Negativity won’t be tolerated

Staff at a New Zealand radio station have been issued with a gagging order prior to Prime Minister John Key’s son taking up a night time slot at George FM.

In the contents of a leaked email, staff are threatened with dismissal if they make negative comments about George FM’s new night time residents. Furthermore, they’ve been told to drink the Kool-Aid and keep their comments positive.

We see this as just another erosion of press freedom in New Zealand and an example of the stranglehold the current administration has on the media. One has to question whether other media outlets are also under similar instruction.

Kudos to the person who leaked the email. Let’s hope that he or she doesn’t now get a hagerraided as a reward.

MediaWorks got government bail out

George FM’s parent company, MediaWorks, was was recently the recipient of a controversial government bail out

In 2011, MediaWorks received a $43 million loan guarantee for the Government to renew its licenses until 2030.The deal went against official advice, and then Communications Minister Steven Joyce was accused of having a conflict of interest as the past managing director of the company’s RadioWorks division and was criticised by blogger Sarah Miles as a case of Government interference in the media . The loan was described by AUT‘s Centre for Journalism, Media and Democracy as a form of corporate welfare… after being placed in receivership,  on the 29 April 2015, Oaktree Capital Management took a 77.8% controlling interest in the business.

US company Oaktree Capital Management is headed by managing director, New Zealander Jeanine Thomson. Prior to working for the company she was with John Key’s old bank Merril Lynch. MediaWorks operates playout services from Auckland and Wellington studios via Kordia‘s microwave network for 3 News, TV3, and FOUR, ten national radio brands, eighteen websites and three locally operated radio stations. (source Wikipedia).

 

You may also be interested in

Josie Butler, the nurse who threw a dildo at National Party’s Steven Joyce (in protest at the TPPA putting patients’ health at risk) could lose her job. She told media

“We already have over 300,000 children living below the poverty line, I don’t want to live in a country where families have to choose between potentially life saving medication or feeding their children because of the increased price of medications under the TPPA.”…

She said she was overwhelmed by the “amazing” support she had received from around the world.  It emerged Butler was one of the life-saving nurses on the front line of the Christchurch earthquakes. Butler was given a Christchurch Earthquake Award in 2012 in recognition of acts of kindness, service and heroism.

The list of award recipients stated that Josie Marie Butler provided lifesaving CPR and first aid to the injured on Colombo St.

Migrant tales – the NZ media “needs to keep the government and the advertisers happy in that order (28 Nov 2012):

There is a far darker side to the media here that not many know. I have one good journo friend that was working for (name of NI newspaper redacted) who put it so perfectly as follows.

“It’s not that we don’t know it’s all going on, we desperately want to report on it. God knows we got into journalism to tell the truth, but the reality is far more depressing. I can tell you that myself and my colleagues have been informed in not so polite a way, “Report on that and you are out of a job, we need to keep the government and our advertisers happy in that order”.

It runs from the back door dealings of what the TPP really means, to National threatening to pull all advertising from (name of NI newspaper redacted) during the last election, to things simply disappearing from all news sources in a ghostly fashion (When you see this happen on google it is scary stuff).

So in essence it is a case of report all is well, keep the advertisers happy, keep the government spin machine running, make stories from nothing as if they have grave national importance and maintain the lie. Truth was a casualty of all journalism when it comes to the almighty dollar, it’s just far more obvious here.

But if you want any further proof I ask you this: Kim dotcom piece run by (redacted) to remove public opinion of him was completely biased and one sided. Then came David Bane (note that this is at the time of the payout). If you want further proof just watch those type of programs and ask yourself WTF? or don’t your brain may thank you.”