The Telegraph scandal

21 comments on “The Telegraph scandal ”

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1. Barfly 1

   20 February 2015 at 8:05 am

   +100
2. tricledrown 2

   20 February 2015 at 8:13 am

   Katherine Rich her role in undermining health initiatives.
   Her position on the Health Promotion Authority is a farce.
   New Zealand Medical Journal report that health initiatives such as reducing alcohol harm are being underming
   John Key and Steven Joyces payout to Media Works,Dirty Politics shows our media have completely sold out!
3. Tom Jackson 3

   20 February 2015 at 8:49 am

   There’s plenty of good stuff to read. It’s just mostly not written by journalists, but by academics bloggers, industry bloggers, etc. The traditional media are irrelevant when it comes to conveying truths. That’s why they have another “function”.
4. Blue 4

   20 February 2015 at 9:38 am

   It’s not hard to see why journalism is dying. If you look at the commercial media, there is no incentive to produce quality journalism and no penalties for not doing so.

   All that is holding the rotten system together (by a thread) is the old traditions, the ideals that a few old timers still hold to.

   That’s all going out the window, though. With falling circulation and falling revenues, the media become ever more hungry for Gower-style sensationalism and serious stories become something to be slipped in guiltily between Kim Kardashian and an advertorial.
   • Sable 4.1

     20 February 2015 at 12:14 pm

     I don’t know about that. The MSM in NZ have been poisoned since the 1970’s at least. A strong right leaning bias and a lot of pro business toadying even back then. The difference now with the internet makes it more obvious, which may in time prove to be a good thing. I know in the US social media are hammering the far right press which is in my opinion no bad thing. Its yet to reach NZ in earnest but its on its way.
5. Sable 5

   20 February 2015 at 12:10 pm

   I have little time for the Westernized MSM here or elsewhere. This is hardly a revelation and for me personally, simply underscores what I already know. The Western MSM are corrupt and not to be trusted.
   • ghostwhowalksnz 5.1

     20 February 2015 at 12:13 pm

     Really? The ‘western’ media are ruled out. Does that mean other media isnt?
     • Sable 5.1.1

       20 February 2015 at 12:16 pm

       Take a look at RT News. Surprisingly candid. There’s a little pro Russian bias but its nowhere near as bad as Western media outlets.
     • Sable 5.1.2

       20 February 2015 at 12:17 pm

       Oh and of course there are sites like this one which seem to be mostly on the money….
6. saveNZ 6

   20 February 2015 at 12:16 pm

   +100
7. ghostwhowalksnz 7

   20 February 2015 at 12:17 pm

   Ive noticed with NZ Herald they mix opinion and news on their mobile website. Different stories but in the same feed

   Thats all right as their columnists are well known.
   For some reason Rudman gets a big OPINION tag to his headlines that is not repeated often with other commentators.
   • Sable 7.1

     20 February 2015 at 12:18 pm

     You have faith in the Herald? Sorry I’m quietly chuckling a bit here….
8. The Murphey 8

   20 February 2015 at 12:23 pm

   The core problem is reflective of most aspects of personal and professional interface in which the actors play out their respective roles

   Truth is alive and can’t ever be extinguished but it can be subverted

   Before truth can become visible individuals first need to be honest to themselves

   This article is encouraging in that one individual has decided he can no longer lie to himself and has publically admitted he has been part of the conspiracy to subvert

   Perhaps this example can provide pause for thought about many who have spoken up against fraud and corruption inside their industry only to be whitewashed or personally vilified

   More high profile examples such as this are crucial and the curtain can be pulled down completely and the tide may still have the opportunity to turn on this world which has been constructed almost exclusively on lies
9. McFlock 9

   20 February 2015 at 12:24 pm

   Yes, it’s been growing for years as publishers become more desperate, and has reached a crescendo.

   10 or 15 years ago (excuse the vagueness – small towns can hold a grudge 🙂 ) a mate’s organisation was hitting a pretty good milestone (not big business or anything, a social thing). He called the local rag to see if they wanted to send a reporter to the event. The response was yes, but only if they dropped a couple of hundred on ads for the event.

   Sigh.
   • Ergo Robertina 9.1

     21 February 2015 at 1:50 pm

     Are you suggesting the hundreds and hundreds of community-oriented stories published in NZ newspapers every week are likely to be paid content?
     My experience with the sector is that is not the case.
     You’ve muddled up a bit of dodginess at the margins with the pernicious trend of corporate native advertising, the blurring of ads and stories.
     The well established journalists who lent their credibility to so-called ”content partnerships” by heading the new divisions at the two big print chains should be ashamed of helping to normalise this insidious practice in NZ.
     • McFlock 9.1.1

       22 February 2015 at 5:39 pm

       Corruption is corruption.
       Demands for bribery by the local rag is the small-town version of cloaking it in corporate-speak about synergies and native advertising.

       I’m not saying every local story is the result of an undeclared editorial conflict of interest, being it financial or simply that the reporter is part of that club so writes favourable reports on it, I’m merely saying that at least one event in my town at the time was denied coverage because they didn’t pay off (sorry, “purchase advertising from”) the local rag. Not much difference between that and running a “story” for a regular advertiser.
       • Ergo Robertina 9.1.1.1

         22 February 2015 at 9:56 pm

         Yeah, there was never a golden age in journalism, it’s a bit of a myth.
         Thing is, some of that stuff was actually easier to get away with when newspapers dominated, so it’s not quite as simple as your building-to-a-crescendo narrative.
         There’s always been dodgy and cheeky ad managers.
         My experience after a dozen years in the industry (until recently), which included running a newsroom (as chief reporter), and filling in as CR in another, was that the wall between advertising and editorial was respected.
         There were grey areas, particularly in small papers, when a new business, say, demands a story (from the ad dept) before advertising, and maybe they would have got one, anyway, but it means the ad dept’s involved, and it’s kind of awkward.
         If an interviewee tried to tell me they’d advertised, I was quick to say they had the wrong dept.
         More often my awareness of the interface between church and state was after a run-in and an ad account was withdrawn. I was pleasantly surprised at the attitude of ad managers in those instances.
         It’s definitely more visceral in small papers; for one thing you actually know the ad people, talk to them at lunch etc, whereas in a big paper I barely knew their faces.
         It’s like the readers; in a small newsroom they can burst into the newsroom, or lecture you at social occasions. You are literally closer to your readers in a small community.
         Most people I dealt with were good (apart from PR people); it was a privilege to talk to them about their lives, milestones, etc.
         I think there is something new and unprecedented in these ghastly ”content partnerships”.
10. esoteric pineapples 10

    20 February 2015 at 1:08 pm

    Specific advertorials labelled as such aren’t really a threat to journalistic integrity. It’s the more insidious forms of mutual back massaging that are dangerous eg going to sources for comment because they are advertisers, doing “news stories” on subjects that are clearly not news because they feature an advertiser, simply not reporting news that is damaging to an advertiser and so on.

    Of course, it’s not just advertisers. It can just as easily be a government, police etc
11. tc 11

    20 February 2015 at 1:09 pm

    Crikey just completed a series on business journos going from watchdogs to lapdogs over time as they get frozen out if they don’t push the spin.

    I’m reminded of a colleague who had been a very well respected senior journo but after a break was looking to return to the workforce but had no interest in going back into the MSM.

    As they said too few employers and all with agendas that must be adhered to, time to move away from that caper and do something else as MSM doesn’t do journalism.
12. JonL 12

    21 February 2015 at 3:51 am

    The Guardian the best? God help us then – it’s rapidly sliding down the propaganda/western leaders can do no wrong, hole. It’s a mere shadow of what it was, even 5 yrs ago.
    The Independent?
13. Ergo Robertina 13

    21 February 2015 at 12:55 pm

    Simon Jenkins’ piece, entitled,’ Yes Peter Oborne, ads hurt press freedom. But the alternative is worse’, ends on a bit of a triumphant note, though, once he’s outlined the problems.
    Mostly agree with this, although Jenkins is probably too complaisant (he seems to be one of the more conservative Guardian columnists):

    ”THERE is no question that the private sector is an insecure way of financing a free press that does not make money. But all other ways are worse. There are still as many daily newspapers published in Britain (nine) as there were 50 years ago, a continuous diversity available to no other western country. Online has not wiped out print. It has enhanced the penetration and prominence of both.
    In which case, we can only thank goodness for expediency. The only champion of a free press is not some regulator or commission or charter board. It is the free press itself. Plurality, rivalry, disclosure, exposure and sometimes fury are the best guardians. That is what we saw this week. One Oborne is worth 10 Levesons.”

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