Why right wing media is bad for democracy and the planet

Written By: - Date published: 12:21 pm, February 19th, 2023 - 37 comments
Categories: climate change, Deep stuff, Environment, Media, science, the praiseworthy and the pitiful, us politics - Tags:

This week before Cyclone Gabrielle hit there was a noted level of scepticism about how bad things would get.  Newstalk ZB was, surprise surprise, particularly bad.

From Charlie Mitchell at Stuff:

“People contacted me from Napier saying some schools were shut there,” broadcaster Kate Hawkesby said on her early morning show, after reading the message from Tauranga.

“I just wonder what’s happened to us as a country that we’ve become this paranoid and this soft.”

This is all good red meat for Newstalk ZB’s core constituency, grumpy old white men who enjoy getting angry.

Mike Hosking joined in.  Again from Mitchell’s article:

“What we’ve done is whip ourselves into this extraordinary frenzy,” [Hosking] said, wondering why libraries were closed and trains weren’t operating.

”There is no reason for this level of hysteria.”

They both engaged in a bit of bob both ways covering all sides of the story and both also interviewed experts about the situation, who gave valuable information to listeners but I am sure you get the point.  This sort of anti intellectual schist is a core part of the business model.

They were both subsequently shown to be completely, and tragically wrong, just as the right wing media has been over the past 30 years when it comes to climate change.  And now that the change is happening in real time they are still wrecking what needs to be a proper debate with their stupid takes.

Hosking has been the king of the stupid take.  He said this about climate change in May last year in rubbishing a newly released Scientific tool that predicted inundation:

So, by the time you take the doubt, the fact we’ve been worried about these things seemingly forever, and this new addition of land movement, the question is, has a lot changed? They say, yes of course. Instead of your town being underwater in 60 years it might be 20 years. Then again, it might not.

What we do know is the media is always up for a good old scare story, hence, they continue to give precedence to the alarmism. But in the alarmism is part of the problem, how many times can they scream disaster before it wears off? It’s already started to wear off and has been doing so for years.

And any policy which addresses climate change is regularly ridiculed and attacked.  Think cycleways, wind turbines and Three Waters if you need examples.

One may wonder if engaging in anti expert rants and peddling to conspiracy theories is accidental or part of the business model.  I have very strong suspicions it is the latter.

From the looks of Dominion’s defamation suit against Fox News it appears that turbo charging frothing at the mouth of its followers is more important than the truth.  From Richard Luscombe at the Guardian:

Hosts at Fox News privately ridiculed Donald Trump’s claims that the 2020 election was stolen while simultaneously peddling the same lies on air, according to court filings in a defamation lawsuit against the network.

Rightwing personalities Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham are among those named in the $1.6bn action brought by Dominion Voting Systems, the seller of electronic voting hardware and software that is suing Fox News and parent company Fox Corporation for maligning its reputation.

“He’s acting like an insane person,” Hannity allegedly wrote of Trump in the weeks following the election as the host continued to push the so-called “big lie” during his top-rated prime time show, aided by a succession of election deniers he had on as guests.

Even billionaire Fox owner Rupert Murdoch was dismissive of the former president’s false allegations, the filing alleges, calling them “really crazy stuff” in one memo to a Fox News executive, and criticizing Trump’s scattergun approach of pursuing lawsuits in numerous states to try to overturn his defeat.

It was “very hard to credibly claim foul everywhere”, Murdoch wrote, adding in another note that Trump’s obsession with trying to prove fraud was “terrible stuff damaging everybody”.

They were particularly disdainful of Sidney Powell, one of Trump’s lawyers who repeatedly claimed that Dominion’s machines were changing Trump votes to Biden votes.

“Sidney Powell is lying,” [Tucker Carlson] wrote to a producer, the Dominion lawsuit alleges. He referred to Powell in a text as an “unguided missile” and “dangerous as hell”.

Trump, Carlson said, was a “demonic force” who was good at “destroying things. He’s the undisputed world champion of that. He could easily destroy us if we play it wrong.”

Laura Ingraham thought the same.

Fellow host Ingraham told Carlson that Powell was “a complete nut. No one will work with her. Ditto with Rudy,” referring to the former New York mayor and Trump supporter Rudy Giuliani.

Even Sean Hannity thought that what Powell was saying was bonkers.

Hannity, meanwhile, said in a deposition “that whole narrative that Sidney was pushing, I did not believe it for one second”, according to Dominion’s filing.

You may wonder what the link is.  Well both media outlets have been pushing ideas without proof in order to give their listener base their daily feed of grumpiness.  The Fox News example is particularly jarring.  They knew that what they were pedalling about Dominion was false.

Newstalk ZB’s model of trying to hold back progressive change just because it is progressive is very damaging.  At the very time we need a deep discussion of where we are going as a country they are holding things back because it is good for ratings.

We need to have an informed discussion.  Hosking and Co are not providing this.

37 comments on “Why right wing media is bad for democracy and the planet ”

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  1. dvT 1
    19 February 2023 at 12:27 pm

    Hosting and informed in the same line. GEEZ

  2. Muttonbird 2
    19 February 2023 at 12:59 pm

    Mediawatch takes the diseased 1ZB out the back and shoots it:

    In a storm that killed people and destroyed homes, some front rank hosts in key time slots at our most popular national talk radio network obsessed about a missed day of school.

    Education is a wonderful thing. But perhaps it’s not our students who most need to sit down and take on board some information from people better informed than they are.

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/mediawatch/audio/2018878253/radio-hosts-fixate-on-schools-closing-as-gabrielle-closes-in

  3. Ghostwhowalksnz 3
    19 February 2023 at 1:02 pm

    Never mind, Hosking will do a complete volte farce this week like he always does. Which would be fine if he explained why he was wrong. Never does .

    He flip flops more than Luxon for the same reasons….marketing

  4. Ad 4
    19 February 2023 at 1:08 pm

    One of the many losses of the dead TVNZ-RNZ merger is a lost ability for synchronized nationwide messaging.

    The broadcast capacity would be stronger, the facts at least more consistent.

    Wasn't ZB once state owned?

    • Anne 4.1
      19 February 2023 at 2:28 pm

      Wasn't ZB once state owned?

      Yes. For many decades. Sold sometime in the 80s I think or maybe early 90s. Rogernomics.

  5. Ghostwhowalksnz 5
    19 February 2023 at 1:11 pm

    Strange bit of plagiarism in the stuff story by Charlie Mitchell

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/300809224/cyclone-gabrielle-scepticism-is-a-sting-in-covids-tail

    Its clearly a minimal rewrite of the RNZ Media Watch segment by Hayden Donnell

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/mediawatch/audio/2018878253/radio-hosts-fixate-on-schools-closing-as-gabrielle-closes-in

    Stuff and RNZ have a cross licensing agreement so could have used a story's with attribution.

    • mickysavage 5.1
      19 February 2023 at 8:34 pm

      Published before the Mediawatch post went up. I think both reporters were attracted by what was some very weird broadcasting.

      • Ghostwhowalksnz 5.1.1
        20 February 2023 at 6:33 am

        I knew this question of timing would arise.

        Stories are written often well before they go online ( time and date stamped often). When I worked for a newspaper with 300 journalists ( but I wasnt one) stories might be held over for all sorts of reasons and the editors like a pipeline of material that could have a placing at different days or even weeks later. Media Watch from memory has a regular day slot

        Like I said Stuff and RNZ have cross licensing and likely see stories ahead of publication for the general reader

    • Incognito 5.2
      19 February 2023 at 9:02 pm

      Go on then, point to the sentences and sections with similarity so high that it is likely a copy & paste job, aka plagiarism. Bold claims require bold evidence and I doubt that you have a leg to stand on – knock yourself out.

  6. tc 6
    19 February 2023 at 2:29 pm

    Dominion are doing everyone a favour. They may as well grab the next crop of ‘presenters’ from acting school.

    Murdoch's doubling down on his pursuit of crikey for defamation..at least he's out in the open about it unlike another who resides in this country at times.

    Across the ditch Albanese is doing squat about the murdoch dominated Oz market, no surprises there.

    Here Mr and Mrs Outrage carp to an ever declining demographic. Interesting times.

  7. Ad 7
    19 February 2023 at 7:03 pm

    Democrats and Labour worldwide have been repeatedly shown that campaigning on anger enabled the right to beat the left across Europe, UK, the US, India, Philippines and elsewhere.

    The first broadcaster to emulate Fox from the left with anger algorithms would enable the left to reverse the trend.

    All that hyper-femme kindness crap just ensured the left got their asses kicked.

  8. Thinker 8
    19 February 2023 at 8:37 pm

    What if people stopped listening to these guys and gals. Their ratings would plummet, their advertising income would drop and they'd be doing the breakfast shift at the Golden Arches, not ZB.

    We decry what they do but, as if we were watering the weeds in our gardens, we keep listening to them and they thrive.

  9. tsmithfield 9
    20 February 2023 at 7:23 am

    Several thoughts here. Firstly, the only strongly right wing prominent media people I am aware of are Hosking and HDPA. So, from the way I see it, the media is hardly right-wing biased.

    So, there should be plenty of counter-balancing views to whatever Hosking and HDPA have to say on the topic.

    Seconldy, if the finger can be pointed at right wing media, it can also be pointed at weather experts, civil emergency, government authorities for not acting a lot earlier in evacuating at risk areas. It is not like this storm came out of nowhere, and that its areas of rainfall wouldn't have been predictable within a time-frame to take action. Those authorities would have had a lot more knowledge of the actual situation than any media personality, and so should be a lot more accountable IMO.

    I think there should be a commission of enquiry after all this.

    • observer 9.1
      20 February 2023 at 8:20 am

      Out of interest, who are the left wing (or even liberal) equivalent of the radio hosts Hosking, Hawkesby, HDPA etc?

      Sure, individual reporters might have a leftish perspective, but there is no comparison between hosting an established radio show and writing about the environment for the Spinoff. The reach is a hundred times greater.

      Which lefties are on the back of the bus, on the billboards? I can't think of any.

      • tsmithfield 9.1.1
        20 February 2023 at 8:53 am

        Last time I looked, I think Newstalk ZB had about 30% of the radio market. So, I guess the make-up of the other 70% would answer that question.

        Probably a worry if the remaining 70% doesn't have any memorable commentators, because that would suggest that most of those listeners don't give a shit.

        • lprent 9.1.1.1
          20 February 2023 at 9:13 am

          30% of the commercial radio market is actually fuck all.

          Their criteria for ‘listening’ is that people hear it. Which in my case means that I am a ‘listener’ because it is usually on whenever I get in a taxi, or go to a shop, or somewhere where it is playing in the background. Which is a lot of public places.

          Which is why they claim 3.4 million people listen to commercial radio each week.

          The reality is that a few people seem to live with the radio on all of the time. Mostly because it is in their workplace of home. However most ‘listeners’ don’t choose to listen to it. They just get caught in someone else’s silly addictions.

          I never choose to listen to commercial radio. I don’t choose the playlist, and their news and commentary is farcical. I mostly listen to Tidal or Spotify for music. Mostly read my news because then you get some detail past the breathless hooks of news radio, and the moronic mutterings that are paid commercial opinions. If I need to listen to the news, I’ll use RNZ national programme if I’m in the car. But mostly I just use my phone to look it up.

          Who has the time in their lives to listen to idiots and their music selections and opinions.

      • Gosman 9.1.2
        20 February 2023 at 11:38 am

        There is nothing stopping you setting up a media platform to do this from a left wing perspective if you have the desire and motivations. Sean Plunkett did so.

  10. Peter 10
    20 February 2023 at 7:32 am

    Of course we need to have an informed debate. Hosking and co, zb, don't have to provide that or foster that.

    What they have to do is the same as has been highlighted with Fox very recently, get listeners/viewers.

    Any ethics are geared to that.

  11. Gosman 11
    20 February 2023 at 11:36 am

    This sort of thinking is dangerous because you make an argument there is a massive problem with the media and then leave it. Most reasonable people would then start to think that something should be done about it and that something should be driven by the Government.

    The reality is that there are multiple media options in our society from across the spectrum in NZ. That is the nature of having a free and largely unregulated media environment. If you don't like the editorial direction of one media outlet choose another. If you are worried that people are being fed disinformation then present the actual facts as you see them on the competing media. Make a case and let society work through everything to enable the majority to come to a view.

    What is not usually a viable (nor welcome) solution is to try to manage the messages from the media sources you dislike. That way leads to totalitarianism.

    • fender 11.2
      20 February 2023 at 6:25 pm

      There's a big difference between a media organisation that's disliked due to being incompatible with ones left/right preference and one that endangers lives due to playing down the severity of a fucking cyclone!!

    • adam 11.3
      20 February 2023 at 9:38 pm

      Sheesh Gossy trust you to go total straw man, nothing to see here BS.

      Freedom!!!

      The freedom to not die because someone tells lies for political point scoring is a big one in my world.

      Face facts mate – your right wing buddies lied (at worst) or twisted the truth (at best) to take a side swipe at the government rather than inform people of a disaster in the making.

      The fact your not sicked about that tells me more about you, than anything else.

      If a left wing media outlet had done it, you and yours would have been calling for blood.

      Me I'm just calling for them to loss their licence to broadcast. Because the public good, out does political point scoring every day of the week.

    • newsense 11.4
      21 February 2023 at 2:43 am

      I mean spot on-

      I can always get a channel to tell me what I want. If Fox isn’t as deranged, I can get Newsmax or some other pile of hot crap…hot isn’t hot, wet isn’t wet, tobacco is a pleasant smell and it works largely as a health tonic.

      The harm principle is supposed to be near and dear to liberal hearts, and here, as with the pandemic, the BS is dangerous and causing harm. Media should be free, but not to cause damage.

      Media carries an important duty to inform, otherwise it’s just propaganda or worse.

    • Incognito 11.5
      21 February 2023 at 8:31 am

      If you are worried that people are being fed disinformation then present the actual facts as you see them on the competing media.

      Nope, that’s not the way it works and you are conflating facts and opinions/ideas. Facts are not trophies that are won in/by competition, which is a moronic idea that begs the question why you’d even contemplate this let alone say it here on a free public forum!?

      STANDARD 6 – ACCURACY

      Broadcasters should make reasonable efforts to ensure news, current affairs and factual content:

      • is accurate in relation to all material points of fact
      • does not materially mislead the audience (give a wrong idea or impression of the facts).

      In the event a material error of fact has occurred, broadcasters should correct it within a reasonable period after they have been put on notice.

      https://www.bsa.govt.nz/assets/Uploads/BSA-Code-of-Broadcasting-Standards-Screen_FINAL.pdf

      Point 6.4 specifically refers to talkback and one could argue that Newstalk ZB reporting was “materially misleading with respect to any facts” [@ 6.1].

      The weakness in this system is the delay in correction, if any, which is kinda the critical issue in the context of a national emergency and it could have put people’s lives at risk. Such risk was, in fact, highly likely and predictable given that 4 people had died in (the) floods only 2 weeks prior.

  12. Mike the Lefty 12
    20 February 2023 at 11:52 am

    Hail the everlasting know-it-all Mike Hosking.

  13. roblogic 13
    22 February 2023 at 4:17 pm

    Scathing editorial in the ODT. If the storm isn’t happening in our studio in Auckland,!is it even real?

    https://twitter.com/nettieg3/status/1628220316299448320?s=46&t=KT133s1UWaUIazF2V5RhAQ