While in the throes of procrastination I found TV3’s election site Decision 08. Here is a screenshot I took of the site. This has not been edited, photoshopped, MS Paint altered or taken out of context.
One has to wonder about MediaWorks decision to run political party advertising at all. Let alone on the election part of their website.
Possible discussion had by the MediaWorks Advertising team:
Scene:
Generic open plan office space with general office hubbub happening.
Phone rings. Brief chatter of Person A on the phone.
Person A (yells across the office): “Hey, some guy from Labour just called up wanting to know if they could advertise on the election site. What should I tell him?”
Person B (fiddling with a rubix cube): “Ummmm. Who’re Labour? Some Womens’ rights movement advocating for safer childbirth practises or sumthin?”
Person A (cups hand over receiver): “Na I think they’re some sort events management company. The guy said something about parties.”
Person C (Sits up and takes notice): “Cool! See if they can do some contra for us! I’m in the mood for a party. Do they do fancy dress?
Person A: “Hold on I’ll check…”
(uncups receiver)
“Hey yeaah. I’ve talked to the team about it. We just want to know if you can throw in any contra, and if you do fancy dress…. ah huh… oh… OK… yeah… Right… I getcha… Oh… hahaha… silly me.”
(re-cups receiver)
“Na apparently they’re a non-profit organisation that hopes to make New Zealand a better place to live by advocating left wing socialist policies and Keynesian economic management… Whatever that means.”
All three break up into a fit of laughter.
Person B: “Sure why not… standard rates apply. We’re not cutting them any deals just because they’re non-profit.”
Person C: “Make sure you get some contra out of them!”
END
TVNZ’s websiteis not playing host to any political advertising. Neither are Prime or Sky TV. One would hope that a media company would remain politically neutral even with it’s choice in advertising. Are we seeing a Rupert Murdoch type switcheroo to the Labour party by Can West? Who knows… I just expected more from them I guess.
I know that objectivity in the media is a lie. But the above image is truly demoralising. People go to the TV3 website in the hope of finding something at least slightly impartial. They go look up the Libertarianz page and what do they see but photoshopped Helen gazing down upon them. Straight toothed smile glistening with hope. Rosey cheeks promising good times to come. How could anyone resist…
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National Radio are too afraid to even air a radio drama series based on the 1908 miners strike because it is vaguely about the formation of the Labour Party…
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=1501241&objectid=10537904
The story ironically has a Greens campaign advertisement. Golly.
Kiwiblog is also ironically running labour ads.
Jackson. It is the free market.. get over it.
See, the biggest problem here is that you’re using Internet Explorer.
Yeah… I know.
But because the PCs in the office are so shite that Firefox is actually slower and more prone to crashing than IE.
I have a plan to try and covert all the PCs (we’ll have 5 of them next year) to Linux without the IT guy figuring out what I have done.
Screw paying registration fees for MS Office and Windows. Screw being enslaved to Bill Gates and the strictures of Microsoft Word.
FREEBIRD!
Salient 2009: ANNND THIS BIRD YOU CANNOT CHA-AN-AN-AN-AN-AN-AN-ANGE!”
You’d hope readers aren’t so stupid they can’t tell the difference between an article and an ad.
But dave, the majority of students are irresponsible, and therefore stupid? We can’t all be like you!
level 3 dave post.
Its really not much different to them running TV ads though, however it is a bit unprofessional
How is it unprofessional? People CAN tell that it’s an ad can’t they?
You know what? I’m not actually that fussed about them running advertisements. The real problem for me is that THE ENTIRE FUCKING SITE IS AN ADVERTORIAL.
http://www.decision08.co.nz/PurchasePage/tabid/141/Default.aspx
“Purchase A “Candidate Page”
Cost of a Candidate Page is $299 + GST
Restricted To Registered 2008 Election Candidates
Buying a Candidate Page means you can edit the page we’ve made for you. You will receive your private individual login to decision08.co.nz so you can communicate your message to Voters via this nationally promoted website.”
Way to go with the objective analysis, CanWest.
Just saw Duncan ‘vote national’ Garner’s piece on the Key scandal where key was working when he said he wasn’t for some corrupt firm, millions went missing. Downplayed, with Garner’s comment, “Labour should play the ball, not the person”; then to follow up, he does a sympathetic piece about key, backing him up about that tired old drama the Owen Glenn affair, playing the person not the ball, far more indepth, all very pro-nats. Crap biased journalism from a guy who earns enough to benefit from voting nat, as he will i’m sure.
Sameful, Duncan.
Duncan Garner doesn’t vote.
No seriously, he doesn’t. Ask him.
is that supposed to make up for his completely biased reporting?
Hungry, Rajan said: “Crap biased journalism from a guy who earns enough to benefit from voting nat, as he will i’m sure.”
It doesn’t make up for biased reporting, but then again he doesn’t vote. So Raj was wrong. Magoo right.
All the reporters are going soft on Key. Not just Duncan. In fact all the reporters are afraid to break the parasitic bond they have with the politicians. That’s why the jumped at the chance to condemn Peters. It gave them a chance to do some “real” reporting. Albeit in a groupthink/pack journalistic way.
This isn’t the first time Duncan has been accused of bias, and it won’t be the last. But he has been accused of it from both sides. Just because you disagree with a story does not mean the journo is bias. I’m sure Duncan is too busy reading kiwiblog to keep up with The Standard like you do.
Tonight I’m sure you’ll all come back and say ‘oh that Duncan, picking on John Key, going soft on Labour’. It’s not a bias – it’s the night’s political news. Try taking MDIA101