The hope only Of empty men

Far be it for me to criticise laziness (my prolonged absence from the blogosphere can attest to that), but - there's always a but - I'm a little disappointed with John Roughan's profile of Steven Joyce in the Herald yesterday. It looks remarkably like Dwayne Alexander's blog post at the start of September.




I'm being unfair. Mr Roughan did actually address a couple of timely issues in his interview with Mr Joyce, such as the Labour Party's response to the economic crisis and the unveiling of the universal student allowance policy. And Mr Joyce, to his credit, addressed them - even if it was merely to bat them away.

However, after his auspicious start, a fairly lame profile piece followed - something that is happening in far too many papers at the moment. I don't think I'm alone in considering a straight profile of a political candidate to be boring and unambitious.

Sure, give us a general outline of who the candidates are and what they have done in their previous lives, but stick with a line of questioning where the reader might actually get some handle on what the candidate stands for, what their motivations for entering public office are, and what they plan to do, given the opportunity, when they take the reins of power.

Y'know, act like a representative of the Fourth Estate and all that jazz.

OR, if you must do a profile (and I'm feeling charitable here)...

Don't make it a promo listing all of the candidates' achievements... we know these people are talented - it's generally why they manage to get into the party hierarchy. What's more interesting is how they've acted in their previous incarnations, and how this may relate to how they'll represent us in the future.

Using Mr Joyce as an example, what Mr Roughan could have done was delve into the crossover of Mr Joyce's radio career and his position as campaign manager of the Nats. In the lead-up to, and fall-out from, the 2005 general election, he was the drive show host on RadioLive. I remember listening to Mr Joyce every afternoon (as was the wont of my employer at the time), completely oblivious to his position with the Nats (which was never disclosed). I merely thought he was another of those crazy talkback hosts that loved the phrase "nanny state" (he replaced Paul Henry who was forced to resign by TVNZ, and was up against Larry Williams on ZB, who models his show on Bill O'Reilly's). We should also note that, by this stage, Mr Joyce had sold his holding in RadioWorks to the Canadians (better known as CanWest) - not that Mr Joyce let his listeners' knew of his former association with the station.

Curiously, a quick google search finds few acknowledgements of Mr Joyce's tenure ever occurring: there's a post by DPF at the end of November 2005 and another, which no longer exists, but has an extract available on Lawswatch.

I find nothing untoward about commericial radio holding a conservative bias - it's a natural fit, much like the perceived liberal bias associated with public radio - it's just that, y'know, I would have liked to have been made aware of the fact that there was some active political campaigning going on in the lead-up to a tight election that some 30-odd thousand people were listening to every day.

I can see the argument that would likely be put up - my opinions are obvious to anyone who listens to me, and my audience, in the main, agrees with my point of view, but that's a little different form being active in a party political campaign while putting out your views as an independent voice (albeit, a conservative one).

I know all of this screams conspiracy, and I don't actually have a problem with figures in the media holding a political bias. I think it's good for views contrary to my own being pushed and discussed in an open forum. But an open forum requires a certain level of disclosure, and Mr Joyce's inability to let his listeners know that he was actively campaigning for the Nats in '05 leads me to conclude there's only one position he wants after November 8...

... and that's the role of Machiavelli's Prince, Murray McCully.

Thus ends my case study and wildly inaccurate conclusion.

I'm sure the nation's fearless army of journalists would be happy to dig a little deeper when approaching their candidates for a simple profile piece - it's certainly a lot more fun to do (and read). And maybe, just maybe, it might inform the public of whom, and what, they're actually voting for.

Dreaming of better journalism,

PB.

Fear and Loathing in Aotearoa

Kia ora,

What a day for the New Zealand media. It all revolved around the death of a woman by the name of Folole Muliaga. International headlines the local newsos tell us. To be quite honest, while I initially felt outrage at the cruelty of a State-owned corporation causing the death of one of the constituents, I can't help but feel it's merely indicative of society, and will probably be put down as "one of those things". Sigh. Reminds me an awful lot of Cave Creek.



Anyway, I didn't actually manage to get too much done today. Bit of a backlog at work, but we'll where we get. The venerable Paul Holmes on NewstalkZB took the tack that it was a horrible tragedy, and really wasn't acceptable, especially in light of the fact that this is a publicly owned company. Awful awful awful.

His Christchurch counterpart John Dunne didn't really want a bar of any PC sympathetic approach. No-one was likely to be criminally liable, and New Zealanders just aren't like that are they. We're a caring nation, particularly for our under-privileged. (Note to anyone who doesn't know much about New Zealand: We're not.)

Still on NewstalkZB, and into the morning talkback show with one of the less liberal people in the land (read neo-Conservative) Leighton Smith, and we found that Leighton does have a heart after all. He couldn't believe that a poor Samoan family whose english was probably barely passable at best could really concoct a lie that would put the fault solely in the hands of Mercury Energy. And, against his usual form, he actually hinted that all the blame lay with the power co. This was definitely a turn-up for the books. A lovable Leighton? It feels like lying in bed with your favourite handgun.

Ali Jones and Justin de Fresne (the rural talkback areas of Christchurch and Wellington respectively) didn't really want to give an opinion either way. There were just too many unknown quantites. Too many things that we, I you, and they just couldn't wrap their heads around. And, of course, they want to wait until they know which side to lambast when the cards are laid bare. Probably tomorrow. (A bit much NewstalkZB for me today.)

Andrew Patterson on RadioLive's Newshour took things a little differently. Unlike the rest of the broadcast media, they went to the Opposition for comment, and while Mr. Patterson was hoping to get Leader of the National Party John Key to come out with some kind of statement either for or against either party, he failed to get the old bully-boy conservative stance he was hoping for. I have to admit I was a little unhappy as well. I would have like to hear Mr. Key complain about State-Owned Enterprises giving in to the small guy, but I'm just letting my limp liberal self rant egotistically, so I shall proceed.

I didn't get on to too much else on the Muliaga case. RadioLive's news team continued to report that Mrs. Muliaga's oxygen was effectively a life-support system, and that cutting its power was certain death. That's the line the international media took as well. You almost get the feeling that they trump these things up a little to try and sell papers. Especially when they have more facts at their fingertips than I/we.



All I can say is what a shame. Sad times all round, and, while we may want someone to take the fall, it probably ain't gonna happen. I see another week-long feeding frenzy coming on...