OPINION
Lyn F
Having been an editor for over a decade, including subediting newspapers, I’m astounded at the state of New Zealand’s current mainstream media. Have reporters forgotten the creed of their craft? Are they not taught what true reporting is now? I’m beginning to think not.
The Media Council says, “Publications should be bound at all times by accuracy, fairness and balance, and should not deliberately mislead or misinform readers by commission or omission. In articles of controversy or disagreement, a fair voice must be given to the opposition view.”
I’ve been looking at the ridiculous jabs so-called journalists have taken at Winston Peters over his state of the nation speech last Sunday. Anna Burns-Francis has a graduate diploma in journalism from AUT; Tova O’Brien has a journalism “qualification” from Massey; and despite Benedict Collins being typically described as a journalist, I can find no record of his qualification. Thankfully, Winston is consistently wiping the floor with them and correcting their misreporting and slant. The media, in turn, are proving him right – that they are biased and not fit to be saved from their demise – every time they open their mouths. They should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves, but it’s clear they are not. I suppose they don’t care: whatever elicits the clicks and views goes, even if those clicks and views are only for us to laugh at their stupidity… Every reaction can be used to assure advertisers that there is a market for their content.
Another of their aims – to control the narrative about their idols – is to make you look here, not there. While busy misrepresenting what Winston said (or didn’t, as is the case) about the Holocaust in his speech, they are not commenting on or giving air to his other points, which include removing the over-the-top emphasis on gender and sexuality in schools and making English an official language of New Zealand. Remember: “should not deliberately mislead or misinform readers by commission or omission”?
In fact, the mainstream media is so terrible at representing accurate, fair and balanced bulletins, that on almost every occasion locating and viewing or reading the original source yourself is highly recommended, because we simply cannot trust anything the mainstream journos tell us anymore. This is a large part of why their viewership has declined. That and their blatant biases.