The NZ Herald and NZME now stand accused of actually doing what they falsely accused me of doing…taking cash from the Government for content and not declaring it:
The Government’s housing developer Kainga Ora has been paying $25,000 a month to sponsor media stories on NZME’s OneRoof real estate website.
But the stories from the KiwiBuild and public house developer did not carry a disclaimer making clear who was paying for them.
A disclaimer was added by NZME after Stuff approached the company for comment.
National’s housing spokeswoman Nicola Willis uncovered the content deal with a written question to Housing Minister Megan Woods.
“It’s a secret jack-up between the Government’s housing arm and a media provider to make what are ads look like genuine news stories,” Willis said.
Stuff
Megan Woods’s office is unofficially described as a “high dependency unit” by wags in the Beehive. Grant Robertson’s elite team of functionaries who are focusing on the delivery of policy are almost entirely deployed on fixing Megan Woods’s screw-ups.
Just last weekend they were frantically trying to come up with a cover story for some rather pointed questions that Nicola Willis has been asking about particular land deals that have gone off the rails.
Word has it that the Prime Minister is very concerned about what is happening in the “high dependency unit”. Reports of tantrums, verbal abuse and door slamming are becoming increasingly common. The view from the plus-sized minister’s chair of Megan Woods’s office is not looking that rosy at the moment.
But back to the shameless hypocrisy of the NZ Herald and NZME. This issue just makes you wonder who else they are shilling for in an undeclared fashion? Are other Government departments getting the Herald to shill for them also?
NZME might like to advertise themselves with illiterate ads lacking question marks, but now we know what is really for sale and what it is really worth. They sure sold out their credibility cheaply.
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