Newshub Closes

Written By: - Date published: 8:01 am, February 29th, 2024 - 80 comments
Categories: Media, winston peters - Tags:

One can hate the mainstream media but OMG you sure will miss it when it’s gone.

Up to 300 jobs are expected to be lost as one of our biggest commercial media company’s newsrooms – Newshub – is set to close at the end of June.

Dozens of high-profile presenters and journalists such as 6pm news hosts Mike McRoberts and Samantha Hayes and new 7pm show frontman Ryan Bridge are among the hundreds about to lose their jobs.

Up to 350 people work at Warner Bros. Discovery in New Zealand with about 200 understood to be devoted to news, in editorial, commercial and backroom roles. A slimmed-down company might see only 50 staff remain, one source has suggested.”

No better evidence that politicians live and breathe mainstream media like a snorkel sustains a pearl diver than Winston Peters being deeply unhappy about it.From Radio New Zealand:

Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters framed the situation as a disaster for the staff and New Zealand.”A critical part of any democracy and free society is the fourth estate, an independent fourth estate, and I’m concerned about where we’re going now,” he said.”Frankly for those 300 or so staff and their spouses and their families, this is an absolute disaster. But it’s also a disaster for this country’s democracy.”He would not make any commitments about possible policy changes for the media industry.”

Far more of the public capacity to hold our political order to account, or to simply promulgate and explain policy, will fall on the shoulders of non-edited news like X, Facebook, and Snapchat.

It is also a reflection on our low-wealth economy that Warner Brothers saw that New Zealand did not have the advertising depth to support it. 

80 comments on “Newshub Closes ”

  • Comments are now closed

  1. tsmithfield 1
    29 February 2024 at 8:58 am

    The problem with TV news is that they only report the news they want us to hear, and ignore all sorts of important events happening in the world that are worthy of reporting.

    For example, a Filipino student we are hosting asked me if I had heard of the Maguindanao massacre. 52 people were murdered including 32 Journalists who had been murdered for what was thought to be political motives.

    I would have thought that our news would have covered this event, especially since a number of their colleagues had been killed. But I don't remember hearing a peep about it on the news.

  2. Sabine 2
    29 February 2024 at 9:26 am

    How many no longer watch MSM at all and get their news online. Al Jazeera, CNN, Deutsche Welle, French TV , English Chinese News etc all are available at the tip of a finger.

    Too much advertising, too much personanlities, too much outrage porn, not enough facts and news.

    It does amuse me though to think that this particular group of people really thought that the down turn in spending would not affect ad revenue, that people tuning out in masses would not affect revenue, and that the economic crisis in which we actually find us would leave them unscathed and in high wage pages.

    So i wish them as much luck as people wished to those businesses that closed shop without fanfare and bailouts when the lock down hit, as much as luck as the people that were told by Sirs and Dames in suits to 'pivot' to 're-invent' 'and to just take it on the chin for everyone" or who were told to 'negotiate wit their landlords and banks' if they were shit out of luck as 480 $ 'wage subsidy' before tax were not gonna pay rents, foods and commercial expenses.

    I hope they have prepared themselves, saved some money and can weather the storm.

    And personally i think we have not seen the worst of layoffs any time soon, cause the country and its people are broke as fuck, and so is the rest of the world.

    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-02-22/new-zealand-retail-sales-drop-for-eighth-straight-quarter

    Sales volumes fell 1.9% in the fourth quarter of last year from the third, Statistics New Zealand said Friday in Wellington. Core sales, which exclude fuel outlets and car yards, dropped 1.7%

    https://www.brookings.edu/articles/5-risks-global-economy-2024/#:~:text=The%20World%20Bank's%20latest%20%E2%80%9CGlobal,comfort%20for%20nearly%20everyone%20else.

    The World Bank’s latest “Global Economic Prospects” report predicts that global growth will slow to 2.4% in 2024 before edging up to 2.7% in 2025 (Figure 1.A). That might be a reason to cheer—if avoiding another global recession is all you care about. It could be cold comfort for nearly everyone else. Our forecasts imply that global growth remains far short of the strength needed to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by the end of this decade. In fact, the first half of the 2020s is already proving to be the weakest half-decade of growth the global economy has registered in at least 30 years (Figure 1.B)

    It is going to be a tough few years, maybe another Great Depression even.

    • tsmithfield 2.1
      29 February 2024 at 9:32 am

      I agree. And I don't know why on earth we are funding TVNZ either. It is all agenda driven biased coverage that ignores important news events and feeds us what they want us to hear.

      And their entertainment content has degenerated to an endless stream of reality TV brain-killing garbage.

      • Sabine 2.1.1
        29 February 2024 at 9:50 am

        Entertainment and news for the lowest common denominator.

        I agree and that is why people don't watch and tune in/

      • Anne 2.1.2
        29 February 2024 at 10:07 am

        I don't know why on earth we are funding TVNZ either. It is all agenda driven biased coverage that ignores important news events and feeds us what they want us to hear.

        You've got it the wrong way round. They feed the masses what the masses say they want to see and hear – endless cooking soaps and boring house hunting/building docudramas with an occasional murder mystery tossed in between.

        As for news coverage. A bit too once over lightly for me but bear in mind that is all the average viewer is able/willing to assimilate.

        In other words their coverage is based on viewers expectations which does not meet the standard some of us would like to see, but at least with government backing it is less likely to turn into a TV version of ZB radio.

        • Anne 2.1.2.1
          29 February 2024 at 10:14 am

          And right on cue:

          Our modern day spiv, Seymour fires his first salvo at TVNZ:

          Associate Finance Minister David Seymour said while the Government would not buy out Newshub, he had requested advice on whether government-owned TVNZ should start returning a dividend, to help level the playing field.

          “I think there’s a question mark around whether the government’s ownership of one TV channel and the poor returns it has demanded as a shareholder has actually contributed to an uncompetitive market.”

          https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/government-help-unlikely-in-wake-of-newshub-closure-announcement/SIWTORUMT5GQJNLQ6SMEGKPKXY/

          • Muttonbird 2.1.2.1.1
            29 February 2024 at 11:30 am

            Why should TVNZ be made to return a dividend? Its remit includes public broadcasting.

            Why shouldn't private operators not demand a dividend to help "level the playing field"?

        • Sabine 2.1.2.2
          29 February 2024 at 10:15 am

          I don't mind 'funding'. We need a tv station that brings news.

          What i mind is partisan funding. And cancellation on the grounds of 'feelz' and 'violent words'.

          I would like to see something from the past brought back at the end of hte news,

          the segment were smart persons from the left and the right gave their thoughts on the happenings of the world, the day etc.

          But i guess that would have some throw a major tantrum.

          • Anne 2.1.2.2.1
            29 February 2024 at 10:31 am

            It used to be like that Sabine. I remember the current affairs programmes from the 70s, 80s and 90s where well informed individuals from both sides of the spectrum used to slug it out. And they managed to do so without fisticuffs too.

            • alwyn 2.1.2.2.1.1
              29 February 2024 at 10:41 am

              Yes, the Current Affairs programs from that era were far better than today. The only one I ever watch nowadays is Jack Tame's Q & A.

              He still works on the basis that his responsibility is to get his guests to explain the story, and to try and make sure that they do so.

              He doesn't operate the way so many seem too. They seem to think that they are the story and it is what they say that matters. Well it isn't. I don't care what the people asking questions think. I want to know what the people being interviewed have to say.

            • Kay 2.1.2.2.1.2
              29 February 2024 at 11:44 am

              Yes I remember a lot of those. I particularly liked 'Foreign Correspondent', I seem to recall it being on quite late at night (10pm?) but it was extremely intelligent, and in those pre-internet days and excellent source of international news. I vaguely remember the guy who hosted it (name forgotten and I can't find it), quitting NZ broadcasting in protest at the extreme dumbing down of news and current affairs.

              Would such shows- especially long-form discussion- even be possible to bring back to TV? I don't think so. The general population has been forced into a concentration span of no more than 5-7 minute blocks, the length of time between ads, or an average YouTube clip. There's no way they'd have the cognitive ability or patience to take in anything longer.

              • Obtrectator …
                29 February 2024 at 1:47 pm

                The general population has been forced into a concentration span of no more than 5-7 minute blocks, the length of time between ads, or an average YouTube clip. There's no way they'd have the cognitive ability or patience to take in anything longer.

                'Fraid you're right, Kay. So the thing to do is to figure out how to work effectively within that landscape, not go sighing and moaning that the old one no longer exists. Hateful to have to say this, but: out with the old Brutus-style reasoned argument – cuts no ice now – and in with Mark Antony's emotion-based rabble-rousing.

        • gsays 2.1.2.3
          29 February 2024 at 10:25 am

          "You've got it the wrong way round. They feed the masses what the masses say they want to see and hear…"

          You have just described a lot of what is wrong with our democracy and Labour last time round.

          Too much attention to constant polling and focus groups whereby meaningful reform is sidelined for fear of scaring the horses.

      • Ed1 2.1.3
        29 February 2024 at 11:31 am

        I am sure that many used to be able to get all the news they needed from the column by Mike Hosking in The Herald, but he has now apparently gone to a radio station; Radio New Zealand appears to have missed an opportunity. So where do you get your news from these days, tsmithfield?

    • SPC 2.2
      29 February 2024 at 10:16 am

      If it really was too much advertising …

      If it was the modern style – there is the more staid Sky Open/Prime.

      At some point if there is too little news coverage, a subscription provider will emerge.

      Given the way to avoid depression is known, more likely a long period of more limited growth – albeit despite continuing technology advances (battery/AI etc/robotics).

      • bwaghorn 2.2.1
        29 February 2024 at 11:20 am

        We need a Spotify for news , I can't won't subscribe to the herald news room the post , and all the other subscription based news outlets but I'd subscribe to a one stop shop that paid per read to whoever produced it.

  3. Obtrectator 3
    29 February 2024 at 10:01 am

    From this morning's Post (sorry, haven't time to track down the electronic version):

    " …. when it comes to broadcast, the only serious rival to TVNZ and RNZ for audience share will NewstalkZB once Newshub goes."

    If that's true, then we're in serious bloody trouble.

  4. SPC 4
    29 February 2024 at 10:08 am

    Warner Bros.Discovery are here and in Oz to retail their products – one means was via TV3, sans radio and now sans Newshub.

    The question for government is whether they value an alternative television news service – whether free to air broadcast, or on-line, sufficiently for New Zealand On-Air funding (collecting money from global corporations that use "news media" for content).

    And how ownership would be structured – as per a non profit commons.

    Given the reduced level of support for RNZ (2008-2017) and ACT and their ilks disdain for TVNZ, this is going to be a fight.

    While the ACT leader said this

    "It's also a sad day for New Zealand's democracy which requires a competitive media market so people can get a wide range of views about what's happening in their country."

    Just look at Ongoing Decision-Making Principles in the NACT coalition agreement, there is no mention of the need for a vibrant news service as an important part of democracy.

    https://www.nzdoctor.co.nz/sites/default/files/2023-11/National_ACT_Agreement.pdf

    H. Pro-democracy – upholding the principles of liberal democracy, including equal citizenship, parliamentary sovereignty, the rule of law and property rights, especially with respect to interpreting the Treaty of Waitangi.

    G. Fiscally responsible – with spending decisions based on rigorous cost-benefit analysis to ensure taxpayer money is treated with respect, and recognising the need to get the public books back in order by reducing the overall fiscal impact of government.

    When asked whether the Government might intervene to provide support, Seymour said, "I don't think it's the role of a government to own TV stations.

    "I think there's a question mark over the ownership of TV One and the poor returns it's demanded as a shareholder and whether it's contributed to an uncompetitive market," he said.

    ACT is seeking to drain TVNZ dry of capacity, like it is doing to all arms of government as part of their destruction of public provision in support of private capital on high and others under the neo-liberal Randian Atlas Network regime.

    https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2024/02/christopher-luxon-winston-peters-david-seymour-chris-hipkins-and-others-react-to-shock-newshub-closure-news.html

  5. Obtrectator 5
    29 February 2024 at 10:12 am

    Melissa Actua-Lee bats away the questions:

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/350195039/government-under-pressure-over-newshubs-planned-closure

    I counted no fewer than thirty uses of her favourite adverb in that 260 seconds.

    I don’t accord Mr Peters’ crocodile tears much respect either, bearing in mind how rude and unco-operative he’s too often been with TV people.

    • Anne 5.1
      29 February 2024 at 10:25 am

      “I counted no fewer than thirty uses of her favourite adverb…”

      Gives her time to think of an obtuse answer which tells us nothing but which she hopes will seem like something.

      • Mike the Lefty 5.1.1
        1 March 2024 at 12:51 pm

        Perhaps it is a National thing. I remember that John Key also used it every second sentence. Atlas SOL?

    • newsense 5.2
      29 February 2024 at 11:32 am

      And him getting back to parliament riding the votes of people who attacked the whatever the journalism fund was.

  6. PB 6
    29 February 2024 at 10:31 am

    First they came for the workers, then they came for the professionals.

    I could care less about the idea that we need people like this to hold the government to account. Where have they been for the last forty years as our country has gone backwards? Where were they when it became normal for people to be homeless? Where were they when poverty came to NZ?

    Probably in long lunches living the life of riley thinking that it would never happen to them. Too much trite, reality TV news. The chickens have come to roost.

    I do however feel a bit for those that are in the day to day work, make up artists, lighting, sound technicians. They weren't making the decisions that have made 'news' barely captured by that moniker. The others will most probably hive off to some other job but unlike those really in struggle street most won't have to be housed in motels, and chased (hounded) by DSW.

  7. weka 7
    29 February 2024 at 12:33 pm

    those that care, and have spare cash, can swing behind other media like Newsroom and The Spinoff. And soon, all those journos and producers who set up substacks once they lose their jobs.

    Someone should set up a resources showing where all the good NZ media coverage is now.

    • Ad 7.1
      29 February 2024 at 9:28 pm

      Why is it that The Spinoff and Newsroom and Parliament Today are so fundamentally unappealing that they require concrete trucks of subsidy to keep in existence?

      More NZers get their news from Facebook, Instagram and Messenger than they do from cross-platforms like the NZHerald.

      In 2016 60% of people 15 and under watched television. Now it's under 30%.

      In 2014 70% of people over 15 listened to radio. In 2021 it was 47% and falling rapidly.

      https://thespinoff.co.nz/business/03-09-2021/confronting-new-research-shows-just-how-fast-traditional-media-lost-young-nz

      Public subsidy for RNZ is pretty much the same as public subsidy for ballet.

      • weka 7.1.1
        1 March 2024 at 10:09 am

        Why is it that The Spinoff and Newsroom and Parliament Today are so fundamentally unappealing that they require concrete trucks of subsidy to keep in existence?

        Because they're competing with MSM that is primarily organised around clickbait, advertiser needs and shareholder profit, as well as large social media companies that use sophisticated IT to manipulate users emotionally and psychologically to certain kinds of content and pathways through the internet (again, advertiser needs and shareholder profit).

        If media don't want to do those things, and instead focus on journalism, then public funding and subscriptions/supporter donations seem entirely valid to me.

        More NZers get their news from Facebook, Instagram and Messenger than they do from cross-platforms like the NZHerald.

        Yes, and that is a problem because FB etc are determining what people see. The same FB that is manipulating people emotionally to make money.

        I haven't had a physical TV for 15 years. We know that legacy media have struggled to keep up. Niche platforms like Spinoff and Newsroom jumped into the vacuum. This is a good thing.

        RNZ is publicly funded because it has no advertising. Again, this is a good thing.

        • weka 7.1.1.1
          1 March 2024 at 10:11 am

          Personally, I think at this point in history news is a core public need along with water, roading and electricity, and should be fully funded by government. Private companies can organise themselves around that.

    • Chess Player 7.2
      1 March 2024 at 7:21 pm

      And how would you define ‘good’?

      • weka 7.2.1
        1 March 2024 at 9:20 pm

        Trained journalists and a set of professional and ethical standards generally accepted and approved of by society would be a start. But in this context, also the ones that are primarily intent on news reporting and serving the greater or public good and who make money to support that rather than for its own sake. There are lots of good journalists working in MSM that is primarily for profit, but they are constrained by the goals of the organisations they work for.

  8. weka 8
    29 February 2024 at 12:35 pm

    He would not make any commitments about possible policy changes for the media industry

    Of course he wouldn't. Peters' role now is almost wholly to trade in outrage and powermongering.

  9. Ad 9
    29 February 2024 at 2:09 pm

    TVNZ News, Maori TV, and RNZ are so massively propped up by the state that we should fess up to news being a branch of government.

    Stuff is Undead, ZB geriatric. Only NZHerald continues to make its way.

    Our entire idea of democracy relies on dumptrucks of state subsidy into news.

    • weka 9.1
      29 February 2024 at 3:32 pm

      TVNZ News, Maori TV, and RNZ are so massively propped up by the state that we should fess up to news being a branch of government.

      only if those news outlets were working for the government. Which they are not.

      I thought TVNZ returned a dividend to the government.

      • Ad 9.1.1
        29 February 2024 at 3:54 pm

        They are certainly branches of the state, listed as a State Owned Enterprise, and require volumes of our taxes. Our politics now relies on them almost entirely.

        TVNZ does return a meagre divident on a good year, does take indirect subsidy through NZOn Air and other instruments including volumes of public sector advertising, and its news exists in a quite codependent relationship with government for content.

        • weka 9.1.1.1
          29 February 2024 at 4:07 pm

          They are certainly branches of the state, listed as a State Owned Enterprise, and require volumes of our taxes. Our politics now relies on them almost entirely.

          do you mean because once Newshub goes, it's the only major TV news station?

          TVNZ does return a meagre divident on a good year, does take indirect subsidy through NZOn Air and other instruments including volumes of public sector advertising, and its news exists in a quite codependent relationship with government for content.

          TV3 also taked indirect subsidy through NZOA.

          Is the implication that the government favours TVNZ for its public sector advertising? That would be odd if they wanted to reach a wider demographic. Or does TVNZ do them a good deal?

          and its news exists in a quite codependent relationship with government for content.

          how so?

          • Ad 9.1.1.1.1
            29 February 2024 at 9:08 pm

            Imagine the news without politicians or policy or process.

            Would be chopped by 2/3 or more.

            It would look remarkably like real life instead of the inane and mostly meaningless whorl coming out of Wellington.

        • Muttonbird 9.1.1.2
          29 February 2024 at 4:54 pm

          You want the government to start advertising on Conspiracy Check Radio and The Plunkform?

        • SPC 9.1.1.3
          29 February 2024 at 5:35 pm

          Is it not true that every first world nation has a state owned TV and radio?

          And most do not require commercial revenues from advertising to fund any of it.

        • Craig H 9.1.1.4
          29 February 2024 at 9:29 pm

          TVNZ and RNZ are Crown Entity Companies, not State-Owned Enterprises. The Maori Television Service is a body corporate of no particular type (same entity type as the Reserve Bank).

          Having said that, RNZ and Maori TV aren't expected to return dividends, while TVNZ is, sometimes, when Cabinet decides they want it.

    • Mike the Lefty 9.2
      1 March 2024 at 12:54 pm

      The NZ MSM just love car crashes, fires and inclement weather aka "weather events ".

  10. Drowsy M. Kram 10
    29 February 2024 at 4:45 pm

    The Union of Journalists in Finland [population 5.5 million] boasts nearly 14,000 members working across print media, broadcasting, publishing, and new communications media.
    https://journalistiliitto.fi/en/

    Why is news journalism in Aotearoa NZ in such a parlous state – what's wrong?

    Is Newshub’s demise the canary in the coalmine? [29 Feb 2024]
    Media experts say there is now urgency for the government to throw its support behind news media, as other countries have, or face a distorted democracy or broken news media.
    …
    Mark Jennings says Discovery had no strategy and the future of Three was likely a channel of reality shows.

    "The future" eh…

    Where to now for Government media support – if any [29 Feb 2024]

    • bwaghorn 10.1
      29 February 2024 at 7:37 pm

      , or face a distorted democracy or broken news media.

      I'm sure the right wing politicians won't mind one bit

  11. joe90 11
    29 February 2024 at 6:22 pm

    Tl;dr: private equity cash cow milked to death.

    (thread1-12)

    @MattNippert

    I've reported on TV3 for 15 years, ever since writing a feature in the Herald on Sunday that MediaWorks bosses were considering canning Campbell Live. (@JohnJCampbell was furious, I stood by the story, and it survived, but only for a few more years). 1/X

    https://twitter.com/MattNippert/status/1762711250738508118

  12. KJT 12
    29 February 2024 at 7:22 pm

    “Reporters”. « The Standard

    Once upon a time, in a world far away” we had these people called “reporters”.
    An honourable profession, who considered it their job to keep the public accurately and completely informed

  13. Mike the Lefty 13
    29 February 2024 at 8:15 pm

    When I heard that Newshub was closing I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

    On the one hand, Newshub often represented a pack of right-wing pricks feeding us dubious quasi-fictional stories that made the rednecks feel good and everyone else feel rotten.

    BUT

    at least they provided competition for other touchie feelie news outfits like Stuff.

    Without Newshub providing competition, others like Stuff and RNZ will descend even further into "snooze", rather than news.

    People sometimes say "no news is good news".

    Not in this case, I fear.

  14. Muttonbird 14
    29 February 2024 at 10:02 pm

    Rimmer backtracking on his dividend comments as he should. The weasel now says of TVNZ which he is a shareholder in:

    We've done what any shareholder would do and asked 'how is the return on equity that the company, in the same market that we're responsible for, doing?'… It's just a prudent thing to do and I wouldn't read too much into it.

    He's claiming the government is responsible for the market. That is an extraordinary admission for a libertarian.

    It's all totally ignorant of the public broadcasting remit, which is not surprising since he wants to bury that in the same grave with Te ao Māori.

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/510512/seymour-plays-down-tvnz-dividend-comments

  15. Muttonbird 15
    29 February 2024 at 10:13 pm

    A bit rich for Michael Morrah to be complaining:

    Morrah was also critical of a lack of Government assistance for the station as it battled a diminishing television advertising market and global economic downturn off the back of Covid-19.

    Morrah said Newshub boss Glen Kyne had met with Broadcasting Minister Melissa Lee, as well as ministers in the previous Government, and previously asked for relief from transmission fees state-owned enterprise Kordia charges.

    “Sure, ministers listened. Did they act? No, no, they [didn’t]. I think that, in part, is contributed to our demise,” he said.

    He was instrumental in the demise of the previous government constantly attacking irrelevancies around MIQ management on his way to those industry awards. In conducting those partisan attacks he advocated directly for those in the the new coalition government and their supporters who also want to take a torch to linear broadcast media.

    Well, Michael Morrah got the change of government and he got the burn and now he's fighting for his job. Ryan Bridge too. Irony much?

    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/newshub-senior-journalist-michael-morrah-says-proposal-will-be-made-to-save-axed-news-operation/2VTCZLLKTNAZLA4CTCOU5E4SS4/

    • Michael Scott 15.1
      1 March 2024 at 8:52 am

      TV1 and TV3 were interchangeable to me.

      Why didn't TV3 try to move to a more conservative position rather than doing the same as the state channel. Like Fox or Tele in France.

      Get people like Phillip Crump, Oliver Hartwich and Mike Hosking for editorial and opinion.

      • Muttonbird 15.1.1
        1 March 2024 at 9:04 am

        They did move to a more conservative position. They had Duncan Garner and then even worse, Lyin' Ryan Bridge. And in political reporting Jenna Lynch who is married to ACT's chief of staff. Michael Morrah himself, and Amelia Wade who seems a bit suspect.

        That's what I'm saying, go nut job, find a new job.

          • Anne 15.1.1.1.1
            1 March 2024 at 12:02 pm

            David Farrar of Kiwiblog fame – a National Party stooge – conducted that survey. He is a far right-wing mate of Atlas disciple Jordan Williams of Taxpayers Union (what isn't a union) fame.

            It's bullshit based on manipulated data which is Farrar's MO.

            • Belladonna 15.1.1.1.1.1
              1 March 2024 at 2:46 pm

              Evidence for your assertion of manipulated data?
              Or are you just interviewing your keyboard again.

              • Anne …
                1 March 2024 at 4:50 pm

                "Or are you just interviewing your keyboard again."

                Pot/kettle. I know you think you are very clever but I have news for you. Most people here have your measure. 🙂

                • Belladonna …
                  3 March 2024 at 9:40 am

                  Yup. No evidence.
                  No surprises here.

                  • Muttonbird …
                    3 March 2024 at 10:00 am

                    As KJT mentions below, this was a self selecting survey presented to users of the most right leaning popular political blogs in New Zealand, one which had to quickly introduce a moderation firewall immediately following the Christchurch terror attacks, moderation which survives to this day.

                    That survey is manipulative and dishonest in concept designed to produce seemingly legitimate results, which is David Farrar's method of political activism.

                    https://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2020/06/media_leaning_survey.html

                    Not worth the zeros and ones wasted.

                    • Belladonna …
                      3 March 2024 at 10:26 am

                      Farrar comments that he was inspired to do the independent survey, following the interesting (but unscientific) results of an informal Kiwiblog poll [which should never be taken as anything other than a vox pop – much like the regular NZ Herald website 'polls' on any populist topic]

                      https://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2020/07/exclusive_polling_results_on_media_bias.html

                      Since you've linked to Kiwiblog, I'm sure you'll be happy if I return the favour.

                      This survey has now been repeated several times (most recently in April 2023)

                      Actual poll results, here

                      https://thefacts.nz/other/political-leanings-media/

                      I'm unaware of any media outlet reporting on anything other than the actual scientific polls.

                    • Muttonbird …
                      3 March 2024 at 11:04 am

                      Fascinating. The two highest returns for strongly were (now by definition) far right broadcasters. ZB taking the unenviable title for most biased on two scores, 19% for strongly political, and 36% for overall bias.

                      ZB is of course the most widely listened to radio station in the country, has been for 15 years, and now apparently it's also been proved the most biased by some margin. Wow.

                      Of the other two radio stations, The Platform (unbelievably, less biased that ZB) was next worse out of all comers, and RNZ was in fact very balanced by comparison, at 6% left overall.

                      According to Farrar…

                      Averages of the left media; left overall 11.2%, strongly+somewhat left 34.5%.

                      Averages of the right media; right overall 32%, strongly+somewhat right 45.5%

                      So you can see the right media is the least politically balanced and the left media is most politically balanced.

                      What troubles me most about this is your very energetic defence of David Farrar's polling methods and integrity whenever they are questioned…

                    • Belladonna …
                      3 March 2024 at 1:59 pm

                      What troubles me most about this is your very energetic defence of David Farrar's polling methods and integrity whenever they are questioned…

                      What troubles me most, is your (not you alone, there are several other fellow travellers on TS) automatic assumption that Curia/Farrar are automatically biased even when the results are supporting your argument.

                      If you are incapable of comprehending that polling companies make their money from the accuracy of their data – not from data which supports the political wishes of their clientele – then I suggest you refrain from raising your blood pressure over any poll results.

                    • Muttonbird …
                      3 March 2024 at 2:18 pm

                      The accuracy of data presented is only as accurate as the concept, design and execution of the polling questions, and the analysis of results. These are things vulnerable to political motivations.

                      Independent pollsters do not set up political think tanks focussed on funding party political agendas (the Tax Dodger’s Union), and they don't run blog sites whipping up fear and loathing amongst a crank, nut-job, white boomer audience (Kiwiblog).

                      David Farrar is not an independent pollster.

              • KJT …
                3 March 2024 at 9:47 am

                A poll conducted amongst readers of a rabid right wing blog?

          • Drowsy M. Kram 15.1.1.1.2
            3 March 2024 at 10:50 am

            New National leader Todd Muller doubles-down on Make America Great Again cap [24 May 2020]
            There were "more productive" things he [Muller] could display.

            The worst of U.S. 'culture' is coming – our govt doesn't need to facilitate it, imho.

            Fox 'News'?

            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fox_News#Controversies

            Hosking?

            Hosking rejects the scientific consensus on climate change, stating on Seven Sharp that he doesn't believe in the IPCC report.
            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Hosking#Controversy

            Jaysus sad

    • Sanctuary 15.2
      1 March 2024 at 8:59 am

      One of the problems with commentary in the media on the collapse of Newshub is the people doing the commentary are far to close to the story. The pale complexions of journalists thinking "but for the grace of God…" is clear in the commentary as abstract bad things that are meant to happen to someone else happens to them. They are after all talking about friends and colleagues they care about and talking from a position of thirty years of decline with all the baggage of the siege mentality and fear and loathing that comes with that.

      The asserting that the loss of Newshub is a blow to democratic accountability, a blow to the public capacity to hold our political order to account, a loss of political analysis, etc etc etc needs to be tested.

      Newshub, like all MSM organisations, long ago succumbed to "grift drift" – that is, moving ever further away from norms and towards more and more extreme content to get the engagement stats needed for improving advertising revenue. Political coverage in the MSM consists largely of a handful of gallery journalists reporting on the Byzantine horse race politics of parliament. Election coverage is the same journalist courtiers following around the imperial court reporting on their take on the vibes. During the 2023 election there were no long form interviews, no in depth policy analysis and little by way of expert input from political scientists or economists. Three News gets under 200K viewers and is mostly human interest dross. NewsHub nation rates so poorly it doesn't even make it onto rating sites – probably a sub-20,000 audience. The wqebsite does contain some interesting opinionpieces, but that may survive the cull which seems primarily aimed at getting rid of a lot of high profile and now grossly over-paid (given their reach) "celebrity" journalists as well as all the ecosystems that support free to air broadcasting.

      I doubt democracy will be the lesser with just one free to air broadcaster – if that broadcaster uses it market dominance to pivot back towards more public service broadcasting. That is a massive if!!!!

      A fundamental re-think of free to air & how public interest journalism is funded and delivered is needed, because currently it's content is shit and no one under 50 watches it and anyone who can afford subscription TV does.

      I watch a youtube channel by a bloke who goes by the handle "Bald and bankrupt". he has over four million subscribers and a few days back he published this video – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_U0wQPMwvVc it has had 1.7 million views in four days. To my mind, it is the best "documentary" on modern Britain I've seen in ages. I bet no one in the MSM has even heard of the guy. Joe Rogan got 250 million dollars from Spotify to make a podcast. The audience and the money is still there, it is just the MSM no longer is relevant to it. When huge numbers of voiceless people live in shitty cardboard houses in grinding poverty in forgotten coastal communities, who actually watches a constant diet of rich peoples “Grand Designs” on free to air anymore anyway?

      The MSM needs to be urgently asking why some dude on youtube can get 4m followers and 1.7million when their TV stations are collapsing. Maybe instead of replacing smug Jessica with shreiky Maki or sending Tova and Duncan around the media outlets in a game of redundancy musical chairs isn't the answer to their problems. I mentioned this on twitter to chap to a supreme centrist called Lew (he used to blog) and got told it was sort of thing he'd expect from someone who got his news from YouTube, which is the sort of engagement with alternative POVs you expect from smug centrists these days and also goes to show that changing your digital medium doesn't change you from being an patronising cunt. It also neatly displays the arrogant mindset of the centrist elite.

      • Ad 15.2.1
        1 March 2024 at 9:56 am

        What he said

      • Anne 15.2.2
        1 March 2024 at 10:23 am

        Political coverage in the MSM consists largely of a handful of gallery journalists reporting on the Byzantine horse race politics of parliament. Election coverage is the same journalist courtiers following around the imperial court reporting on their take on the vibes.

        Not likely to change whatever happens. It's become part of the rite of being a political journalist. Apart from political tragics, who actually listens to their verbiage anyway?

The server will be getting hardware changes this evening starting at 10pm NZDT.
The site will be off line for some hours.