Written By: - Date published: 10:19 am, May 16th, 2012 - 36 comments
TVNZ7, in its current form, will stop broadcasting on the 30th of June and will be changed to a plus one channel along the same lines as TV3 Plus One. Now I don’t know about you, but I could live without seeing another repeat of Come Dine with Me.
Written By: - Date published: 2:57 pm, February 17th, 2012 - 1 comment
Peter Radich, BSA Chair, absolutely rejects “any kind of improper influence” over his controversial decision that Radio Live PM’s Hour was not an election programme. I wouldn’t accuse him of improper influence, rather lack of competence as his judgement was completely outside the Authority’s brief.
Written By: - Date published: 3:09 pm, November 1st, 2011 - 45 comments
Public service broadcasting is dying in NZ, and that’s not good enough. Labour’s newly released broadcasting policy promises to preserve it, with the future of the system to be shaped by public debate.
Written By: - Date published: 3:00 pm, October 14th, 2011 - 112 comments
The Broadcasting Standards Authority has decided that Key’s hour-long promotional programme on RadioLive was not an election programme.
It will now be very interesting to see what the Electoral Commission decides in relation to advertising complaints.
Written By: - Date published: 3:30 pm, October 11th, 2011 - 62 comments
Key’s staff spun to media that his Radio Live show was ok if he didn’t discuss politics, saying the station had received advice from the Electoral Commission that “political content’ could breach rules. That didn’t sound right to me, so I asked the Commission what they actually said.
Written By: - Date published: 9:58 am, July 1st, 2011 - 8 comments
No Right Turn on the Nats’ appointing “nakedly partisan hacks to run our major state broadcasters”.
Written By: - Date published: 6:15 am, March 8th, 2011 - 40 comments
TVNZ7, and New Zealand public service television as a whole, looks to be coming to an end in June next year. TVNZ has been told their only responsibility is to return to the government a 9% return on investment per annum; their response is that they see pay-TV as their future. Sky is now “a frenemy”.
Written By: - Date published: 7:20 am, February 28th, 2011 - 54 comments
There’s been lots of good stuff written on the quake, I’m not going to try to add to it in any systematic way. These are just a few random personal reflections from inside the disaster zone, big picture and small, all that I can put my head around writing tonight.
Written By: - Date published: 2:59 pm, November 23rd, 2010 - 40 comments
I’ve never been one for censuring cogent voices from the wilderness when they carry far enough on the wind to reach our ears because the wilderness can hold treasure troves of intelligent dissent. Today I came across a neat illustrative example of a ham fisted attempt to consign a voice from the left to the wilderness in the name of…well, it’s called fairness or some such. Apparently.
Written By: - Date published: 3:30 pm, November 3rd, 2010 - 9 comments
A pot-pourri of a few things that have come up in the media of late, and thoughts on other media matters…
Written By: - Date published: 12:52 am, October 8th, 2010 - 141 comments
Paul Henry’s racism on state funded television has now reached the level of a full fledged diplomatic incident. The New Zealand High Commission in India has issued a press release apologising and stating that Henry’s views do not represent “the New Zealand Government or people”. Fine words, but they need to be followed up with appropriate action. Henry has to go.
Written By: - Date published: 6:30 pm, September 29th, 2010 - 62 comments
After picking up my award for worst ever ‘Standard’ post title, I’d just like to say that there seems to a penchant these days to leave too many things up to higher powers, or perceived authorities. And authorities and those who are ideologically aligned with them or reliant upon them, naturally enough encourage such a giving away of agency. It’s not always deliberate. And it’s certainly not a conspiracy. It’s just the way it is and is borne of habit. This morning afforded a fairly clear example of it.
Written By: - Date published: 11:41 pm, September 17th, 2010 - 17 comments
It’s been a very big week this week, so I thought I’d do a round-up, just so we don’t forget some of the ‘lesser’ lights that may have been big news had we not had so much to go on…
Written By: - Date published: 11:19 am, June 15th, 2010 - 40 comments
News just in that Sean Plunket has resigned from Morning Report. It’s well known that he has had conflicts with his bosses over the years but there’s no information as of yet on why he decided to call it a day. He’ll be missed. His robust style is a rarity in this country and has …
Written By: - Date published: 2:02 pm, May 7th, 2010 - 11 comments
It’s puzzled me for some years how few people bat and eye at the countless portrayals of violent death and brutality we see every night on TV, while anything that portrays acts of physical intimacy are carefully vetted in case they cause anyone offence. This cultural oddity has been highlighted by a recent BSA ruling that …
Written By: - Date published: 12:29 pm, March 5th, 2010 - 5 comments
The campaign to save Radio New Zealand from funding cuts and commercialisation is going well. Well attended rallies have been held in Wellington, Auckland, and Christchurch. The Facebook group, which now has 17,800 members and is close to overtaking the John Key supporters’ group, has attracted a lot of media attention. Now Labour have put their …
Written By: - Date published: 1:08 pm, February 28th, 2010 - 23 comments
One of the best pieces I’ve seen about the idiotic minister of broadcasting Jonathon Coleman wanting to starve or bend National Radio into the level of stupidity that the NACT’s prefer. Rosemary McLeod writing “Quality radio easy target for the barbarians” in the Sunday Star Times this morning.
Written By: - Date published: 11:20 am, February 22nd, 2010 - 21 comments
Over 2,000 people a day are joining the Facebook group to save Radio New Zealand from National’s cuts, which would turn it into another crap commercial outlet. There are a lot of outraged people who voted for a ‘brighter future’ among those 10,000. The backlash is growing.
Written By: - Date published: 12:05 pm, September 29th, 2009 - 5 comments
If you haven’t been able to see it yet or can’t get Triangle/Stratos, here’s a link to recent episodes of Bomber Bradbury’s War on News. It’s entertaining, accurate and educational all at once. Kind of like PBS only a bit more ‘informal’. It’s also pretty funny in parts and Bomber comes across as genuine and …
Written By: - Date published: 11:58 am, May 22nd, 2009 - 8 comments
The Herald reports today that TVNZ fired 90 employees following a letter from Broadcasting Minister Johnathan Coleman demanding that it raise its profitability. This follows similar cuts at the Ministry of Social development, Ministry for the Environment, Tertiary Education Commission. There look likely to be hundreds or thousands of job losses as a result of …
Written By: - Date published: 1:20 pm, March 17th, 2009 - 42 comments
Jonathan Coleman on TVNZ. Parliament, 10 May 2007. Dr Jonathan Coleman When the Minister says that the Government is committed to the core objective of building national identity and will do so through television, does he not realise that New Zealanders do not want to be told by the Government what their identity is, and …
Written By: - Date published: 1:13 pm, November 25th, 2008 - 27 comments
No Right Turn reports that TVNZ has cancelled Agenda, New Zealand’s only in-depth political interview and analysis show: According to Dennis Welch on Radio NZ this morning, TVNZ has cancelled Agenda, New Zealand’s top current affairs show. No word on what, if anything, they plan to replace it with, but it would be interesting to …
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