RNZ NATIONAL. MEDIAWATCH 08/10/2017

Mediawatch looks critically at the New Zealand media - television, radio, newspapers and magazines as well as the 'new' electronic media.

Sport on screen suddenly back on the agenda:
As reporters tried in vain to work out which way Winston was leaning and what he wants from political partners, the issue of sport on TV suddenly appeared on the agenda again.

Political reporters strung out after an unexpectedly intense election campaign could be forgiven for taking a few days off after Winston Peters told them he’d be saying nothing until all the votes were all in this weekend.  
But instead they were like coiled springs looking for any sign, clue or hint of what he might possibly want.
When caretaker Prime Minister Bill English revealed on Monday he had called Winston Peters but got no answer, that was immediately splashed as breaking news on news websites and on people’s phones all over the country.

Who called whom and when prompted lots of breaking news alerts from reporters anxious for actual news of a new government forming. Photo: PHOTO / screenshot
Winston Peters also sternly told the media he wouldn’t talk about any bottom lines New Zealand First may or may not have in negotiating with other parties, confounding reporters who had a list of things he'd already said he wouldn’t give ground on.  
TV3’s Newshub went back through its archive and found another one last Monday.
In a previously unaired interview shot last January - against the backdrop of the yearling sales at Karaka - he said top sport should be on TV for free in New Zealand.
In a piece for the New Zealand Herald at the time he said “the ability to watch sport is a Kiwi birthright.”
He referred to UK and Australia, where laws specify certain sporting events that must be available to free-to-air TV broadcasters, and he said India had even tougher rules.
The Indian Supreme Court ruled in a case last year that "sporting events of national importance" must be shared with India's national public broadcasting corporation.
New Zealand First had already run this particular populist policy up the flagpole. Last year MP Clayton Mitchell introduced a bill to Parliament to put “sports of national significance” on TV for free.
It was a long list including the Olympic Games, the Commonwealth Games, all domestic rugby test matches, the Super Rugby final, domestic and World Cup netball, and major cricket, rugby league, football, tennis and basketball matches.

Winston Peters told Newshub he was serious about this. Anyone dealing with them “should stop humbugging around," he warned. 
But free to air broadcasting of all those sports would certainly bugger up the business model of Sky TV. 
For more than 25 years, it has used exclusive live sports rights to get hundreds of thousand of households to subscribe to its range of channels.  
When business consulting firm Grant Samuel assessed the risks to Sky TV last year as part of its proposed merger with Vodafone, the prospect of such a change in the law wasn’t even mentioned.
But Sky TV’s long-serving chairman John Fellet certainly knew it could be a politically popular move.  

"You and I could start a political party tomorrow and call it the Free-To-Air Sports Party and we'd get five per cent of the vote with no other policy but that," he told Mediawatch a year ago when the NZ First Bill was still on the table in the House.
But John Fellet went on to say the top New Zealand sporting codes would then suffer.
"Sky is the largest funder of the All Blacks. It's all they can do now to stop top players going overseas. The All Blacks would become the best non-professional team in the world," Mr Fellet said.
With that in mind Labour and National were happy to team up for a grand coalition to vote against New Zealand First's bill in Parliament last May. 
Last Monday though, Newshub’s Jenna Lynch said neither Labour or National would rule out the idea now. 
The biggest sports wouldn’t miss out on big bucks immediately.
Sky TV has contracts securing exclusive rights until 2020 for cricket and All Black rugby. By the time those expire, we will have had another election.
But with those contracts in place, is it even possible to change the law before then anyway?
"I don't understand how it can work. This is government interfering in the private sector and New Zealand stopped doing that in broadcasting in 1989," said University of Canterbury media law expert Prof Ursula Cheer last Tuesday on Radio Live.  
"It certainly undermines the property that Sky has paid a good deal of money for. Legislation would be seen as incredibly onerous from that perspective," she said.  
Prof Cheer went on to say that with big money at stake, this was about more than just sport on our screens.
"For things to turn around just in regards to sport would be extraordinary. I would rather see some money going into some general public broadcasting," she said
If Winston Peters is determined to deliver top sport on our screens for free as a condition of forming a government, expect to see a scrum of of lawyers forming the moment that deal ever gets done.

Turning up the noise on an unlikely 'teal deal':
The left field idea of a National-Green government made many headlines this week, even though political reporters and pundits insisted it was never going to fly - referencing Rosa Parks and The Sex Pistols in the process.

When Opportunities Party leader Gareth Morgan conceded he hadn’t made the cut on election night, he challenged the Greens to hook up with National. No-one took much notice at the time, but three days later a National supporter started an online petition backing the idea.
The same day, Newstalk ZB’s Rachel Smalley said on air that “in an ideal world James Shaw would be in coalition talks right now with Bill English." Her thoughts also appeared in ZB’s sister publication The Herald and deputy PM Paula Bennett floated the idea on TV3. 
But the notion really got moving in the media last weekend.
Former Prime Minister Jim Bolger told TVNZ’s Q+A last Sunday that the Greens should step up to talk with National. Last Monday, Larry Williams on Newstalk ZB lashed the Greens as "dopey" for passing up the opportunity, while at the same time the former Green MP bracketed with the party’s policy on dope in the past - Nandor Tanczos - was talking about it on Morning Report on RNZ.
"There is a lot of talk in the media and in the public at the moment about the merits of a National-Green coalition. There seems to be a deliberate and concerted effort to push it," Nandor Tanczos had written last weekend.
“More high profile political figures are getting behind a National-Green government," said Monday’s New Zealand Herald, mistakenly calling Nandor Tanczos a former co-leader of the party. 

One who actually was - Russel Norman  - appeared on TV3’s AM Show the same morning to say a Blue Green government simply wouldn’t happen.
"Even if the proposition has no legs, a lot of people would like it to grow some," Jane Clifton wrote in the Listener. 
But which people? And why?
On his website Politik, veteran commentator Richard Harman said right-wing commentators David Farrar and Matthew Hooton have been at the forefront of what he called a “dubious campaign."
"What appears to be a carefully orchestrated social media campaign has been running all weekend designed to try and push National and the Greens into government formation talks. The campaign appears to be motivated by National Party supporters - and possibly some MPs - who do not want to see the party do a deal with New Zealand First."
This campaign may have "sinister overtones," said Richard Harman. 
“Some of the commentaries on social media might have been paid for,” he said.
Matthew Hooton denied that.
No one is paying for any #tealdeal campaign. That’s a #conspiracytheory by some @NZGreens staffers.
— Matthew Hooton (@MatthewHootonNZ) October 1, 2017
"The campaign is believed to be being backed by a group of wealthy Auckland business people," Politik.co.nz reported on Tuesday - while the very idea of paying for it amused Jane Clifton:
"I've been having a quiet snigger at those unwittingly joining the chorus & promoting it for free - as if it's a genuine thing," she tweeted. 
TV3’s The Project reckoned it was a genuine thing - with momentum.
“Pressure is mounting. Never has the idea been taken so seriously,” said host Kanoa Lloyd, after which former PM Jim Bolger appeared to give the idea another push (with a confusing US civil rights comparison with Rosa Parks).
On Wednesday, in an airport stand-up that went on for 11 minutes, a frustrated James Shaw tried to tell reporters he wasn’t on aboard the Blue/Green Express bus out of Montgomery, Alabama. He said talk of a 'Teal Deal' was being fed "through proxies and is all PR and fluff". 
Asked whether he believed it was a paid campaign to promote the idea of a National-Greens deal, he said he did not know, and he did not care. It was "all noise, but no signal," he said.
But should we care?

The Sex Pistols Rule.
"What National is doing is not dirty politics," said the NBR's political editor Rob Hosking under the headline How real is the Teal Deal?.
It was likely people are being paid to shop the idea, he said, but  . . .
“So what? People get paid to shop pretty much every idea in politics, from trade unionists to business lobby groups,” he wrote.
"I call it the 'Sex Pistols Rule'," he told Mediawatch.
"They had a song called 'No-one Is Innocent' and that should be emblazoned on the wall of every newsroom," he said.
"Everyone has an agenda. That's not a cop-out for journalists. You've got to evaluate everything on its merits. It is an interesting idea that wasn't happening at this election, but it's an idea that's worth discussing and it will come up again and again," he said.

But even if 'No-one is Innocent', is it right for the media to amplify the noise about a Teal Deal while appearing 'Pretty Vacant' about who was backing it?
No reporters named the people 'believed to be' bankrolling the PR efforts and seeding the idea on social media at the very time when political parties were forming a new government. 
"If people were being less than transparent, that's fair enough," said Rob Hosking.
"But this was an idea that was being kicked around, and the thing that gave it more attention was the vacuum factor. Nobody knows what's going on. I don't see that it has affected coalition talks and it is an interesting idea that will come back. A lot of our long term issues are the issues the Green Party has been pushing," said Rob Hosking.

Brent Edwards signs off at RNZ:
After seeing out another election at RNZ, newsgathering boss and former political editor Brent Edwards has left after 16 years at the broadcaster. Mediawatch asks him why and how he sees the state of journalism today.

After every general election, people who have been part of the political scenery depart as they retire - or the voters retire them. Former RNZ political editor Brent Edwards wanted to see this election out before he left the broadcaster.
Current and former colleagues paid tribute to him on his last day recently. Among those sending a recorded message was caretaker PM Bill English. 
"There are aspects of how the world runs on which we fundamentally disagree," said Mr English.  
"He is very principled, but he never let that get in the way of dealing with people. I always listened to what he had to say and you don't say that about every journalist. I felt he was someone from whom you could learn a lot. He's been a truly professional journalist," said Bill English.  
These days politicians prioritise social media as a means of getting their messages out to people. They can make their own broadcasts on YouTube channels or Facebook Live without getting the news media involved at all.
Indeed, the news media even turn their social media snippets into news. In Mr English's case, the whole country now knows how he makes a pizza and how he jogs. 
In recent US, UK and Australian elections political parties and campaigners sought to bypass the news media and get messages out directly to voters online. 
But Brent Edwards reckons the news media here remain the most important conduit for informing voters.
"The news media still have a lot of influence and that's why journalism is important. We ought not to get defensive of criticism of us. But we ought to review how we perform especially during elections," Brent Edwards told Mediawatch
"Some media got very focussed on the presidential contest between Jacinda Ardern and Bill English," said Brent Edwards.
"Leadership is important but the media must get that balance right," he said.
Days before Andrew Little quit as Labour's leader he was criticised by commentators for admitting he was weighing up whether he should still be the party's leader.
Brent Edwards went against the grain with an opinion piece for rnz.co.nz pointing out that Andrew Little was penalised for that honesty.
"We do have this expectation of honesty from our politicians. The media lampoon people for dishonesty - but also criticise them for political naivety if they're honest. The public bear some of the blame for this too. The media could stop covering politics as a game. That would make a big difference," he said.
"People need to know behind the scene what is being done, but we get obsessed with the game and seeing elections as a horse race. I'm not sure that really serves our readers, viewers or listeners best, or provides the sort of journalism that sustains democracy," he said.
Since the rise of Donald Trump as a political player, media pundits have claimed we have entered an era of 'post-truth politics,' where politicians seem not to suffer for putting out clearly misleading statements and the media seem powerless to counteract the impact of so-called 'fake news'. 
Brent Edwards reckons our media can hold its head up in this regard. 
"Political parties have always put their spin on things to try and denigrate the policy of another party and twisted the facts to do that. The media did its job. On the 'fiscal hole' story all media made the point that no economist agreed. Voters could look at it make up their mind about whether they thought it was significant or not," he said.

Not only was he a senior figure at RNZ News, he’s also been a leader in the journalists union E Tu and a campaigner for media freedom and journalists rights and safety in New Zealand and overseas.
He told Mediawatch, he will continue to be all those things. So why not at RNZ? 
He says that as director of newsgathering he had a management role. There was a recent restructure of the RNZ newsroom in which three colleagues were made redundant. 
"I was required to support that but I have opposed redundancy all the way through. They weren't necessary in my view and I couldn't support them. My option was to resign - so I did," he said.  
RNZ's multimedia transition has been the backdrop to the restructuring and job losses at RNZ.  
"I absolutely support a multimedia strategy. You'd have to be head in the sand to try and operate and survive without one, " he said. 
"My idea is a strategy based on very strong radio, an excellent website and video on demand. All of that has to be underpinned by a commitment to  public service journalism. As soon as you undermine your journalism, then you undermine the reason people would come to any news organisation.
"There are probably some differences around how that happens."
Does he think journalism at RNZ has been undermined?
"I don't think so, but there are always debates in every newsroom about how we do journalism - and there should be. I have resigned my position but I remain an ardent advocate of RNZ, and I hope to carry on having an association with RNZ," he says.
"There are all sorts of teething pains as we go through transition. There are disagreements at times as I had a disagreement about redundancies. But that's life.". 
Recent years have been a time of turmoil for commercial media companies as the revenue they have relied upon  - advertising and sales - has slumped. The number of full-time journalists reporting news around the country continues to fall.  
"There aren't enough journalists covering news today, especially in provincial centres," says Brent Edwards.
Commercial media have responded to commercial pressure by moving away from traditional journalism and towards content they hope will prove popular in the short term.
"Local body politics is central to people's lives and what they can do where they live. There is so much less coverage of this. When I was a young journalist I used to sit through Waimea County Council meetings every Friday. A lot of it was turgid. I admit to falling asleep occasionally. But it was a real watchdog role.
"That is being undermined because we have too few journalists in this country." 

From: http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/mediawatch