New Zealand's Media Landscape

New Zealand is not out of the woods yet. Noises are being made by politicians that NZ is back on track, no more unicorn kisses and rainbow hugs. But, it's not as simple as that as NZ no longer has an independent and fearless media.

Recently, TV3 shut down their news operation and now the whole platform has been sold to Sky NZ. Sky have said they have no real interest in news (I'm paraphrasing), so TV3's nightly news is produced by Stuff and that may be ending soon.

Stuff own most of the newspaper titles across NZ, significant amongst these are The Press of Christchurch, and The Post in Wellington.

Then, we have the New Zealand Herald, known as Aunty Herald due to its tone of being that Aunty that's always telling everyone off. It is the newspaper of record and now under a new board after a corporate coup. But it has been sliding for a while, so the jury is out on whether it will survive.

Newstalk ZB is a talk radio platform and dominates the airwaves. But it is just a rehash of the same claptrap you'd find in the newspapers.

TV1 is state owned and follows instructions from the government, it is a cockwomble media organisation.

There are one or two independent voices, the Otago Daily Times being one, but they're very tame.

The sum total paints an ugly picture. All of the above survive because the taxpayer keeps them alive. They do this through government agencies advertising across their platforms. Without this money, they'd all become extinct, overnight.

There have been some interesting developments; such as the online Centrist which gives readers a condensed version of news content. 

And then on YouTube there is The Platform, but it does very little reporting of its own, and its so-called stars are all locked in to prevailing opinions. They sound desperate to be liked and cling like limpet mines to those they perceive as the great and good. They are all products of a system that is dying, so they will also die, they have nothing new to offer.

In this desert, and with the internet now being heavily censored, the country has to try and survive. I am somewhat pessimistic about whether this is possible. 

Takeovers Panel NZ and Jim Grenon

Here we go, I predicted that the establishment would intervene to stop a boardroom coup over at NZME, aka New Zealand Herald. Now, the NZ Takeovers Panel is going to check out what is going on. The existing board will be complaining of collusion and that's naughty. How about, shareholders have had enough of the grift and want change - now. It is simply interests meshing, no collusion, get over yourselves Takeovers Panel.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/545166/billionaire-jim-grenon-s-nzme-shake-up-draws-takeovers-panel-s-attention

But on Tuesday, the Takeovers Panel, which ensures shareholders have opportunity to participate in transactions such as takeovers, said the matter was under consideration. Chief executive Andrew Hudson said the panel could make no further comment.

Jim Grenon's New Zealand Battle

Canadian billionaire, Auckland resident Jim Grenon has decided to wade into the New Zealand media landscape by buying a stake in NZ's largest media organisation, the NZME group, owners of the New Zealand Herald newspaper. The NZ Herald is akin to the New York Times, or the Los Angeles Times, and often referred to as Aunty Herald. It had the tone of that aunty you remember always telling you off for everything, and who used to grab you by the ear and told you to listen to her while she did so - tell you off that is. Its tone now though reminds of the know-it-all second year law student out to save the planet.

With his stake, Mr Grenon has started a campaign to remove the current board, and to replace it with himself and other nominations supportive of him. Good luck to him. 

He needs 50%+1 to remove the board, and such an event is long overdue. Thing is, Mr Grenon had better be careful and ensure his accounting for tax is in order, as the NZ Herald has connections that run deep. The government considers the NZ Herald its personal propaganda mouthpiece, you see, and they don't take kindly to those trying to unseat the established power structure.

What is that power structure? That certain elites, mostly living in Auckland are always right and get to make all the decisions and sit on all the boards. They are aligned with the two political parties, Labour and National, and these two factions share power by rotating governance between them.

The NZ Herald is a woke, liberal left-wing, handwringing sad excuse for a publication. It is kept this way so that those power structures are never challenged. Yeah, the elites don't believe any of the nonsense published each day, they're not stupid.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/360601099/who-james-grenon-billionaire-who-spent-9m-stake-nzme

Climate Strike

The event is planned for March 15, 2019. Supposedly this event is being organised by school children without the endorsement of schools. In New Zealand at least; who is really behind the planning for this event? What are their politics exactly and what are their credentials for safely managing a nationwide campaign?

I've noticed a decided lack of information about this. I don't believe for one minute that children are capable of organising a nationwide political campaign. The children are being used as pawns. Disgraceful.

Are valuable learnings possible? As things stand there is no valuable lesson as schools are not on board with it. Without classroom time examining all the angles of the debate, the whole exercise amounts to brainwashing.

The media has been complicit in this brainwashing. We need to know who the adults are behind this event and who is to be held accountable if anything goes wrong. Media, start being the professionals you claim to be.