In a post on this blog site yesterday I mentioned my reluctance to accuse media organisations of political bias. I have seen those allegations hurled about far too often and far too loosely, invariably by politically aligned people frustrated that their side wasn’t the only one getting newspaper space or air time. But in the past couple of weeks I have begun to wonder seriously whether TV3 is running some sort of political agenda.
My suspicions were aroused by political coverage that in recent weeks has too often seemed slanted to discredit National. An example was Patrick Gower’s report last week about a supposedly hush-hush meeting between John Key and the head of the international oil exploration firm Anadarko. As only he can, Gower reported this in such a way as to suggest that there was something underhand going on. (“TV3 can reveal that Prime Minister John Key made time in his diary this week for a secretive meeting with the boss of an oil company that wants to undertake deep sea drilling off New Zealand’s coast.”) Never mind that prime ministers probably have meetings with international businessmen all the time without necessarily alerting the media. If there was something dodgy going on, it certainly wasn’t substantiated by the TV3 report. But never mind: Gower nonetheless raised dark connections with the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster in 2010 (Anadarko had a 25 percent share in the Deepwater Horizon rig) and generously gave Greens co-leader Metiria Turei an opportunity to link Key with “catastrophic oil spills”. In other words, the story was spun to put the worst possible complexion on what may have been an entirely innocent and legitimate meeting.
This technique appears to be something of a Gower specialty. On October 26 he reported: “3 News has learned that John Key has had a private meeting with a controversial right-wing British billionaire, Lord Michael Ashcroft.” Recognise the style? The loaded phrases “3 News has learned” and “TV3 can reveal” immediately create the impression that something sneaky is being covered up.
du Fresne then turns his attention to last night's TV3 "doco" on child poverty, which we didn't see. He says far too much to be able to copy and paste it here, but we would recommend that you set aside a few minutes to read du Fresne's excellent post; he's right on the money as far as we are concerned.
6 comments:
A very worthwhile read once you get past the Chris Trotter's wallpaper double-take.
I see the moderation is performing as desired :)
It is indeed Ciaron. And better still, not a single comment has been deleted.
From where many of us sit,Mr Key has been given the sweetest of runs for years by the media. The minute the acid comes down even mildly, the Right has kittens.
And meetings with international oil compaqnies during an election will be taken very carefully,even secretly, given the opposition to deep see drilling. Many of these meetings are being spun as non-events by National. That's not how we see it on our side.
A very good Waipukurau man is Karl du Fresne - he almost always writes a lot of good sense and as a former journalist and Newspaper Editor he knows the media well.
Quite so pdm; which is why I did not hesitate to link to du Fresne's work.
@ Robert W - di you note du Fresne's disclaimer that he has voted for Labour more frequently than he has ever voted for National? When a journalist with his experience and mana makes claims like these, they ought be taken seriously. Neither Garner nor Gower has covered himself in glory during the election campaign with their tabloid antics.
Post a Comment