[This post produced some strong responses from readers who considered I was being unfair to the producers of Target by accusing them of deliberately appealing to the prurient interests of viewers in order to gain higher ratings. The following piece appears in today's Sunday Herald - along with a photograph of the cleaner masturbating. We're told that the item, described by the show's producer as 'just so dramatic we thought we really can't not show it', has gone viral on the Internet.]

 http://www.nzherald.co.nz/television/news/article.cfm?c_id=339&objectid=10807022

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Regular watchers of Target, TV3’s answer to Fair Go, will know that hidden camera footage of tradesmen doing various jobs in the ‘Target house’ while the actor/owners are out, has been a regular feature of the programme. My guess is that these segments are the principal, if not  the only reason why people watch the programme.

The tradesmen, you see, aren’t just judged on their workmanship or pricing, but on how they behave when they think they have the house to themselves. And, on that score, Target has certainly been an eye opener. Fossicking through cupboards and drawers and reading owners’ diaries and personal mail are at the lower end of their  invasions of the owners’ privacy. Somewhat more serious is perving over and occasionally sniffing the lady of the house’s bras and panties. And, to cap it all, masturbating.

This week’s programme had that and more. To summarise:   Read the rest of this entry »

 Need a little drama to get things moving?

Waitakere News

The absence of anyone from Labour on The Nation was explained by Garner at the very start of the show. The programme had invited Labour’s Spokesperson for Economic Development and Associate Finance Spokesperson, David Cunliffe, to discuss more or less the same things that Norman and Peters were discussing on Q & A – the future direction of the economy. Cunliffe was happy to appear but, conscious of the current sensitivities in the parliamentary party over Labour’s leadership, sought an assurance that that topic would not be canvassed in the interview. He received that assurance in writing from Executive Producer Richard Harman and Garner himself.  Read the rest of this entry »

Kathryn Gray

 Cast your mind back, if you will, to a post I wrote on August 16 of last year. It was headed A Shameful Ruling by the Broadcasting Standards Authority.

The story was about Don McDonald, a Wellington beneficiary who had become a thorn in the flesh of the BSA as a result of his numerous complaints to the broadcasting watchdog about inaccurate reporting on radio and television.

The final straw for the Authority was a complaint by Mr McDonald about an item on One News.

In its bulletin of 6 January the network had reported on the discovery of a supernova by a 10-year-old Canadian girl, Kathryn Gray. The report included the following statement:

‘The Canadian Astronomical Society says Kathryn’s supernova was in a galaxy 240 light years from Earth.’

Mr McDonald complained to TVNZ that the statement was inaccurate because ‘a supernova star at such close distance would barbecue the earth.’ He said the distance from the earth to its neighbouring galaxy Andromeda was at least two million light years.

He was right. What’s more, TVNZ agreed that he was right. Kathryn’s supernova was in a galaxy not 240 but 240 million light years from the earth. In other words, a million times further that TVNZ had reported.  Read the rest of this entry »

liberation.typepad.com

I was of course thinking of John Key, billed ‘the fifty million dollar man’ when he first came to the public’s attention as a potential prime minister in the early 2000s. It would be reasonable to assume that Mr Key is worth a lot more now. He could presumably have lived quite comfortably off his parliamentary salary and perks for the last ten years, and certainly for the last six as Leader of the Opposition and Prime Minister. So even if he’d been earning a measly 5% on his investments, he could theoretically have increased his wealth by 50 percent. His $50 million could now be $75 million.

Now please don’t misunderstand me. I’m not complaining about Key being rich and I don’t begrudge him the money. What I’m interested in is how such absolute long-term financial security might affect a 51-year-old former investment banker and  foreign exchange trader’s approach to his future career. How might a graduate of the bourses of Singapore, London, Sydney and Wall Street feel about settling down to a long-term career as Prime Minister of New Zealand or, heaven forefend, as Leader of the Opposition?   Read the rest of this entry »

The Listener.co.nz

Trotter then advanced his reasons for believing that Shearer had to go. And I think those reasons are sound. Other bloggers from both Right and Left appear to agree.

But this is all just wisdom after the event. Shearer won the leadership of the Labour Party over David Cunliffe on December 13 last year. Six days earlier I had written a post on this site, titled Shearer or Cunliffe? Why I’ve changed my mind.  

If you revisit that post you’ll find that it’s remarkably similar in content to Chris Trotter’s blog, dated 27 April 2012, four-and-a-half  months after Shearer assumed the leadership? And it’s precisely what other bloggers are also now saying?

And yes, I’m blowing my own trumpet. And I’m entitled. Wisdom before the event is a helluva lot more impressive and useful than wisdom after the event.

This morning my co-commentator on The Nation and fellow media trainer Bill Ralston joked about Shearer, ‘He should have had some media training.’ But it was a joke. Media training would have made not an iota of difference to Shearer’s fortunes. He would have proved untrainable.

That sounds harsh, but it is not intended to be. Shearer is simply miscast as the leader of a political party in opposition. To change his image, he would have to change his personality and that, in human terms, could only be a change for the worse. Shearer is genetically challenged as a Leader of the Opposition. The killer instinct and the showbiz gene are both missing. He can be reasonable but he can’t project.

Media training is a waste of time for such politicians. Worse, it’s transparent, an ineffective cover-up job that listeners and viewers can recognise and see through. And that is damaging.

Bill Rowling, whom I mentioned in the earlier blog, was a strong personality who looked weak on television. Attempts to make him more forceful made him look like a weak man trying to appear forceful.

A similar fate was met by the rather wooden Geoffrey Palmer, who was Prime Minister for a year and who, I’m told, received media advice from some Australian gurus in the art. The advice was apparently to be physically more animated and smile more. The effect, however, was to make him look remarkably like the American Eagle on The Muppets.

Media trainers need first and foremost to be skilled diagnosticians. A wrong  diagnosis, followed by inappropriate treatment can be fatal to the patient’s prospects of survival. Sometimes, as in the case of David Shearer, it is kindest to admit that there is no cure and wish them a happy life – perhaps doing something else.

When the weather is fine, Judy and I go for a morning walk around our local suburbs – Ponsonby, Grey Lynn, Herne Bay. Our walk takes between  an hour and  an hour-and-a-half, depending on the route, and invariably ends with a cup of coffee and, if we’re feeling wildly irresponsible, a biscotti. (Did you know that the word ‘biscuit’ comes from the French and means ‘twice cooked’. No charge for that derivational gem!)

We’re quite well known for our walking and expect to be bailed up several times for a chat with friends and acquaintances. It’s fun.

Less amusing is being harassed by the legions of collectors, fundraisers, proselytisers and raffle-ticket sellers who lie in wait in Three Lamps where, less than coincidentally, there are several banks and the local Post Office. I’m perfectly happy to hand over a few bob for most charities, but I really don’t want to be lectured for 10 minutes on the threat to the rainforests, the plight of the blue-nosed dolphin, the work of Amnesty International in Tibet, the evils of Wall Street, or why I really ought to buy a raffle ticket to support our Paraplegic Olympians .

I’m not a cold-hearted, mean-spirited, penny-pinching scrooge; I’m just sick of being stopped in the bloody street and harangued by total strangers.   Read the rest of this entry »

Q:        What do you call public service television that almost no-one watches, because almost no-one knows about it?

A:        TVNZ7

Q:        Why aren’t the programmes advertised?

A:        Because they might attract viewers from the commercial channels run by TVNZ.

It appeared to be an inspired plan, to get our state broadcaster to run the two commercial-free channels TVNZ6 and TVNZ7. TVNZ had the infrastructure, the studios, the staff and the know-how. It also had millions of dollars, kindly donated by the Government, to run the channels.

It was in fact an invitation for TVNZ to shoot itself in the foot. 

Our state broadcaster operates with one hand tied behind its back at the best of times. The mixed model that requires it to be mindful of public broadcasting requirements and programming  and at the same time be commercially successful and return a healthy profit to the government, is as daft as claiming someone’s a little bit pregnant. You can be a successful public broadcaster; you can be a successful commercial broadcaster. You can’t do both successfully because their aims and objectives are antipathetic.

Every viewer who switches to TVNZ7 is a viewer who isn’t watching TVOne or TV2. Why on earth would TVNZ  encourage people to switch to it? That would be commercially irresponsible. It’s also a dilemma the network faces every time it puts a public service programme to air, which is why most of them are broadcast in the dead of night or on Sunday mornings. The programmes that make up good public service broadcasting are in the main programmes that networks believe would spell death to the ratings. Read the rest of this entry »

One of our readers has drawn my attention to an item in the Easter Sunday edition of the  Sunday Star Times. The paper had asked a number of well known people to answer the question: What does God mean to you? An eclectic mix of respondents included fashion icon Colin Mathura-Jefree, novelist C.K. Stead, Warriors and Kiwis centre Jerome Ropati,  former Anglican Dean of Christchurch the Reverend Peter Beck, the Sceptics’ Vicky Hyde and businessman Eric Watson.

In general the responses were what one might have expected. But this response from Eric Watson really surprised me:

“I genuinely believe the teachings of most religions are founded around promoting good morals and strong community characteristics, representing a way of life that’s about helping one another, forgiveness, charity and seeing the good in people. So you could say religion has helped shape how I live my life. It is one of the world’s great mysteries and I often think God is seen as the answer to a number of unanswerable questions or used as an excuse for inappropriate/extreme behaviour we simply can’t explain or come to grips with.”

Inspirational, uplifting and an apt reminder of where our real values should lie in these selfish and materialistic times. And these are the values that have helped Eric Watson shape his life. Sometimes you just don’t know people at all.

 Today,  Easter Monday,  we decided to have lunch down at the Viaduct. A couple of months ago we’d discovered this marvellous Italian restaurant there -The Merchants of Venice. The food was superb, the service exceptional. We’d gone back a month or so later and were not disappointed. For the second time I took the trouble to congratulate the chef. ‘Brilliant. Thank you.’

On both of those occasions The Merchants of Venice had been reasonably quiet. Today the restaurant, and seemingly the entire waterfront, was packed. We nonetheless asked for a table for two. The maitre d’ informed us that there would be a 15 to 20 minute wait for a table. Would we like to sit at the bar?

Judy explained that her husband was diabetic and would have to eat reasonably soon. The maitre d’ brought the menu and the wine list. We ordered a bottle of cheapish Italian pinot grigio and some sparkling water. Carbohydrate to fend off a possible hypo was the next urgent requirement.

On our previous visits we’d ordered the bread and dips to start with. A variety of interesting breads and three delicious dips had arrived post haste.

We waited a lot longer today. What finally arrived was a mountain of bread and two smallish portions of dips. The bread was dry and heavy. One of the dips bore a passing resemblance to pesto in aioli; the other, a yellowish concoction which Judy swears she saw squirted from a plastic bottle, had no flavour we could identify. We left most of the bread and half the dips.

More than 20 minutes later, the maitre d’ returned to ask us if we’d be happy to sit at the back of the restaurant. Beggars, as they say, can’t be choosers, and we reluctantly agreed. The pleasure of eating in these waterfront restaurants is being able to see the water and the passing parade. You couldn’t see the water from our table next to the toilets. Nor, given the relative darkness of that part of the restaurant , could you see anything at all. The couples on either side of us, who were already seated when we’d  arrived at the restaurant, had that hangdog look of diners who’ve waited too long and have exhausted every ounce of small-talk that can fill the empty conversational space before the food arrives.   Read the rest of this entry »

The premise behind my question is that this National Government is stuffed and has little or no chance of retaining office after the 2014 election. A serious mishandling by the Prime Minister of the infamous ‘cup of tea’ episode, the Crafer Farms cock-up, asset sales in general, the ACC debacle, the factionalism within National which that debacle has revealed and the emergence of a less assured and grumpier John Key, all point to an administration in meltdown. Given all of that, the next Government ought to be a Labour-led coalition. But led by whom?

In his weekly Herald on Sunday column, Matt McCarten correctly states that ‘this has been a good week for the left. Labour has been useless for so long we’ve forgotten what it’s like for it to have the National Party on the back foot in Parliament. This week Labour was on fire.’

The column is accompanied by a photograph of Labour Leader David Shearer with the caption: David Shearer and his colleagues finally have the Government in their sights.

But there is no mention of Shearer anywhere in McCarten’s piece. Instead he singles out Trevor Mallard and Andrew Little as ‘pressing the attack’.

In a column headed ‘Scrappers thrive as Shearer acts statesman’, The Sunday Star Times’ John Hartevelt singles out Labour’s Deputy Leader Grant Robertson as ‘the party’s political scrapper’:

‘He’s been called up repeatedly as the point guy in the debating chamber on ACC and asset sales – two of the government’s worst bleeding sores.’

He also singles out Andrew Little:

‘If there were any doubts Little was genuine leadership material, his unflinching performance against a steely-eyed Collins should have put them to bed. That may be discomforting news to Shearer but it will be welcomed by his party.’

No more discomfiting to the Labour leader perhaps than Hartevelt’s description of him as ‘still dangerously bereft of a firm identity and without a proper grip on the leadership.’

Just four months after an election then, political commentators are suggesting replacements  for the current Labour Party leader.  Read the rest of this entry »

Missing in Action: The Wisdom of Crowds in New Zealand

by Alan Wilkinson 

Are New Zealanders well served by our mainstream print media websites?  The two major ones are APN News & Media’s NZ Herald and Fairfax Media’s Stuff.  

As the Internet brings the world to our screens at the click of a mouse, we have access to worldwide news from any international source we choose. So it is inevitable that the role of local media websites is changing from the print versions.  Rather than try to compete with the major international news gatherers or simply relay world news from them, our local media have to add value by selecting items of particular interest and relevance to New Zealand.  A cursory scan of the world news on either the Herald or Stuff websites shows the impact of this localisation and loss of general coverage in favour of human interest trivia with a scattering of regional and NZ interest stories.

At the national and local level, the coverage is much more detailed, competitive and complete.  The Herald website is more directly accessible, while most of Stuff’s coverage is buried deeper in regional or sectional web pages.  Obviously print journalism everywhere is under financial pressure as readers switch to online sources rather than buying paper versions, and as advertisers follow suit.  Furthermore, the Internet provides direct access to the best expertise on specialist subjects. General journalists cannot hope to compete at that level, nor can their newspapers generally afford such expertise.  In consequence, where local news stories require specialist input or insight our media are generally limited to what can be obtained readily and for free. So it is patchy in both coverage and quality.  Read the rest of this entry »

Now that Judy and I are travelling free on the buses and the Waiheke Ferry, thanks to Winston’s wonderful Supergold Card, and our joints are afflicted by arthritis, and Alzheimer’s is just around the corner, we feel it’s time to let you do some of the work while we sit back in our rocking chairs sipping champagne.

So things are going to change at Brian Edwards Media. While we’ll continue to contribute our opinions, we want to open up the site to you, our esteemed audience.

In short, we intend to become publishers as well as bloggers. So we’re inviting you to submit original posts on any topic under the sun for publication on the site. You’ve got a readymade audience who can comment on what you’ve written in exactly the same way that they comment now.

Your post will remain at the top of our Home Page for as long as it continues to inspire comment from visitors to the site, or a more interesting or topical post comes along.

Your post can be as short as you like, but with a maximum length – unless we think it’s absolutely brilliant – of 750 words.

If you can supply copyright free photographs or other illustrations to go with your post, that would be good. If not, we’ll look for them ourselves.

The post will, of course, appear under your by-line.

As publishers, we reserve the right to edit, to accept or decline your post, and to remove any material which we consider offensive or defamatory.   

You should send your post by email to info@brianedwardsmedia.co.nz, including your name, address and telephone number.

Over to you.  Brian Edwards Media awaits your pearls of wisdom.

I find myself wondering whether I want to be bothered with the Labour Party any more. Increasingly, it seems to me, the Greens reflect the philosophical and moral values to which I subscribe more accurately than the Labour Party whose philosophical and moral values are now so ill-defined as to be beyond definition.

I’m a socialist at heart and, whatever it is, New Zealand Labour is not a socialist party. It wasn’t just Rogernomics that scotched that idea; Tony Blair’s ‘third way’, a significant influence on the Fifth Labour Government, was really just a watered down version of Douglas’s ‘trickle-down’ economics. The ‘third way’ was, by definition, a ‘middle-way’, neither one thing nor the other and ill-suited to political idealism of any stripe – a Clayton’s political philosophy.  

I read that Labour’s new leader, David Shearer, wants to move the party to that ideological no-man’s-land that is ‘the centre’. National already occupies that space but, as the distinctions between Key and Shearer lose focus – both promising to deliver ‘a brighter future’ and the Labour leader ditching policies specifically directed at putting more money into the pockets of the poor – I’ve no doubt that an accommodation can be reached between centre-right and centre-left. The centre is a wide church.  Read the rest of this entry »

Coming to your TV screen soon!!!

 In the wake of The Artist, New Zealand’s first SILENT television programme - The Politically Incorrect Meaning of Life Show, starring Mr Bean as a hilarious  Kiwi clinical psychologist with absolutely nothing to say.  

WHAT THE CRITICS SAID:

Side-splitting!!!  New Zealand Herald

I ALMOST WET MYSELF!!! Michelle Hewitson

CHAUNCEY GARDNER FOR DUMMIES – GREAT FUN!!!  Psychology Today

EVEN THE FERALS LAUGHED!!! Michael Laws

THIS SILENCE REALLY IS GOLDEN!!! Peter Calder

FIVE STARS! A SHOO-IN FOR NEXT YEAR’S COMEDY OSCAR!!! Kate Rodger, Film 3

DO THE POLITICALLY INCORRECT THING – WATCH IT WITH YOUR TEENAGE CHILDREN OR ELDERLY PARENTS. WHY SHOULD YOU HAVE ALL THE FUN?