Hot for Nanny

"Labour leader Phil Goff has has accused the Prime Minister of taking a Nanny State approach to young beneficiaries in the Government's youth welfare policy announced at the National party's annual conference on Sunday." - Radio NZ

Phil Goff is right that this is a "nanny state" approach and that the National Party is hypocritical after using the "nanny state" label against the Labour Party ( & the Green Party) during the last term of their government. In this case however New Zealand should be hot for nanny.

Brunette says :

"So congratulations to National for tackling the tough and arguably the most important welfare reforms first. It sends a strong message to the electorate - that National cares enough about the future of everyone in New Zealand to make some unpalatable decisions that the left have never had the balls to make." - Brunette

"Between 8500 and 13,500 16 and 17-year-olds are not in education, training, or work at any one time; 90 per cent of these people will go onto a benefit once they turn 18, and around 1600 are already on a special benefit for 16 and 17 year olds." - NZ Herald

If a 17 year old is not in education, training or work then they are going nowhere. Society cannot afford to have members who are not contributing and these individuals deserve better.

RNZ EPIC FAIL

Actually the whole of the NZ media has fallen a bit short on the Christchurch earthquake.

We first realised something was up when we got a message from Cactus Kate. She lives in Hong Kong. It was about 5.30am.

So we turned on the TV ( we dont have Sky) TVNZ - nothing - TV3 - nothing. Turned on RNZ and they were still running a kids programme. The TV stations and most radio stations are now pushing out info but not RNZ. It is woeful.

RNZ did a special morning report with Mary Wilson and Kim Hill. It is like listening to Decima and Morta - their black delivery was too depressing to listen to. And Wilson does not know how to listen to people. She just knows how to ask people questions - there is a world of difference.

When people dont have power and cellphones become problematic due to the towers being knocked out - good old steam radio is where people will go to get info. So it is important that they continue to push out info.

The Herald started reporting early as did Stuff.

However it was online and especially Twitter that had the quickest most update info and first pics on the event. Soon the media was using the pics and info from Twitter.

It is an extraordinarily fast and organic way to get and spread info.

Hashtags - the search words from which info streams develop on an issue were problematic. The first to get a head of steam was EQNZ. The christchurchquake took a while to get some momentum. There are good and bad reasons for using both tags.

So instead of one key portal to info there are many.

But as we sat, fascinated how the story evolved and how it was handled we learned a little more about the power and the limitations of the online social media community in a major event.

RNZ COMING RIGHT?

Something is happening over at RNZ. Now its sad that Sean Plunket has signalled his stage exit left. ( wow he has his own Wiki page)

Anyway, ever since he announced he was leaving, the show has picked up the pace. The last few weeks have been vintage Plunket. but its not just him who has changed. There is a new rhythm to the show. And it is really working over the big stories - coming at them from all angles and its taking no prisoners. The Te Kau Maori export funding debacle and the Prison Smoking stories were really well handled.

Are we, on the eve of the country's best interviewer departure finally seeing some real value for the taxpayers dollar?

We hope so.

So who are our picks in the race to take over from Plunket?

Hmm

Mary Wilson - no light and dark - just hiss.

Julian Roberts - worth a trial

Noelle McCarthy - fun but lacking the intellectual grunt.

Kathryn Ryan - Not enough balls to roger repeat offenders

Todd Nyall - all light, no dark no hiss.

Shane Taurima - He'd be a maiden run but the boys got the moves.

Marcus Lush Too quirky

Finlay McDonald? - he only interviews himself.

Wallace Chapman - great but too irreverent.

Hard shoes to fill.. But we hope, for the sake of slaking our early morning thirst for good news and info, that RNZ has a succession plan..

WANK ALERT

So this is the sign from a bunch of protesting lefties who think that RNZ is the only repository of intelligence? And we also note that 15,000 people are happy to sign up to another fatuous Facebook campaign to save RNZ but only 150 turn up to protest.. Duh.

Then while we are on the case of RNZ we were fascinated by this story in the Dom this morning.. Ex head of News Lyn Snowdon whos case is now the stuff of Employment Court legend has had the court accept her claim that there is a prima facie case to answer on her allegation that the books at RNZ were cooked.

Thats going to be a fun case to watch unfold...

We also hope that those RNZ Board members who are having difficulty with the current governments philosophy show some strength of character and resign. Its the good thing to do. We want to see the board populated with some visionaries. Soon.

RADIO NZ FAIL

So 15,000 people on Facebook want to "save" RNZ when it isn't really under threat..

100 people are so pissed that they protest... If I was LabourI wouldn't have even publicised such a piss poor turn out.

Which we reckon is the entire list of core listeners..

Sad bastards....

RADIO ALLAH

We were quite perturbed to find a story over on Kiwiblog re the Radio NZ - Blood money junket to Iran. Farrar picked up a document we showed him at lunch and has run it as a scoop. What a tosser!.


This was the missive from RNZ spinner John Barr yesterday - note the declaration that the Iranian propaganda machine IRIB Islamic revolution of Iran Broadcasting Agency is parting with blood money so the NZ journalists can attend an international radio talkfest they are sponsoring.


John Barr 2/22/2010 2:05 PM

Two blog sites ( dont forget the NBR )- not a blog site but main stream media ) are currently running a story that Radio New Zealand is being sponsored by the Islamic Republic of Iran. To clarify the position for staff, two Radio New Zealand staff members have been invited to take part in an international radio festival and conference in Iran, but the
invitation came not from the IRIB organisers but the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union, the umbrella agency for public broadcasting in our region. Our staff are not representing Radio New Zealand, but are attending on behalf of ABU, and if that organisation had not issued the invitation, they would
not be attending. All the costs of the trip will be reimbursed by the IRIB. No programme-making or gathering of content for air on Radio New Zealand will be done during the attendance at the event.

Then we got a copy of an internal email trying to shed some " light" on the issue.

Its the one Farrar must have sifted from us at lunch.


Email dated 23rd March

As staff may be aware, there has been some ill-informed discussion on some blog sites regarding the attendance of two Radio New Zealand staff at an upcoming radio festival in Iran.

Some background information on this issue, which has been provided in response to a query from the New Zealand Herald, is attached to this email for the information of staff.

Peter Cavanagh
Chief Executive and Editor-in-Chief

ABU Invitation

Spoken Features Manager, Paul Bushnell, and Executive Producer of Drama, Adam Macaulay, have been invited by the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU) to be its representatives at a radio forum and training workshops to be held in Iran in May. The same ABU of which RNZ is a member

This approach was initiated by the ABU. Without a request from the ABU, Radio New Zealand would not be attending this event. Note the Iranian broadcaster is on the the ABU council.

The ABU is the umbrella organisation for public broadcasters in the Asia-Pacific region, representing around 200 broadcasters and broadcasting organisations from more than 60 countries. Radio New Zealand and TVNZ are both members of the ABU, as are the BBC and the ABC in Australia.

The radio workshops are an ABU event designed to help train broadcasters from the developing world. The radio forum is an event organized by the ABU and hosted by the Iranian state broadcaster, IRIB (Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting).

The two Radio New Zealand employees will be attending both events as representatives of the ABU, not as representatives of Radio New Zealand. As ABU representatives they will conduct training workshops, act as jury members for various awards and participate in forum discussions dealing with subjects such as radio features production and online broadcasting.

They will not be taking leave to attend. So they are being paid by RNZ but not representing RNZ???? So the taxpayers are paying their salary while they are guests of a corrupt regime?

Their attendance is in line with Radio New Zealand’s commitment to the ABU and other organisations such as the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association (CBA) to assist in the training of broadcasters from developing countries.

There will be no cost to Radio New Zealand. Under a separate arrangement between the ABU and the IRIB, the costs of all ABU representatives attending the event are covered by the host broadcaster.

So Iranian blood money is being used to fund the junket!

International attendance at this year’s event has not yet been finalized. By way of example however the event was attended by the BBC in 2008 and Australia’s ABC in 2009.

It is a tribute to the international professional standing of Radio New Zealand and the two individual staff members concerned that the ABU has asked them to be their representatives at this event.

No programme-making or content gathering activity will take place during this event and no material from the event will be used on air by Radio New Zealand.

And this is the organisation that has the temerity to claim that it will be tainted if it forced to accept sponsorship from big business?? So its okay for to take sponsorship from a corrupt regime thats very existence is based on the supression of freedom but not okay to have commercial sponsorship?

And then we have this small issue that Ace journo David Cohen of NBR has uncovered.

EPMU to launch Walkley media magazine

The Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union hopes to broaden the debate about the role of journalism in New Zealand with the launch of Australia’s leading media magazine, The Walkley, in Wellington this evening and in Auckland tomorrow evening.

The launches will feature a keynote speech from Chris Warren, secretary of the Australian Media Alliance and immediate past president of the International Federation of Journalists, about the challenges facing journalism in New Zealand and Australia.

Brent Edwards, chair of the EPMU print and media industry council, says the magazine has potential to make a significant contribution to journalism in New Zealand.

“The Walkley has been published for decades by a foundation set up by our sister union, the Australian Media Alliance, and has made a huge contribution to Australian journalism. It’s a great privilege to be able to work with the Alliance to make the magazine a transtasman publication.

“We’re hoping The Walkley will not only inform journalists here but also provoke a wider debate about the role of journalism and how we practice it in New Zealand and Australia.

“This is a critical time for journalism in this country and we hope working journalists will take the opportunity to contribute to the magazine and get that debate going.”

Chris Warren says he’s pleased to welcome New Zealand journalists into the Walkley community.

“This gives us an opportunity to discuss and debate issues that affect us across Australia and New Zealand. We’ve got a lot to share and a lot to learn in what is becoming an increasingly common media space – same employers, same challenges, same issues.”

The first transtasman edition of The Walkley will feature Brent Edwards writing about the EPMU’s Journalism Matters campaign and Gael Woods on the debate over how name suppression and contempt of court should apply to bloggers.

Journalists, whether union or non-union, are invited to the Wellington launch this evening at the Connolly Hall, Guildford Tce (behind Sacred Heart Church, Hill street) from 6-8pm, and the Auckland launch tomorrow from 6-8pm upstairs at the Shakespeare.

For more information about The Walkley visit www.walkleys.com/magazine

ENDS

Apparently Brent Edwards and Gael Woods, both high profile RNz staffers and lefty unionists are allowed to write about highly political articles in union publications...

Something its not okay for Sean Plunket to do..

So we think its time for RNZ to stop pretending that it is a bastion of political neutrality when in fact it is a hotbed of leftist views and staff are prepared to suck up to corrupt regimes for a junket to the other side of the world.

Time for a new board .....

RNZ CORPORATE MEMBER OF THE ABU

Funny how bullshit can catch up with you .

We have expressed disgust at the fact that RNZ workers have been sponsored to attend a Radio talkfest in Iran hosted by the Iranian propaganda machine the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) and event they are promoting and and jointly funding with the Asian Pacific Broadcasting Union ( ABU )



Now when we ran the story RNZ's mouthpiece John Barr was quick to distance the broadcaster from the event.

Two Radio New Zealand staff members have been invited to take part in an international radio festival and conference in Iran, but the invitation came not from the IRIB organisers but the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union, the umbrella agency for public broadcasting in our region. Our staff are not representing Radio New Zealand, but are attending on behalf of ABU, and if that organisation had not issued the invitation, they would not be attending.

John Barr
Communications Manager
Radio New Zealand

Now a simple search of the ABU site shows that RNZ is an Associate member.



But its getting even more interesting... the IRIB is a not only a member - its on the ruling council of the ABU.

So this raises a couple of interesting issues. Firstly it is disingenuous of Barr to try and distance RNZ from the event. Secondly if RNZ has not officially sanctioned the trip then have the RNZ staffers asked official permission as they are required to do under the terms of the Editorial Policy 2005 that states that all staff must get permission of the CE for any junkets or non RNZ engagements?

After all we all watched with interest when the state broadcaster came down on Sean Plunket for writing a column in Metro , which apparently is outside the the terms of the 2005 policy.

So

• we have RNZ employees being sponsored to speak at an international conference that is being sponsored and hosted by the corrupt Iranian State Broadcaster.

• We have RNZ's mouthpeice saying its staff are not representing RNZ at the talk fest.

• We have RNZ being a member of the organisation co-hosting and funding the event

• We dont know if the staffers have official permission of the CE to take part in a non - RNZ event which will be in a highly charged political environment.

And just in case you are wondering why we think its an affront to every New Zealander that the RNZ staffers appear at a conference that is essentially hosted ( and we bet largely funded ) by the Iranian propaganda machine the IRIB ...

Then here is the reason why.



And this man who heads the organisation IRIB that is effectively sponsoring the RNZ junket lied about it as he called the video a fabrication.

Everyone who cares about democracy, in the name of Neda Agha Soltan, should write to RNZ at rnz@radionz.co.nz and express their deep concern that this has been allowed to happen.

RNZ UNION MEMBERS TAKE CASH FROM IRAN PROPAGANDA MACHINE

Well well well, looky here. It appears that RNZ staffers are allowed to be sponsored after all.

RNZ puts out a glossy little internal publication skite sheet called Sound bites.

Paul Bushnell and Adam Macaulay have been invited by the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union to attend this annual event held in Iran, running from 26 - 29 May. Adam will be taking part as an ABU jury member, and helping to run an ABU Prizes Backpack workshop on drama (for broadcasters from all over Asia) which runs before the festival. Paul will be contributing some papers to the adjacent radio forum, and chairing some of its sessions as well. All costs for the trip are covered by the conference organisers, the IRIB (Islamic Revolution of Iran Broadcasting agency).

It is headed by this arsehole Ezzatollah Zarghami who tells lies. He is chief propaganda fella for Iran.

Sound Bytes #140 19 February

We think that this plain wrong on too many fronts to list.

This trip should not be allowed to go ahead. and it sets a very dangerous precident.