The NZ Herald

Would simply reporting the news be so terrible?? Spaces at a memorial service are not a competition.

Based on our respective populations and the numbers that served at Gallipoli we are getting a disproportionate share already.

Anonymous Donations

The Herald on Sunday's editorial speaking clearly and sensibly on campaign finance:

But it is time to go further and stop anonymous donations altogether. Nobody expects disclosure of the source of each coin thrown into a plastic bucket at a meeting. But it is fundamentally inimical to the idea of democracy that people can donate large amounts of money to political campaigns without voters' knowing about it. Generous donors don't give money to politicians without expecting something in return, and we should know who is giving what, not for the hell of it, but so that politicians' behaviour can be assessed in the light of the largesse.

The Herald Gets Tough On Prostitutes

The Herald Editorial today takes a tough line on street prostitution.

Soliciting in all such places should be a criminal offence. If councils have to specify prohibited areas there is going to be uncertainty, boundary disputes and needless difficulties for those charged with enforcing the law. If localised bans in South Auckland send the trade to other parts of the city there will be an outcry. Parliament must fix this problem once and for all.

I'm no expert on street prostitution but I imagine the percentage of transvestite prostitutes is higher in street walking and that many of them will struggle to find work in brothels.

Rather than attacking vulnerable woman maybe Parliament needs to look at criminalising the 'Johns'.

Crap Journalism

The state of news journalism in New Zealand can be pretty damn poor at times and today we have this rubbish article from the NZ Herald, titled Govt cool on insulation extension. It says

The Government has not committed any new money to a housing insulation scheme despite reports showing it had provided $1.2 billion in health benefits - a four-fold return on its funding.

This seems incredible, how could the government be so short sighted on this issue! However the article continues

Housing Minister Phil Heatley announced last Thursday that the scheme had been so cost-effective that the Government could extend it for a year and help insulate 41,000 extra homes with the original budget. The funding was now expected to run out in July 2014.

Oh right! So the scheme will not run out until July 2014. The Government has over two years to decide if it wants to extend it.

Mr Heatley said through a spokesman that National would make any considerations on its future "in due course".

So rather than being "cool" on an extension to the scheme, the Government will look at in the two years it has until the scheme runs out. This article would have been better titled "Average Journalist writes crap article."

Herald Editorial: Student Loans

The Herald editorial today is on the changes to Student loan repayments: Govt right to tighten up on student loans. Most of what they say is common sense and rather obvious. However there is this paragraph:

In terms of student allowances, the Government plans to cut costs by tightening the eligibility rules, especially in relation to the definition of income. It also wants to focus allowances on the first years of tertiary study - there will be a four-year cap - and on students who can least afford to study. Such targeting is welcome. Too many allowances are being paid to youngsters whose parents could afford to offer support but, instead, are exploiting income loopholes.

I blogged before that I support a universal allowance, however if we don't have one, those who need it the least shouldn't be exploiting it. However I have to ask the questions, how many students are exploiting the current loopholes? How are they going to clampdown? And is it even worth it? I suppose we will find out come Budget Day.

The Battle for TVNZ 7

The NZ Herald reports:

United Future leader Peter Dunne has labelled a move to replace TVNZ7 with a channel repeating TV One programmes a "disgusting insult".

The channel in questions will be TV One + 1. Which is simply TV One running an hour behind. It is the same as the TV3 + 1 already running on Freeview which is a copy of the various UK channels that were doing it while I lived there.

And the Honourable Peter Dunne really does go to town on them:

"TV One represents the worst of television in this country. It is crass, superficial, lowest common denominator rubbish.

"It is too obsessed with its own self-imagined 'stars' and the culture surrounding them than to have any credible claim on being a legitimate national broadcaster.

"By contrast, TVNZ7 has always appealed to a higher standard - both in terms of quality and the range of programmes offered.

"To replace TVNZ7 with the rubbish of TV One is a disgusting insult to the hundreds of thousands of regular TVNZ7 viewers."

Right on man!

Let's have a look at the TVNZ logic.

In a statement, TVNZ said changing viewer habit have seen "time-shifted channels" established internationally.

"Long working hours, shift work and traffic problems have had an impact on the numbers able to watch the evening news in its traditional time slot, and there is now an identifiable global trend towards time-shifting by consumers," the statement said.

TVNZ acting chief executive, Rodney Parker, said the "plus one" channel meets the broadcaster's strategy of reaching more New Zealanders.

"TV ONE has been selected as the time-shifted channel to maximise exposure for the great local content, news and current affairs that it features," Mr Parker said.

If people are having trouble watching the news in a traditional time slot, there are a couple of options available to them. They could record it or they could go and watch it online. Do we really need another channel for the handful of people who don't own personal video recorders and are incapable of using the internet? What about the people who can't watch the news at Six or Seven? We now need a TV One + 2 channel. Rather than wasting his time coming up with bullshit logic, Rodney Parker should be using it to maximise exposure for the great local content, news and current affairs on TVNZ 7.

It is great to see Peter Dunne coming on board with this. With asset sales a likely Dunne deal (See what I did there!) it would be nice to see Peter Dunne leverage his vote to save TVNZ 7.

Two Broke Girls

TV2 are currently broadcasting a show called Two Broke Girls. I had read online that it was terrible and so avoided it. I saw about two minutes of it last week and those two minutes confirmed what I had heard.

Now Paul Casserly at the NZ Herald has summed it up perfectly:

In just a few minutes of viewing you'll realise it's really a moronic, laugh-track-riddled sitcom that makes Two and a Half Men seem complex and subtle.

Who is the moron at TVNZ who greenlit this show and who are the morons who watch it? More importantly when will they be lined up and shot?