Former television political reporter Kris Faafoi is among the potential Labour candidates for the byelection in the seat of Mana in the Porirua area.
Incumbent MP Winnie Laban announced this week that she will stand down in October to take up a position at Victoria University. A byelection is expected to be held in November.
Yesterday, Mr Faafoi, who recently became chief press secretary to Labour Party leader Phil Goff, said he was not ruling out an attempt to move into Parliament.
"People have spoken to me [about standing in Mana], but I haven't given it a lot of serious consideration."
Mr Faafoi lives in Wellington but has strong family links to the Mana area.
As recently as late 2008, Kris Faafoi was a political reporter for TVNZ. That suggests that he played an active role in the state broadcaster's elction campaign coverage. After the election he left TVNZ to work for Phil Goff, and now he wants to parachute into Parliament as a Labour MP.
Now we're not for one moment suggesting that media figures ought not be able to have political opinions. What is essential however is that there is at least a veneer of neutrality. Sadly, that is too often not the case in New Zealand.
5 comments:
Are you saying that political journalists who go on to work in parliament - and there are many who have - are not neutral when covering elections as journalists? Because it sounds like you are, and if so you are wrong.
I'm always happy to be proved wrong Anon! I simply find it strange that one could move from being a neutral commentator to a partisan presser in such a short space of time. I am aware that a number of gallery journalists have moved betwixt and between, but always wonder how their political leaning might colour their writings when they are working for the MSM.
Yey another one of the many reasons why SWMBO won't let me anywhere near the MSM.
INV I don't have any problem at all with MSM repeaters being biased. It's natural to be biased. I know I am, and I don't expect anybody else to not be. I just wish they'd be honest about it. You know, stop pretending to be neutral, because they're not fooling anybody (except perhaps the Useful Idiots who think that what is dished up at 6pm every night is "news"). Some are clearly just recycling Liarbore's press releases and that's fine, if they're honest about it.
No one wonders about the neutrality of the media. Of greater concern is the cut and paste mentality of bloggers.
Bollocks clancy.
The bloggers and the comments they draw to a one make no secret of their political and most other bias whereas the MSM still perpetrate the total myth(bullshit) that they are the exalted "forth estate" and expect the peasantry to except the drivel the publish to be "news", "informed comment" or "subjective analysis" when it is none of these but mindless repeating of the spin put out by the spin doctors who used to be doing what they do now.
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