The Decline of Journalism

Tova finished up an interview with David Seymour on Stuff today by remarking that he was quoting Pluto.

"Pluto or Plato?" shot back Seymour. "Plato", said Tova as Seymour reminded her that Pluto used to be a planet and is still a cartoon dog.

Tova thanked Seymour, but it should not be like this.

Tova was the Voyager Political Journalist of the year in 2019, something Thomas Coughlan has never come close to, but this was the standard we are left with in New Zealand these days.

It's a sad day when journalists can't keep up with the difference between Pluto and Plato.

Thomas is playing to an echo chamber over at the NZ Herald - one that voted for National and Act and NZ First - and these are the subscriber base so he's got to tell them what they want to hear or they will reject him.

Today Thomas let it be known he was one of the right wing with an article he titled with words like " Labour MPs gather to lick wounds" - as Labour have a get together.

Further samples of Thomas' right wing view and "feels" - if necessary were :

 "Leader Chris Hipkins is doing his best to keep spirits up." and "Labour feels very much like an Opposition, dogged by silly mistakes that are getting in the way of that discussion on “vision”, and "Both the dictator remark ( by Chippy ) and O’Connor’s rambling response to it show the mantle of poor message discipline".

He means fresh candid answers are bad as opposed to banal scripted lines like Luxon uses from rote memory.

Thomas talks of National surging in polls that go up by 2% and says nothing when they fall by 2% and he's first to say Labour run the risk of being irrelevant and looks the other way past dozens of errors by National - soothing and playing to his audience.

This protection of the subscriber base and attempts to avoid offending the advertisers - means commercial media have abandoned objective journalism for a kind of marketing to clients.

You tell us what you want and we will give it to you.

NewsTalk ZB is an extreme example of how media has increasingly pandered to the revenue stream and we wonder why Neoliberal voices are shoved down listeners throats as the Atlas Network ( representing monied vested interests in Government policy ) plants people at the top and is regularly platformed there.

Hosking equals neoliberalism, Duplicity equals neoliberalism but Kerre Woodham - well she was off supporting the Grand Eftspostle - Brian Tamaki during Covid - but now she is the very definition of a sycophant swimming after Luxon's troop ship.

Lloyd Burr started out here with MediaWorks, went to Europe for three years came back - joined FM radio and it went bust as Tova swore how they Farked us. So Lloyd escaped using one of his nine lives - back to NewsHub now Discovery and - the former ManBun got his own show as a post election reward and it was cheaper than the Project - so it was Lloyd's big break - BUT - NewsHub was smoked by Discovery and Lloyd was left in the lurch again.

Nobody is laughing, it is sad.

Tama Potaka is telling Māori TV to Motuhake up - and pay for themselves - as his government does nothing to help.

National Governments don't want a strong media that holds them to account - so let the chips land where they may - take TVNZ7 - which was beginning to flourish and growing all the time.

I carried a coffin in 2012 - the corpse of Public Service Broadcasting - into a hall - and watched the assembled people speak at its untimely demise. Jacinda stood beside me. Vicki made cups of tea. My kids filmed the event. Brian Edwards lamented the undoing of the promise.

Yes we've been talking about this for a long time - ever since CEO's first presented the "seven years of disruption cycle" as new technology creates a disruptive transformation every seven years ( so they claimed ) - and audiences heard about the way streaming services like Netflix were disrupting Linear TV.

Now it's definitely the case that people are getting their news from a variety of sources - and some like The Platform are attracting politicians hungry for some of that angry audience where Oliver Sean Plunket scowls at the "Woke MainStream Media" like he still has not gotten over being ostracised and banished by his peers ha ha.

These pimples are popping up all over the media landscape and I suppose you might call G News a counter force - just a Facebook timeline really - not significant but growing - and we are seeing proliferation of Podcasts and X going crazy these days.

People are saturated - where once there was only one channel then two...now Vicki's dad watches Al Jazeera and reads this stuff.

Melissa Lee was missing in action when NewsHub was smoked and that's a pattern when she can't cope - as her glib, cold responses revealed the stone hearted neoliberal within.

People want the flexibility of streaming services and the entertainment value - but they also want the substance that is lacking in much of the reporting.

Sure we all know the 42% trust in media thing, the endless losses from media annual reports, the crazy gullible conspiracists and their accusations about Labour buying the media, the misguided hate over Te Tiriti being a consideration at NZ on Air - and how everyone is trying to get clicks and grab eyes and ears with sensationalism.

Remember The Truth and the Sunday News?

Weekly Tabloids.

That's where its all moved to - cheap attention grabbing - and yes you former journalists out there sigh about the old days - cos you know it was better then - way more in depth, higher standards, more independent, less marketing, more investigative - while these young ones seem to think they have it right.

The attempt to tell the public that New Zealand could have a more sustainable model at least for public broadcasting fell into the hands of the Neoliberal machine and commercial media felt threatened - as the new media Entity was shot down.

Melissa Lee was crying about the wasted spending over a thirty year period - cos over thirty years you can make a small annual number seem big - and oh everyone knew best - as Jacinda tried to explain that the BBC has not split radio and TV and the ABC in Australia has not - that we are the weird ones here - so what's the problem?

Self interest and the pandemic foiled the possibility of better public broadcasting for a while and now TVNZ have slashed Fair Go and Sunday and you know the cheap Telly survives.

Now we have a need to hold a Neoliberal Government to account and media are in decline as it buckles and falls and misses it's rivals and cries for the lack of plurality - and we are left to ponder the consequences of all that "can't have better media " noise and successive National led governments and what they have done.

We've reduced televised current affairs and news to the weekends and to magazine culture infotainment on week nights - nobody much tunes in anymore.

The facts, the analysis and the opinion are all a bit thin.

We're short on facts, light and skewed on analysis, and don't talk to me about opinion.

It's all a load of noise - kind of like traffic when crossing a busy intersection and the lights aren't working.

It just zooms right on past and is forgotten about in a matter of moments, as we talk about what we should watch on Netflix, Neon, Apple TV or whatever.

It's enough to make Pluto shake his head at Tova while she reads a comic about Plato.

The Decline of Journalism

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