as Health Minister meant getting an abortion could be threatened.

The media posse at the National Party caucus retreat this week wasn’t focusing on his priorities for this weighty portfolio: how he would ensure New Zealand does develop a first-class health system amid the disarray left behind when a major centralisation by the last Labour Government to form Health New Zealand resulted in chaos.

All too complex in today’s media world? Surely not.

Instead, its members picked up on an obvious smear by a pro-abortion lobby suggesting Brown’s appointment meant abortion services and funding delivered by the health system were in jeopardy. His appointment was a “provocation”, the lobby claimed.

That’s plainly asinine. It would be an overreach. And against the spirit of legislative change to decriminalise abortion.

The spirit of the legislative change? It’s a demonic spirit – of death and destruction – just to be clear.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has made clear – after being wrong-footed by a reporter on his abortion views early in his political career – that there will be no changes to the settings under his leadership.

Wrong footed – i.e. Luxon admitted that abortion is murder. Even this commentator is displaying her views for all to see.

I went back and watched the speeches Brown made in Parliament when the legislation was debated. There was no doubting his sincerity and his obvious pain, particularly when it comes to near-term abortions. But it also came through that he was a realist and deeply respectful of the right of other MPs to have opposing views. Brown is not stupid. He has moved on.

No he’s still pro life. He just understands the reality of politics.

This reflexive approach by press gallery journalists in particular drives coalition ministers to exasperation. The default position is often to go for the negative first instead of trying to understand what new policy positions involve.

It’s why Luxon also bypasses them to communicate directly via X (formerly Twitter) and TikTok to ensure he has some direct lines to the public where he can get his messages out untrammelled by journalistic bias.

In my view, it contributes to a loss of trust in media – particularly among those who have an appreciation for the challenges Governments and businesses face in a fast-changing world.

Ouch.

O’Sullivan then went on to call out the media on the Elon Musk nazi salute façade by the media.

She also calls out wokeism, and admits

these political leaders [at WEF Davos conference] are not alone in saying the pendulum has swung too far. New Zealand cannot stay isolated from these debates.

The media appear to have missed the memo on the trust issue.

But even the media’s own are pointing to the memo.

The legacy news media are falling off a cliff.

Is anyone surprised when you see this type of coverage?

I’m not.

Oh just at the weekend they had this article in the NZ herald –

Really really looking forward to the follow-up article,

“How normal parents cope with kids supporting Harris & Biden.”

NZ Herald - Could you let me know when it will appear…