How we got here, Who was Roger Douglas?

[Wayne]

compare
gov. of the people, by the people, for the people
with
gov. of the media, by the media, for the media

It could be that the people only know what the media tell them - how many actually think for themselves?

you've just got to look at the mess created by those australian DJs

well that is another story - personally I think there is a lot more to that story than meets the eye but hanging out a couple of DJs seems to be flavour of the week.

to know you don't want the short sighted, not my fault, feel my pain, hear my story media
in charge of regulating us

when they can't even regulate themselves

Mr Smiley started it, he just swings for the popular vote.
I remember some time ago under Helen they 'leaked' a policy paper. People howled and they then said it was just an option and they weren't really considering it. To me that was listening to the people.

[Winston001]

...NZ politicians seem to be led ( almost by the nose) by the media....they have become subservient to public opinion (Some of this, of course, is a result in the huge increase in the speed of communication).

You make an excellent point. Communication is almost instant these days and widely spread. Add in cell-phone cameras, security videos, emails gone astray, texting, recording of phone calls - all of this provides an incredibly rich source of information for the media.

Plus it is easy, no deep thought required, just keep bashing a politician with something and pretty soon the public think its a major issue.

Paintergate comes to mind, the cup-of-tea with John Banks etc both IMHO minor news items but they were easy to report and thus carried on for weeks. No intellect required.

Still, the media are encouraged in this by opposition politicians who jump on the bandwagon too. Instead, these people who are elected to debate the fortunes of this nation, should draw attention to child abuse, our balance of payments, and where we sit on the world stage.

Finally there are deeper media commentators such as Jane Clifton thank goodness. Quite why their reasoned and intelligent arguments do not appear on the 6 o'clock news and Closeup is beyond me.

[speights boy]

the cup-of-tea with John Banks etc both IMHO minor news items but they were easy to report and thus carried on for weeks. No intellect required.

John Key deciding to lay a complaint with the police certainly kept it alive.

Ironically it may have been the same law that forced him to publicly apologise to Kim Dotcom the following year.

[Perry]

Finally there are deeper media commentators such as Jane Clifton thank goodness.
Quite why their reasoned and intelligent arguments do not appear on the 6 o'clock
news and Close Up is beyond me.

Could it be that they don't rate? As in help the ratings? To abet the . . .

No intellect required.

[McDuck]

..... Muldoon didn't anticipate the inflation of the 1970s and as a result his approach was woefully inadequate to deal with the problems NZ faced ( I am certain had it been a Labour gvt pre 1984 the situation might have actually been worse certainly not better).

It was obvious NZ was struggling and any one with money and the means would have moved money off shore ( just as has been happening in Greece) simply because there was little risk of loss and substantial possibility for gain. I recall it was around 1984 that people started criticizing the mortgaging of our future.....but what we didn't perceive was that this perception allowed the selling off of the"past" ( infrastructure, life style, and standard of living). Muldoons 1970s Economic approach is only slightly different than that being applied by the Fed in the US. The aim being to enable the economy to grow reducing the only proportion of debt ( not necessarily the actual debt its self). I believe The zietgiest against mortgage our future has to be re-assessed.........................

Thanks everyone, for all the 1982 background information.
It’s been very helpful.