Jacinda Ardern’s fingernails must be carbon fibre enhanced as she digs them into the myth of an unbiased MSM. To the contrary, on a daily basis we receive news and opinion that is consistently unfair and unbalanced.
Anyone following American politics will recognise that Trump news is predominantly liberal left-wing anti-Trump sentiment regurgitated because US media lean left. This was researched and discussed at length back in 2017.
“The characterization of mainstream media newsrooms as left-leaning hives indeed has documentary backing. Some of the research is narrow and entertaining: In 1990, for example, Washington City Paper — then under the leadership of current Politico media critic Jack Shafer — found that Tony Kornheiser, then a sports columnist for The Washington Post, was the only registered Republican among a sampling of 49 top editors, reporters and columnists at the newspaper.”
Washington Post
Our own media is the same. In 2017 Liam Hehir wrote, “52% of the [NZ] population voted for a centre-right party, yet only 16% of journalists consider themselves centre-right.”
Putting aside the whys and the wherefores nothing much has changed since then. In fact, it’s probably got worse. The NZ MSM adores Jacinda Ardern as do the Aussies who wanted to steal her when she holidayed there over the Christmas break.
“’Don’t let her leave, we’ve got a job for her’: Australians beg Jacinda Ardern to stay to lead the country as she’s pictured dining at one of New South Wales’ top restaurants.”
Daily Mail
It is really ridiculous that Australian MSM gives Ardern a huge tick of approval when she is found wanting on just about everything she promised. But this is an example of the huge disdain MSM affords the democratic process. They have a loud voice, they know best, they frequently tell us so and that is the end of it.
Ardern also treats the voting public with disdain but exposed a chink in her armour this week when she admitted that she sees no place in the NZ landscape for websites such as The BFD. She doesn’t want light shone on media omissions, inaccuracies and bias regarding her government. She doesn’t want her promises and actions analysed and discussed. She doesn’t want us talking about the CoL’s appalling track record to date and she certainly doesn’t want us holding her to account in her “year of delivery”.
But if the media won’t do it The BFD is only too happy to oblige. If it weren’t for the majority of MSM sucking up to Ardern there would be no place for us here at The BFD at all. We only exist to fill the gap in the public’s demand for more factual, balanced reporting and a platform for honest, open discussion.
A constant theme with Ardern is the cheap promises that roll so easily off her lips. Ardern talks a lot, which is both a strength and a weakness. She indulges in a little sleight of hand when she reminds her audience to hold her to account. Most recently when speaking to Maori at Waitangi and back in 2018 when she promised to reduce child poverty. Asking her audience to hold her to account sounds open and transparent, but saying that she expects us to hold her to account is quite a different beast from actually being held to account, which her fawning media are loath to do. How are those appalling child poverty statistics looking after 2+ years’ attention to the problem?
Ardern’s talk is cheap because unfulfilled promises are words with no substance. The only acceptable scrutiny is from media who share her “Government knows best” philosophy. They are very forgiving. We are not, which is why she sees no place for The BFD. In Jacinda Ardern’s mind, she can push her socialist policies all she likes, but in our minds, another election looms and we are still a democracy.
Here at The BFD, unlike the MSM, we are free to declare our political allegiance if we choose to. MSM simply ignores the issue of political allegiance and puts up a pretence of non-bias. No one is fooled.
I can understand MSM not declaring personal political viewpoints if they only presented news from the middle ground. But they don’t do this. Consistently we get biased reporting. It doesn’t actually make sense to support one party and stick with it come hell or high water. Politics is a very fluid beast. Players change, policies change and the freedom to roll with the changes is far more sensible than always voting one way because that’s what you must do. My parents did that, mum from farming stock generally voted National and Dad generally voted Labour because he admired the social policies of the Labour Party that put food on tables after the hardships of WWII. I am comfortable swapping allegiance from one party to another.
Jacinda Ardern and the MSM very kindly gave The BFD oxygen this week. Thank you! The mentions are most appreciated although one description of us as an “extreme right-wing” blog was certainly derogatory and well off the mark after NZ media inaccurately described the Christchurch Mosque Murderer’s manifesto as “extreme right-wing”. Ardern decreed that we cannot examine Tarrant’s manifesto in NZ but according to USA Today Tarrant calls himself neither left nor right, saying “When I was young I was a communist, then an anarchist and finally a libertarian before coming to be an ecofascist.” Does that sound like a right-wing extremist to you? A more apt description would be a psychologically damaged violent extremist or nutjob.
Pundits gasping for balance, even a small sniff of right-wing ideology, most definitely like The BFD, but this does not mean contributors must always take a right-wing stance or if we do that we must maintain it. This is in stark contrast to MSM who scuttle about pretending to be unbiased. Some actually lack the guts to nail their flag to the mast, despite it being very clear where their allegiance lies. They, like my parents, may never waver but until they wake up and sort themselves out there will always be room for The BFD. Yippee!
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