The most offensive part of the NZ on off Air poverty doco stoush

Beyond the farce that is having John Key's electorate chairman appointed to NZ on off Air and complaining about the poverty doco,

(beyond the farce that is having John Key's electorate chairman appointed to NZ on off Air in the first place);

beyond how North Korean their solution to censor political docos that might embarrass the Government;

beyond the dire state of public broadcasting that never brings serious social issues into the forefront, NZ on off Air's bewilderingly sycophantic self censorship galls most by what they chose and what the media now chooses to be offended over. Note it isn't the abomination of wide spread poverty and the social impacts of that poverty that has offended the sensibilities of the chirping pundits and culture managers at NZ on off Air, it is the supposed embarrassment the poverty doco has caused their political masters that most concerns.

NZ on off Air's only concern should be that the doco was journalistically correct, not whether it would embarrass the Government. A critical media asks questions and provokes debates over issues we should all feel embarrassed over, and the staggering impact of preventable poverty is a subject that as a society we should all feel intensely ashamed of.

It is an obscenity to the egalitarian dream of our country that 200 000 NZ children live in poverty while 150 of the richest families increased their wealth in one year alone by $7billion. Research released yesterday highlights the negative effects of childhood income on later educational and career achievement, yet we live in a media landscape that does all it can to minimize the real level of poverty so as not to depress consumers.

NZ on off Air's desire to censor political docos at the behest of the Prime Minister's electorate chairman so as not to embarrass the Government is a story but it avoids the devastating reality of what the doco actually revealed and by focusing on when it was revealed as opposed to what was revealed, we have managed to create public broadcasting that breeds denial.

How convenient for all concerned, why not have a full blown regression and follow this up by ignoring youth suicide, domestic violence and the true social cost of our alcoholism while we are at it?

We don't want a media to ask hard questions because we don't want to hear the hard talk-back- radio-lazy-stereotype-shattering answers.

Let's all watch MasterChef food porn instead of being confronted by hunger and poverty.

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