TVNZ as ‘fair and balanced’ as Fox News
English: 'no influence' over controversial TV ad
Finance Minister Bill English says he had no influence over a promotion for a television show which Labour says could be mistaken for a National Party political broadcast.
Labour MPs asked questions about the TVNZ 7 Focus on the Economy ad in Parliament yesterday.
It features Mr English and has played more than 30 times since October 18.
It is set to continue to run on TV One, TV2, TVNZ 6 and TVNZ 7 until November 21.
Labour leader Phil Goff said people had complained to him about the ad.
"People have rung up and mentioned it to me, concerned that it seemed like a bit of a promo for Bill English being funded out of the television budget."
That was nonsense, Mr English told Radio New Zealand today.
"The TV people put up the script and the idea and I just went through with it," he said.
"We haven't had any influence over it at all."
A spokesman for Mr English had earlier outlined the process to The Dominion Post:
The script, showing Mr English using financial jargon and then a translation in everyday language, had been written by the broadcaster's advertising department. It was checked with Mr English for accuracy.
"They suggested the promo and came up with the scripting," the spokesman for Mr English said.
"We checked it for accuracy and made some minor changes [to the plain English version]."
But the spokesman said that turned out to be "irrelevant" because TVNZ came back with a revised script.
Mr English told RNZ this morning that the programme was getting attention because people were interested in the economy and what was going to happen to their jobs and their mortgages.
Don’t you love it, Bill doesn’t see a problem with getting a 60second free multi-rotated unchallenged pap pep talk on the public broadcaster, but then again Bill didn’t see anything wrong with double dipping his house allowance either did he?
I love his claim people are interested because it’s about the economy, no Bill, people are interested because the public broadcaster is supposed to hold you to critical account, not give you free air time to cheerlead unchallenged party propaganda. This month you were telling us it will take 2 decades to regain the losses of the last year and have told public service workers to expect a wage freeze for a decade, now you are on TVNZ7’s party political broadcast singing for us to accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative.
Why couldn’t TVNZ have put a reporter in there and asked Bill those questions while he was cheerleading?
I’ll make it easy for TVNZ, I’ll even script you the question you could’ve asked while filming so that you could’ve made a promo that showed you fulfilling your public broadcasting critical responsibilities rather than the party political broadcast you’ve made instead….
“But Mr English, only this month you were explaining the scale of the economic great recession, now it’s all happy, happy, joy, joy. Aren’t you simply trying to spin things Mr English?”
See how easy that could’ve been? But it gets worse.
Don’t you love the response to criticism of bias from TVNZ? They’ll have Sir Rodger Douglas on the actual programme with Bill English – THAT’S BALANCE IS IT? That’s supposed to make it okay? The right wing and the really, really, really, really, really, really far right? Having the most right wing economic Milton Friedman love nut on alongside Bill English somehow makes it balanced?
We pay 163 people over $100 000 a year and this and this is what we get for public broadcasting? Are you kidding me? A dozen of their bloody wages would’ve run ALT TV for a year, surely you can put out this intensely biased crap with only 151 people earning over $100 000 each year dammit?
TVNZ just became as fair and balanced as Fox News.
posted by Bomber @ 11:41 am
5 comments
5 Comments:
But if you had it your way TVNZ would be pumping out liberal propaganda which is just as biased and not 'fair and balanced'. What is your point here.
The nut hugging that National is currently receiving from TVNZ in no way different to the preferential coverage that Labour got for almost their entire time in power. In fact it was only in the last 6 or so months of Clarks' tenure, when she was laughably trying to cover up for Winston Peters and TVNZ finally got wind of the fact that NZ was turning against her en masse that they found their nerve and started putting the heat on her.
But now that National is getting some love from TVNZ, all of a sudden its the end of civilisation as we know it?
Give me a break Bomber: This all just goes with the territory of having a state funded TV network, something you have been dead against privatising.
Do you think there would be that many in TVNZ getting $100K+ if it was privately owned?
But if you had it your way TVNZ would be pumping out liberal propaganda which is just as biased and not 'fair and balanced'. What is your point here.
Not at all brave anonymous poster, why lie to knock over my criticisms of this propaganda for National? If my argument is so weak why lie and put words in my mouth brave anonymous poster? Where have I ever said TVNZ as the public broadcaster should just be full of liberal propaganda? Link please where I said that.
The nut hugging that National is currently receiving from TVNZ in no way different to the preferential coverage that Labour got for almost their entire time in power.
I like your style brave anoynous poster, it's National Party research-esk in its ability to nod at the problem while trying to twist it into an attack on Labour. Well played. But it simply isn't true, the Labour Party did not get this kind of nut hugging at all, and even if it did, it isn't right and please link to where I've said it was good?
In fact it was only in the last 6 or so months of Clarks' tenure, when she was laughably trying to cover up for Winston Peters and TVNZ finally got wind of the fact that NZ was turning against her en masse that they found their nerve and started putting the heat on her.
That turn occured in 2005 within the media, you are about 2 years shy of the point you are desperatly trying to make.
But now that National is getting some love from TVNZ, all of a sudden its the end of civilisation as we know it?
Good, you're doing well, turn the argument, ignore the fact the public broadcaster needs to hold the powerful to account, let's get to your point you've been building towards...
Give me a break Bomber: This all just goes with the territory of having a state funded TV network, something you have been dead against privatising.
Oh, good twist, blame me, that was clever, play it all off as just business as usual and why should anyone be surprised.
Do you think there would be that many in TVNZ getting $100K+ if it was privately owned?
Nice twist at the end. It's a great post as an example of denial, but I think the outragous audacity of the party political broadcast as TVNZ7 promo is so obvious that it still shines through all your misdirection. Let's point out again that the Public Broadcaster has a wider resposnibility than suck up to the Government, it must hold them to account, that's it's role in a healthy democracy. If you want to shrug that cronyism off as 'business as usual', go right ahaed, I prefer to hold them to a higher degree of accountability.
As someone who had a close relationship with TVNZ for too long I find the assertion by the nat that TVNZ sucked up to Labour laughable. During the Bolger Shipley years the TVNZ board was staffed exclusively by nat hacks and has beens who thought nothing of issuing minutes in election years telling news and current affairs staff that unemployment and health services problems were 'no go' areas for the duration.
On the other hand in the last term of the Clark regime, a senior TVNZ journalist for TVNZ Clark on an overseas trip where he/she proceeded to get so pissed the entire entourage and their hosts were kept awake all night, an event which Clark felt reflected poorly upon the image of her and all NZers overseas so she lodged a complaint with TVNZ.
The result? TVNZ management said they were not convinced of Clark's objectivity in this matter as the senior journalist in question had been running an aggressive campaign against the Clark government and they believed remonstrating the piss pot in question, could leave them in breach of the charter (you know the one which clearly spelled out TVNZ's community focus and the need to stay objective which the nats scrapped last month to much applause from the herald http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10601035 Of course the herald loves anything which makes TVNZ less palatable to the public natch.)
I cannot for the life of me understand why the labour mob didn't do anything about TVNZ in the last two years of their term when it was running wall to wall Nat party spruiking. Either they had become too lazy and arrogant or so gun shy that they worried demanding objectivity would be seen as political interference.
Still they were the dingbats who gave Ellis the job back after running him out of town the first time around.
Makes you wonder sometimes about whose side some of those self titled 'social democrats' are really on.
Awesome post Bomber!
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