OPINION
My questions for the media and political journalists in particular are as follows:
If your incestuous relationship with the Labour Party was the correct one, in the sense that we the public should have followed all the journalists’ infantile utterances, why wasn’t Labour re-elected?
If your journalists are the so-called ‘fountain of all truth’ why wasn’t Labour re-elected? Are journalists believable these days? If they aren’t, why do you think that is?
Do you even know why the majority of the voters took no notice of your opinions in the lead-up to the election? Have you the slightest idea why you discredited yourselves in the eyes of the voters?
Are you aware you live in a separate universe from most of us, that you are in a bubble of your own making? Are you aware that you have turned what was once an honourable profession into something irrelevant to many?
Do you believe you are employed to make the news to suit your narrative, or to report the facts?
Do you believe during the Prime Minister’s first press conference that you carried out your journalistic duty or did you attend for the sole purpose of ‘throwing your toys out of the cot’? I assure you that’s exactly the impression most people watching had.
Christopher Luxon is to be congratulated for a superb handling of a press conference he had every justification for leaving after five minutes. He displayed the patience of Job having to repeat answers over and over again trying to get the children in the room to understand. There must be a very low bar to get into journalism these days. Remembering to put a left-wing spin on everything seems to be the yardstick. Journalists used to be reputable, objective in their reporting and stuck to the facts.
This brings me to the next question: when are you going to unglue yourselves from the Labour Party and cease spouting left-wing bias on items of irrelevance like how many dairies can sell cigarettes? The people of this country deserve much better than the utter tripe you serve up that we are supposed to swallow. If I were employed as a television autocue reader I would be highly embarrassed. The news should not be about journalists’ opinions; it should be about facts.
Being the slow learners that you are, as you made abundantly clear in Luxon’s press conference, you need to report the news reflecting the fact that there is a new government, a new narrative and new policies. Behaving like a mosquito, trying to draw blood at every opportunity, is not what your job entails.
The thrashing your pals got at the polls, despite your biased and unwavering support, means you are nothing more than a mosquito who creates an itch that refuses to go away.
Your focus now has to be objective reporting on the Luxon, Seymour and Peters era. It will probably be a long one so get used to it. Winston has already proved what a precious bunch of little darlings you are so my advice is to harden up, start asking questions that reflect your position and age, and start serving the public in a way they expect.
We all know what the Public Interest Journalism Fund was. By trying to put a different spin on it you are embarrassing nobody but yourselves. It’s time to exit the circus tent of the last government and start talking about the positive gains the country will make courtesy of the Coalition.
It won’t be easy for you and probably you’ll be somewhat tongue-tied at the start but the majority of the population would at least appreciate you giving it a go. You may not like it but think of it this way: truth is a precious commodity.