Interested Parties

Training Camps for Political Activists

The mass media has become a mixed bag of goods, but increasingly they appear rotten.  Previously given the sobriquet "Fourth Estate", the press--the serious part of mass media--has been seen as an integral part of keeping government honest and ethical.  Sunshine is the best disinfectant they say, and the press--or more accurately, the mass news media--has a vital role in keeping graft and corruption out of government.

At times the media descend into farce as they strive to expose unethical double-dealing and corruption at every turn.  A politician kissing a baby is quickly scandalised and sensationalised as another case of paedophilia.  A political party which encourages gift and donations from estates, via testamentary wills is portrayed as a grave robber.  But these childish whiny petulances have been reasonably rare, and are best curtailed by the press and the news media being kept fiercely competitive. 

But the steady stream of news media employees resigning to take up jobs promoting politicians and even themselves becoming politicians is troubling.
In New Zealand it has become torrential in recent years.  It is a case of gamekeepers turning poachers--and the frequency with which it is occurring suggests that the current media mob are sharply bent ideologically.  Political and ideological neutrality is rapidly becoming a quaint-nineteen-fifties notion--so last century.  We also note that the torrent of reporters transforming into politicians most often bears the ideological colours of the left. 

But things took a new turn for the worse recently, when a cabal of folk within Television New Zealand (a state owned broadcaster) employed in the newsroom, organised themselves into a Labour Party cell.  Enter one Shane Taurima, the leader of the gang.  This from the NZ Herald:

The report found Taurima not only had a clear conflict of interest, but had used TVNZ facilities for Labour Party activities. These included a $343 credit card bill for an air fare and the use of TVNZ's offices and email for Labour Party planning and campaigning. Clearly the problem is not confined to the former head of its Maori and Pacific programming unit. Three of his staff also participated in the party activity.

But if these misuses of company property had not occurred, Taurima's position would still have been untenable. He not only joined the Labour Party while working in news and current affairs, he made an unsuccessful bid to be Labour's candidate in the Ikaroa-Rawhiti byelection last year. Strangely, after missing the selection, he was able to return to his position at TVNZ. There, his continuing Labour activities reached a level that, the report says, "would plainly be deeply embarrassing to TVNZ if it came to light".

The way to deal with this is through a strict discipline of disclosure.  It is not enough that disclosure must be made to one's media bosses when it comes to political affiliations and beliefs.  That is the bare minimum.  The disclosure must also be to readers, listeners, and viewers.  The disclosure must involve all potential and actual conflicts of interest: are they political party members? So they vote in elections?  How have they voted?  Have they contemplated employment with a political party?  And so forth  This if the price of being a member of the Fourth Estate.  Without paying that price the Fourth Estate will diminish to an institution of venal influence peddling--which in many cases is where it rests right now.

The fact that it has failed to do this goes a long way to explain why the public has such disdain for the news media.  The financial press has provided a better example.  There are many examples of print reporters and commentators operating in the business and finance sectors who disclose in print whether they have any pecuniary interests in any stocks or bonds upon which they are opining.  This is a good beginning--but it needs to go much further.

Credibility will increase exponentially with systematic disclosure of bias and interests.  The malodorous mess presently attending the media would be purified and scrubbed very quickly by such disciplined integrity.  Without it, the quality and wholeness of governments will inevitably decline.