The Queen of Misinformation

Scams are a regular occurrence in NZ media, obviously not absolutely everyone, but mainstream media can no longer be regarded as newsworthy simply because they don’t bother fact checking.

Media assume we believe their lies: that global warming is to blame for worldwide extreme floods and fires; that Donald Trump should not be president because he cheated to get there and is incompetent; and that the very tricky COVID virus will indiscriminately kill everyone who doesn’t stay home. Sensationalism dominates the headlines, making media a cheap and nasty parody of their once upon a time news reliability.

Our queen of misinformation is Jacinda Ardern by virtue of her self appointment to the COVID election stage. Her adoring media use sleight of hand to present notable failures as successes that justify public approval. Their trickery fools some people some of the time but themselves consistently.

This Saturday we will find out just how many brain-dead zombies walk among us after being bitten by the brain-dead zombie media and contracting the poison of misinformation.

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It is small comfort to know that if the worst happens, and we fall into the looming financial abyss, it is entirely our own fault. The wounds will have been self inflicted.

But back to the subject at hand: media lies and distortion ramped up to ensure a Labour win.

This week Judith Collins suggested a wealth tax is the likely outcome of a Labour-Greens coalition, but the queen of misinformation wasn’t having herself boxed into that corner, no sirree, she did not like that one little bit.

Ardern’s response was to accuse Collins of “misinformation” which is the very characteristic Ardern successfully employs, with media support of course. It is classic pot Ardern calling the kettle black by accusing Collins of the misinformation she is most guilty of. Here’s how it played out when Collins’s factual view met Ardern’s waffle:

Collins: “James Shaw flatly said that he would expect to have a conversation with Labour about a wealth tax. James Shaw was able to strong arm Labour into backing a private school in Taranaki, he has a proven ability to get Labour to the table.”Ardern on Sunday described Collins’ speculation as “the last roll of the misinformation dice.”

James Shaw says the Greens never took a wealth tax off the table and Marama Davidson says the wealth tax is non-negotiable meaning the Greens are unlikely to budge as they hold the upper hand if Labour comes crawling to them for a coalition.

This unpalatable truth won’t endear voters after they already said no to a capital gains tax. But rather than scaring the horses, Ardern lies and the media let it go.

Ardern is a theatrical trickster with the gift of the gab. This week she brazenly resurrected her 2017 reason for entering politics which was supposedly to put an end to child poverty. During the Mike Hosking interview she bald-faced lied, claiming to have “halved child poverty”.

Insanity, you might think, but Ardern got away with this and other extravagant claims in that interview. Hosking was elsewhere that morning, possibly because her incessant lying has worn him down. His most common retort to her constant misinformation of “you’re making this up!” was noticeably absent.

Ardern has not addressed child poverty, her claim is not true, it’s not even close. In 2017 UNICEF ranked NZ 34th out of 41 countries in child poverty and under the media queen’s careless ministrations she dropped us down another place in 2020 to 35th.

The PM and her cronies at Newshub, TV1 and Stuff could give Collins a masterclass in misinformation. All of them stepped on the gas leading into the home straight with their shameless attacks on Judith Collins and the National Party.

Karl du Fresne, who is not a National supporter, called out the media this week for their vitriolic bias. Here’s his criticism of Newshub’s political bias:

“… this story meshed neatly with an ongoing Newshub narrative portraying National as a party in disarray – a “death spiral”, in O’Brien’s words – and not fit to govern. A write-off, in other words, and not worth wasting a vote on.

“The cracks are getting wider and the wisecracks nastier,” opined Lynch – except that the wisecracks she was referring to appeared to relate not to the election campaign or Collins, but to totally unrelated grudges dating from the National leadership takeover by Todd Muller five months ago.

There was also a sneering reference to “fawning MPs” clustering around Collins on the campaign trail. But fawning MPs are a staple on the political circuit, and certainly not confined to National.

Why should Collins be singled out for derision when it’s long been a bizarre convention that when party leaders appear on camera, they must be surrounded by sycophantic MPs and ministers furiously nodding in agreement at whatever the boss is saying? Because it fits the Newshub narrative, that’s why.”

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TV1 did their bit last week in siding with the treacherous Denise Lee by airing her complaint that Collins has “incredibly poor form” along with another foolish National MP (thought to be Mark Mitchell) bleating erroneously that Collins was “making up policy on the hoof”.

TV1 rushed the lies into service without fact-checking. Do they actually fact check anything anymore? Why didn’t they give Collins the courtesy of a right of reply before releasing the scurrilous and damaging lies that immediately dipped the Nat’s polling?

Cam Slater revealed that Lee’s claim of being blindsided by Collins’s announcement was her own fault when she didn’t bother attending the caucus meeting where the Auckland City Council policy was outlined.

“…on the morning the announcement was made she [Lee] failed to attend a caucus conference call which outlined what the policy was.”

Pravda One, FakeHub, Stuffed and the PM repeatedly churn out lies and misinformation that keep Ardern riding high on an artificial wave of media frenzy. Inevitably the truth will come out to counter their lies but it may be too late for a Collins win in 2020.

The media disdain Joe Public by constantly pulling the wool over their eyes, infecting them with misinformation poison and producing brain dead zombies who are incapable of separating the truth from the lies.

Stupid is as stupid does and this weekend we will discover how effective our media have been in contaminating the voting public with their poisonous, treacherous lies.

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