Wednesday, November 4, 2020

A striking change of editorial tone

Is Newshub protecting the government? It seems a reasonable question to ask after last night’s 6pm News.

Once again Newshub found itself with an exclusive, agenda-setting story from its investigative reporter Michael Morrah, who has been ahead of the pack throughout the Covid-19 crisis. Morrah interviewed leading epidemiologist Professor David Skeggs, who was scathing – albeit in a politely restrained way – about repeated failures to intercept infected persons at the border.

This followed the announcement that a worker at the Sudima Hotel in Christchurch, where Russian and Ukrainian fishing boat crews are quarantined, had tested positive for the virus. This in turn led to concerns about a nearby Countdown supermarket, which the infected hotel worker had visited, and a close contact of the infected person who attended Cashmere High School.

Skeggs told Morrah that repeated failures at the border (there have been six in three months, starting with the Americold scare in August) posed the risk that New Zealand might have to go back into lockdown. He was particularly critical of people sharing rooms in quarantine hotels, which he said contravened basic isolation principles. "How many wake-up calls do we need?" Skeggs asked. "Soon our luck will run out."

Skeggs largely echoed what one of his University of Otago colleagues, public health expert Professor Nick Wilson, had told Morning Report yesterday morning. Wilson said the pattern of border failures showed the system wasn’t working properly. He urged a whole-of-system review and specifically called for pre-flight testing (why not, for heaven’s sake?) and a ban on people arriving in New Zealand from countries where the pandemic is out of control.

All this was decidedly at odds with soothing assurances from the prime minister and Ashley Bloomfield that the system is working exactly as intended, yet it was these bland assurances that led the 6pm bulletin on Three. In striking contrast with Newshub’s usual approach of leading the bulletin with its most arresting item, typically dressed up in florid, alarmist rhetoric, it served up Jacinda Ardern and Bloomfield saying officials were on top of things (“No horse has bolted,” in Bloomfield’s words) and nothing was happening that hadn’t been anticipated.

Morrah’s item squarely contradicting this anodyne message was deemed of less significance and ran second in the bulletin. Okay, it still ran; but its placement struck me as inconsistent with the aggressive, go-for-the-jugular ethos that Newshub normally favours, and which it used mercilessly to derail Judith Collins and the National Party during the election campaign.

Now that the election is over and National has crawled off to a cave to lick its wounds (job done, Newshub), I would have expected normal service to resume. That would mean fiercely and rigorously holding the government to account.  But someone at Newshub apparently made the decision last night that soft and reassuring trumps edgy and alarming, and I can’t help wondering about the sudden change of editorial tone. Just saying.

8 comments:

Doug Longmire said...

The Left wing media is simply being consistent in it's manipulative approach to news:-
Bad news for the government tends to be muted, placed second or third, and often followed directly by a heart touching goods news item.
Bad news for the opposition is HUGE DRAMA !!! Often called "crisis". Usually accompanied by shots of the opposition leader being caught by the camera in a frown, or a silly expression.

George Orwell portrayed it in 1984. It is now standard Neo-Marxist procedure.

Hilary Taylor said...

Unsurprised Karl..our house stopped watching the tv news before the election, such was the danger to the BP...have yet to re-commence and have discovered Drew the salvage hunter instead, or just more Concert or one's own music. THey speak of 'trust'in the news media these days and I'm blowed if I 'trust' any of them. Give me the days of yore...Bill, Joe, Dougal, Marama, Phillip..even the 'mother of the nation'. And, these days, by the time it rolls around there's not much you don't already know. Will I become a 'low-information' voter by the next election?!

MarkJ said...

I no longer watch the television news - and strongly advise most of my friends to follow suit. The only way to impact their content is to impact their respective revenue streams. When the 50 Million runs out they might have to lift their game to keep their viewers. This is an issue with the liberal media at large - I expect that eventually we will divide into our respective "media camps" as a nation - until the MSM once again starts producing a balanced view we ALL can stomach at 6pm.

oneblokesview said...

and they complain that they loose viewership/readership and need financial support.
Is the there anybody at Newshub that actually does strategic think!??
What we need in NZ is a ""right wing"" news service not yet another pathetic me too media outlet.

hughvane said...

Well spoke MarkJ! I have tried, and failed, to persuade my anxious siblings and friends that they should simply cease watching the masquerade of 'respected' journalism from almost any direction.

I have said it before, but it bears repeating - for Stuff to beg money from me/us as a subscription is grossly insulting. I would not cross the road to ... (cone of silence lowered) ... in support what it peddles.

I cannot realistically comment on television news, nor in recent years, radio, as I have not watched/listened to it for several years, but I can imagine its cut & thrust, and it nauseates me.

Odysseus said...

Like others our household has ceased to watch TV "news", it is grossly biased and an insult to the intelligence. Buying the media was a smart move on Ardern's part, although most of the reporters and editors seem to be pathetically Woke in any case. I'm afraid the noose is tightening on free thought and free speech in this country Karl. It is becoming an increasingly unpleasant place to live.

As for the wretched coronavirus, of course pre-flight testing makes a lot of sense. It might not weed out every infected person but it would surely reduce the risk. However the idea was of course proposed by National so it is likely to be ignored by the incompetent circus now "running" the country.

Brendan McNeill said...

What the political left, including those who occupy senior roles in our news rooms fail to understand, is how deeply alienating and offensive it is for at least half of the population to be lectured and treated condescendingly by them. There is an apparent inability to view events, public policy, or political pronouncements from any standpoint other than their own.

Unsurprisingly we have long since evicted them from our living rooms.

What they also fail to realise is that by closing down alternative viewpoints, they are helping to create and foster the very polarisation in society that they loudly lament. One of the few on the American political left, Jesse Singal, who fully understands this phenomena just recently tweeted ironically: "WHY WON'T THESE GARBAGE HUMANS WHO I F*****G DESPISE VOTE FOR MY PREFERRED CANDIDATE AND POLICIES???"

Why indeed.




Richard said...

Could hardly believe Seven Sharp's piece on the swearing in last night. Barry joining the Govt bus at 'Jacinda's' request to fluff about how wonderful they all were.
Dear God, what have we become.