Reaching the extremes of Scandal

RNZ snags, Stuff scoops, NewsRoom wins, NewsHub wins, NZ Herald celebrates, ...these are the first words Google tells you when you search the Voyager Media Awards and these words all come from articles - where media boast about what awards they just won.

Media covering itself in glory.

Our Newspaper shone with the following awards...

It's a bit like Real Estate Awards - you know hanging in frames in a foyer wall behind a desk. The boasting is an attempt to sell the notion that this commercial operation is legit, we are the best, look at our awards - an award winning team. Trust us to do right by you.

Well - as you know Jack Tame was named Political Journalist of the Year which was okay in my book - but less okay was the Scoop of the Year going to Andrea Vance for "Kiri yelled and screamed at me", from a senior public servant who did not wish to be named.

Vance was only up against two other finalists - Mike White for "I made it up" ( I'm not kidding ha ha ha ) and Victoria Young for a story about Fletcher pipe problems costing a lot.

"And the award goes to.. the ex-Tabloid Journo who fled overseas in 2013 after the depth of her relationship with revenue minister Peter Dunne became public - but look at her now...bang your hands together. " - said the presenter in my mind.

Before you lash out at me for being "nasty to poor Andrea" for calling her "ex-Tabloid" - please note that is how the NBR described her at the time. I'm just catching their lingo like a copy cat.

There was no doubt that the applause from her peers must have felt sweet - and it's in that spirit - with industry validation in her nostrils - that Andrea likely penned her latest article in The Post titled "Coalition of the compromised? Luxon’s MPs needs to look a bit less dodgy"

Just a little, not too much.

In this article Vance stepped through some of the recent issues that create a perception of corruption, cronyism, conflicts of interest etc in Luxon's government ...and noted it "normally" takes two terms for that to show - but here was a whole pile of it in only six months.

As many of you have noted Andrea went on to say :

"Nothing in all this reaches the extremes of scandal that brought down a series of Labour ministers in its last few months of government. And it’s nowhere near as rebarbative as recent entitled, brattish behaviour from a string of Green MPs (swearing, stealing, bullying, intimidation and allegations of migrant abuse)." - Andrea Vance.

Rebarbative means ugly, unattractive and objectionable - as you already knew - which tells us something about Andrea's perceptions - but also something about perception and how it is created.

In order to "reach the extremes of scandal" as Andrea puts it - it takes a team. A team of horrified Press Gallery peers ready to grab that scoop and recreate it as a glaring headline - eg. "Labour are Evil" or "The Greens are our Enemy" and to campaign on that - maybe for a week - maybe for longer.

Maximising reach and frequency - preferably with screaming clickbait headlines - and passing the parcel - say from one opinion to another to another to another - until media are in a scandal frenzy ...is what it takes to "reach the extremes" - or at least the perception of an extreme.

Without labouring the point - I can still recall Thomas the Turd Polisher seated beside Atlas Network Luke Malpass, seated next to Amelia and Jenna and BeenADick - as the press gallery lined the wall - in the public trial of Jan Tinetti - as she faced the withering accusations of Toilet Seat Woodhouse, Gerry "Throw me down the stairs", and Syltherin Brown - in a Privileges Committee hearing that was - lead news on TVNZ 1 News.

Wow - talk about a media feeding frenzy - but when burly Nat MP Tim Van de Molen stood over Labour's Shannon Halbert and there was a privileges committee process over his threatening behaviour - the press were like - forget about it - it's not really news ...a minor trifle, a measly mid news segment, move along nothing to see here.

As you know - footage of JAG waving a report at Matt Doocey had all of Rem-wah-rah clutching their pearls like a green mouse was in the kitchen - the horror, the scandal ...and yes ...NZME gnawed that bone in a sweat for about ten days.

The brickbat was instantly served by Audrey Young - but none to Sir John for going to court, none for David MacLeod $180K out of whack, and none for Steven Joyce, Sir Bill, Murray McCully nor a long line of Mr Plod errors and mistakes covered up and brushed off by Luxon ( the it is all operational spending PM ).

Minor mixups, corrected immediately, next question.

Andrea's big scoop that an unnamed senior public servant felt yelled at two years ago by Kiri - but chose not to complain at the time and left it till closer to the election to run to Andrea behind a cloak of anonymity - which meant partisan animosity might be shielded - and this was surrounded by a media frenzy.

It was like they were on a payroll...in some back alley, keep the cash under your bed and do not spend it on flashy things.

Thomas the Turd Polisher turned his Tory head over in China and this - tabloid muck raking smear by Vance - was suddenly the only news in New Zealand for about two weeks as media set about the Minister hunt.

Bring her down, bring her down, scalp her...get an award for impact. It takes a team, working together to change the government.

It was not long before people smelt something fishy about all these old stories from years ago suddenly being served out in serial fashion - drip fed until it was time for the next one, then the next then the next - four months before an election as media carefully watched the polls and Thomas the Turd Polisher mentioned Talbot Mills in those days when it suited.

Surely with all this effort National could be promoted with a free pass into power?

Suffice to say - I noticed that the NZ Herald were posting mug shots of Labour Ministers like they were a row of criminals - the gang of four etc - and other media amplified that - as the message had to get through, rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat stroke, stroke, stroke......and suddenly the polls - told us Labour had lost a few % support. Hooray for media !!!!

Never mind the mental health issues - Andrea said we should not wrap MPs in cotton wool - well not female lefty ones anyway.

The perception of extreme scandal Andrea mentioned had been reached but it had taken a whole team.

This morning a tumbleweed blows through empty political pages as nothing can be seen about David MacLeod, Todd Stephenson, Sir John, Sir Bill and his 80 transitional housing places in his wallet, - cos well - look it's only very minor, move along, this is National and they got millions in donations - some of it went to media...you get me.

Andrea had been rewarded with her award - narrowly beating "I made it up" to steal glory as journalists learned that all they needed was a curtain, and someboy prepared to say things behind it.

The politics of scandal was a team sport - and headlines meant revenue. A behaviour that wins awards.

So it was in this context that the ordinary worker, renter, solo mum, first home buyer, beneficiary or recently sacked public servant read Andrea's minimising article - urging Luxon to be a bit less dodgy...cos well it's only been six months.

I thought about how Kirean's speech about Kāinga Ora and the lop sided way the Government sold us Sir Bill's story - did not merit a headline...and passed media by like it was just not news.

"Nothing in all this reaches the extremes of scandal that brought down a series of Labour ministers in its last few months of government." - said Andrea with that award on the shelf.

I still think there are good journalists who want to hold government to account out there - who are not about awards - and do not need a curtain or a peer frenzy - to just report the truth and call it like it really is.

Reaching the extremes of Scandal

Morena

G