OPINION
On Waitangi Day it was the NZ Herald gaslighting us that they are honest, impartial and independent when they are as far removed from all of those as possible. Yesterday it was Newsroom’s turn to gaslight us, this time about disinformation.
Newsroom are quite correct, except they aren’t talking about media lies, they are talking about politicians’ lies. Just like the NZ Herald, they seem to lack self-awareness that they are part of the problem, .
Politicians and journalists have always had a combative relationship … but blaming the media for everything now seems to be a national pastime.
The rise, rise and rise of social media; a Deputy Prime Minister who’s virtually declared war on journalists; and the failure of government MPs to call out lies – it’s all helping to further deteriorate the levels of trust in the Fourth Estate.
Last year the AUT research centre for Journalism, Media and Democracy published its fourth Trust in News report, recording a downward trend that was already evident in 2020. General trust in news in 2023 declined from 45 percent the year before, to 42 percent. About 69 percent of us avoid news often, sometimes or occasionally.
Today on The Detail we’re calling in a couple of media experts – our executive producer and Newsroom’s media journalist Mark Jennings, who talks to Victoria University communications lecturer Peter Thompson.
They look at the effects of the deteriorating lack of faith in main stream media, including the effects on government policy.
Newsroom
The Deputy Prime Minister has declared war on you because you suck, you lie and you twist facts to suit your agenda. Trust in media deteriorated because you took the filthy corrupting lucre of the Public Interest Journalism Fund, proceeded to gaslight us all that it did not affect your editorial stance (even though it changed demonstrably), and also participated, with glee, in the demonisation and othering of people by the former Ardern/Hipkins regime.
We don’t trust you because you don’t deserve to be trusted. Trust is earned and you destroyed that trust all by yourselves. Cry harder – you did it to yourselves.
Mark Jennings said:
“In my 22 years as head of TV3 news and seven years as co-editor of Newsroom I’ve seen the public trust in the media decline to a point where it is impacting our democracy,” says Jennings.
Newsroom
And you never wondered why? Really? You just sat there with your head up your arse thinking that aroma wasn’t your own shit? No, it couldn’t be, it’s everyone else’s fault.
See, right there, is why trust in media has fallen, they won’t take ownership of their own failings.
Victoria University communications lecturer Peter Thompson said:
“I think there’s always been a degree of scepticism of media of all varieties,” he says.
“What we’re seeing now is a deep-seated cynicism towards any kind of media, and particularly so-called mainstream media, and I think that’s been exacerbated by the huge quantities of disinformation, or at least dubious information, that circulates through social media.”
Jennings says mainstream media plays a really important role in democracy, “yet we see some of the most important figures in democracy – politicians – attacking the media”.
Thompson describes that as corrosive.
“I think it’s quite problematic that politicians often try to score points on issues related to media by attacking the opposition’s policy – often they’re cheap shots and not well thought out.”
Newsroom
Some of the biggest recent scandals involving disinformation have come from the media. The Russia Dossier and collusion story was pushed hard by media working in conjunction with their pals in the Democrats. Media companies refused to cover the Hunter Biden laptop story and worked in conjunction with Big Tech and the military/industrial complex, including the FBI, the CIA and other intelligence agencies, to silence and censor that story.
Then of course there was media collusion during the pandemic, precisely the time when credulous media should have stood up to the lies being told by people in positions of power and trust. Instead, they labelled anyone who even remotely deviated from the agreed lock step and concrete thinking as conspiracy theorists.
Yeah…it’s all the fault of social media! The same social media you are trying desperately to make money off and spread your own disinformation on? Yeah, those guys.
Wake up! The problem is YOU!
The most egregious example recently has been Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters’ claims that journalists are corrupt, and that Labour’s $55 million pot of money to prop up struggling journalism, the Public Interest Journalism Fund, was a bribe*.
Newsroom
That wasn’t a lie; it was and is still true. You took the money, you changed your editorial stance, you screwed the scrum in your favour. Winston Peters was spot on, and yet you squeal that it’s all his fault.
No, the problem is YOU!
Here’s a radical thought, how about working at earning that trust back instead of continuing to act like lefty shills running propaganda? How about fixing what is wrong with your corrupt industry instead of whining about how it is everyone else’s fault?
Then I think you’d find your readers wouldn’t abandon your corrupted, stinking, moribund edifice.
And to cap off this article…what was at the bottom of the Newsroom article? …that’s right, proof they are still troughing hard out… and you wonder why we don’t trust you?
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