When you wake up to the fact your paper is Tory

Written By: - Date published: 2:43 pm, September 30th, 2009 - 29 comments
Categories: election funding, Media - Tags: , ,

Hilarious reading through the Herald’s Your Views on election funding. Seems the Herald’s meek acceptance of the Government’s electoral funding plans has alerted a few of their readers to the fact they were duped by the paper’s blatant political advocacy for National last year.

Here’s what Jay of Swanson had to say:

I am gobsmacked that a party (the National Party!) that campaigned with the utmost bitter intensity against a law which this newspaper branded anti-democratic (which it was never intended to be, but a charge which suited the Nats political aspirations and gave their friends in the Herald carte blanche to run with it) has been barely tweaked and the current mob in power now seem to think that Labour kinda got it right!

But what is equally amazing is the matter of fact way that the Herald reports this without any of the emotive hyberbolic language that it used in its descriptions of Labour’s original bill…

Cindy of Titirangi’s outraged too:

What I really want to say is unprintable. But I agree with most commentors here especially Jay(Swanson) and others. Gobsmacked.

I feel misled by this govt and this newspaper last year telling us readers that the Electoral Finance Act would take away our freedom, rubbish. I believed them at the time athough it was really confusing.That we were being denied our freedom to participate in democracy by allowing this law. Lies!

The worst part of that is that this newspaper which is supposed to be impartial was supporting National and Act’s spin in their editorials and stories. If we can’t trust the media, and we can’t trust politicians like this Govt with a finance minister who can’t tell the truth, who in heaven’s name can we trust?

National’s latest change of mind about this Law, now that it’s government, shows me that this newspaper seems to think it’s a partisan newspaper. Are their editors in the pockets of the National Party? That’s what I think when I read this issue.

Reporters are supposed to report the truth not political kaka.Goes to show, best you read the Bill yourself, don’t rely on this lot.Remember John Boscawen and Hide were fronting this EFA issue last year twisting it all

And it goes on. It’s a great thing seeing people wake up to the fact their paper is Tory. Reminds me of a song by Billy Bragg:

29 comments on “When you wake up to the fact your paper is Tory ”

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  1. Rich 1
    30 September 2009 at 2:49 pm

    I think Billy says it all, but Cindy from Titirangi runs a close second:

    this newspaper which is supposed to be impartial

    Yeah. Right.

  2. Tigger 2
    30 September 2009 at 2:58 pm

    I usually run like hell from reading ‘Your Views’ as it typically sounds like some unholy child of Kiwiblog and Whale Oil but this gives me hope that the unholy child can actually think for itself…

  3. snoozer 3
    30 September 2009 at 3:12 pm

    “The worst part of that is that this newspaper which is supposed to be impartial was supporting National and Act’s spin in their editorials and stories. If we can’t trust the media, and we can’t trust politicians like this Govt with a finance minister who can’t tell the truth, who in heaven’s name can we trust? ”

    Trust yourself, Cindy, but that means thinking for youself too. Never blindly or automatically accept the view of someone with an interest in the outcome as impartial.

    If you don’t want to be duped, you have to get informed.

  4. outofbed 4
    30 September 2009 at 3:16 pm

    Great song long time since i heard that

  5. mickysavage 5
    30 September 2009 at 3:20 pm

    Ha!

    The nats spent so long whipping up hysteria about the EFA and then when it comes time to actually deal with the issue, low and behold, the donation transparency provisions are retained and tweaking of the balance occurrs. There will still be third party rules and limitations on what they can spend. There will still be a pre-election period although apparently January is undemocratic but May is acceptable.

    I have no sympathy for the nats and I hope that they are given hell about this. They created the hysteria and fermented the opposition. They can now deal with the repercussions.

    This reminds me of Jim Bolger refusing to run a rascist election campaign with the comment “but what will we do on the Monday after?”

    True leadership requires a mature campaign and proper analysis. Whipping up hysteria over non issues is not a sign of true leadership.

  6. So Bored 6
    30 September 2009 at 4:04 pm

    Thank God for the Standard, all the major papers journos are employees and as we know it is very difficult to sing out of tune when you are paid to be in the choir. Get you news at The Standard!!!!!!!!

  7. Cal 7
    30 September 2009 at 4:05 pm

    If you look in to it, newspapers (especially their editorials) have largely been in favour of the Nats since the 1940’s (a slight shift to Labour in Helen Clark’s first years, but it’s since swung back to the Nats).
    The herald backpeddling like this doesn’t surprise me in the slightest.

    • Galeandra 7.1
      30 September 2009 at 4:14 pm

      “backpeddling” what a brilliancy – they do peddle a lot of unctuous nonsense, don’t they?

  8. ak 8
    30 September 2009 at 4:09 pm

    Let’s be fair. I’m sure any day now the impartial “Lenin-Helen” Harold will come out with another “Democracy under attack” red front page and little statuettes comparing Key and English to Marx.
    Carlo and Groucho, of course.

  9. outofbed 9
    30 September 2009 at 4:22 pm

    I liked this

    Deputy Prime Minister Bill English was returning to Wellington from his home in Dipton to deal with the situation. He was expected to update media this afternoon.

    http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/2916340/New-Zealand-authorities-downgrade-tsunami-alert

  10. BLiP 10
    30 September 2009 at 4:23 pm

    Heh! Ironic that the New Zealand Fox News Herald’s front page should be about robotic drones when it is itself a robotic drone.

    • mike 10.1
      30 September 2009 at 9:09 pm

      Speaking of robotic drones how come there is no longer consecutive Bill English smear posts on the Standard?
      Has the side-show really died in the ass so quickly – damn those tory media

  11. SPC 11
    30 September 2009 at 6:04 pm

    I was not surprised when in 2005 the Herald (in bed with the EB) pre-election editorial pleaded for a government without the Greens.

    The print media editorial line is pro employer vs union and worker, pro business and anti-community regulation and pro tax cut and against government ownership and public provision (including selling off assets).

    Columnists are more independent, but some points of view are seldom heard – any Maori print columnists, genuinely left wing points of view on policy options (Trotter is silent on policy).

    • burt 11.1
      30 September 2009 at 9:02 pm

      Trotter has always been silent on policy. If he isn’t giving a history lesson he’s lamenting the good old days, of how it almost worked before it all turned pear shaped. I personally don’t think he’s ever seen further ahead than the next election.

  12. Ron 12
    30 September 2009 at 7:25 pm

    Speaking of Tory media; Espiner is now a member o NZ’s international emergency services, apparently. “We” are going to Samoa o assess the need……

  13. burt 13
    30 September 2009 at 9:08 pm

    I think s.russell on kiwiblog sums up the perceived left wing bias in the MSM quite well in relation to Andrew Little.

    Theory A: Little is so blinded by his politics that he sees gross left wing bias as right wing bias because it is not insanely gross left wing bias

    Theory B: Little is an idiot who believes that the duty of the media is to support the Labour Party

    Theory C: Little is trying to intimidate the media into being less critical of Labour and more critical of National

    Theory D: Little is stoking his support within the Labour Party by pandering to members’ loony prejudices telling them that they are right and anyone who disagrees with them is evil or looney.

    Take your pick.

    • burt 13.1
      30 September 2009 at 9:13 pm

      ooops, make that sums up the perceived leftright wing bias…

    • printers 13.2
      30 September 2009 at 9:29 pm

      Bloody hell – not only do you post your own drivel on multiple sites, you now cross post other people’s posts. Are you Timmy’s dad?

      • BLiP 13.2.1
        30 September 2009 at 9:31 pm

        How did my name end up Printers ?

        DOH!

        • Ianmac 13.2.1.1
          30 September 2009 at 11:10 pm

          Blip just a blip or was it a cross crossed text? 😀

          • BLiP 13.2.1.1.1
            1 October 2009 at 12:44 am

            hehehe – something like that – I typed the captcha into the name field – should have realised when I got caught in that “error” screen which comes up – its been a long week with shitty shifts – I shudder to think what other silly mistakes I might’ve made – hopefully I haven’t dispatched 20 tonnes of product to Kelburn and not Kilbirnie like I did last week.

    • SPC 13.3
      30 September 2009 at 11:49 pm

      To the right winger much of the print media, apart from the right wing editorial line which is just commonsense to them, is (comparitively) left wing bias. Bias in the events covered by the columns and bias in the news that is being reported. Fortunately for them the business pages will bring news quotes and ideological contributions more to their taste – but no where will there be an eqivialent left wing take. Only in the reporting of the news and the political commentary by journalists is there any room for variance from the “right wing” line. And this must mean left wing bias in the news media …

      Match the left wing accusation of right wing bias with a rival one and thus to any centrist the media must be doing its “nuetral” job … – and the tilted to the right playing field continues …

  14. Herodotus 14
    1 October 2009 at 12:46 pm

    Nice video of Billy Bragg, perhaps we will have a regular left leaning posting of music. My request is for the Gang of Four.

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