Comments on: Honesty again – whodathunkit! What do we do about the news?

By: “Harper, check the water!” Another one bites the rug « Ethical Martini

Sat, 27 Feb 2010 07:54:35 +0000

[...] was railing against the volume of paper and ink wasted in pursuit of sexlebrity scandals and Deborah basically told Ali Mau to get over herself and accept the flogging that comes with [...]

By: Maps

Maps — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 03:19:51 +0000

Thanks for these interesting reflections. What do you think will happen if it becomes ‘too late’ to take the course of action you recommend, or restore investigative journalism to our culture in some other way? I don’t mean to sound facetious when I ask that question, but the phrase ‘before it’s too late’ does crop up a lot in this sort of discussion, and it never seems to be explained.

[Good question, what are your thoughts? For mine it's about attempting to harness alternative journalism and prevent it being swamped by Google and Rupert Murdoch's family - at least that's start, but maybe it is too late. EM]

By: Cnr Joe

Cnr Joe — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 10:02:43 +0000

You are the man Martin

By: ethicalmartini

ethicalmartini — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 22:51:32 +0000

Chris, I defer to your vastly superior knowledge of New Zealand broadcasting history and I agree that the solution is – to some degree – external to the problem, but those inside the system – journos – have to be part of the solution too. There is no ‘final solution’ option here.

By: Chris Trotter

Chris Trotter — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 22:09:34 +0000

Systemic failures are not susceptible to endogenous fixes, Martin. Solutions have to exogenous – which is just a fancy way of saying – political.

Think Mickey Savage and broadcast radio – the cutting-edge media technology of his day.

What did he do?

He nationalised the whole bloody industry, and put the only left-wing radio personality in the whole damn country, Colin Scrimgeour, in charge.

Easy – when you’ve got the balls to actually do something.