Saturday, 14 November 2015

Egalitarian Eels

 Slip Slidin' Away . . .

Most of our readers would likely hold the view that the established media are full of guile and shameless.  The profession of "reporter" or working in the media is pretty close to the barrel bottom scraping lows of politicians in the common mind.  Not that you would notice in some quarters.  The cult of celebrity has been steadily nurtured by the media and by politicians.  The two slimy eels entwined symbiotically at the bottom of a greasy barrel is an apt metaphor for the two professions.

The fundamental problem with media and the personnel who work therein is disingenuousness.   The self-image is one of professionalism--objective, neutral and unbiased--approaching the gravitas and disinterestedness of a judge.  The reality is that the media are players in the ideological spectrum.  They have axes to grind, and plenty of them.

Here is just one example.
  The NZ Herald is an institution drinking deep draughts from the pool of secularism.  Its particular bias is a rank egalitarianism, which wants to see all people equal.  Except that some are always more equal than others.  And it grates--at least at the editorial and reporting desks of that institution (and it is not untypical).

The Prime Minister of New Zealand is a multi-millionaire--a fortune made not from graft and corruption whilst in office, but before he was elected.  The NZ Herald has decided to use his son, Max Key as a poster boy for the privileged amongst us.  Here is what one blogger wrote in response:
The Herald on Sunday does a major story on inequality. And who do they decide to run not one, not two, but three photos of to illustrate their article? Max Key.

That’s appalling. Max Key is a 20 year old, just out of his teens. He is not a politician – his father is. You can argue about whether or not he gets a mention at all, but to run three photos of him is just targeting him because of his father. It’s very sad.

The Herald have a fixation with him. This article is possibly the lowlight, but in total they have had 52 articles that mention him in the last year. They should stop.
No doubt there are plenty of folk within the Herald who run around chiming, "check your privilege" whilst the spittle of egalitarianism drips down their prune-puckered, self-righteous faces.  Normally it is someone else they have in mind--in this case a son of a wealthy Prime Minister, being used as a punch line reinforcing their mindless cant.  Quintessential self-righteousness.

Behold the squirming of the eel against the bottom of a very slimy barrel.

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