The Liberal Media

Editorial: Labour needs to look past Ratana pact
The Ratana Church has made its expectations of the Labour Party very clear. It wants four Ratana candidates for winnable seats on Labour's list at the next election. It is a demand the party cannot meet. If it was quietly disposed to do such a deal before, it cannot do it now. The very public demand, issued as a challenge at Ratana Pa on Sunday, will compromise any new Maori candidates Labour might put high on its list next year.

The right wing love the relationship with the Maori Party, it's always nice to feel you are perceived as much less racist than you really are. The Maori Party provide camouflage for the right wing and their recent Stockholm syndrome over the Emissions Trading Scam should be a kick in the arse over their complacency to date.

But this fascinating attempt by the Granny Herald to portray the reception Labour was given at the Ratana Church using their own biased perceptions to back up a one sided editorial is an incredible exercise in spin.

The Standard pick this up today...

It was clear that the Herald had decided how Ratana would play this year: everyone loves Key, Goff gets the cold shoulder. It didn’t matter what actually happened, that was going to be the Herald’s narrative:

Ratana pats Key on the back
Labour gets icy reception at Ratana

You would think those headlines had been written before the event. They have no relationship what actually happened according to every other media outlet:

RNZ: Labour leaves Ratana feeling secure in support [2]
TVOne: Labour recieve warm welcome at Ratana
Tv3: Goff: reception at Ratana warm, relationship healthy [2]
Dompost: Goff scoffs at claim of losing church

Interesting isn't it, other media organizations walked away with a very different impression than the Granny Herald.

National need conservative media to cement their marriage of inconvenience with the Maori Party so that it stops looking so obviously out of sync. Maori voters overwhelmingly handed their Party vote to Labour NOT National and the Maori Party's decision to vote for tax cuts for the rich, their appalling Emission Trading Scam and being face slapped by Rodney over Maori representation on the Super City can't be pleasing to many within Maoridom who are facing steeper unemployment rates and social infrastructure degradation.