Posting videos on Facebook is not media. It doesn\u2019t fact check you. It doesn\u2019t dig beyond the first line of spin. There\u2019s no rebuttal or follow up. Social media is propaganda, not public service. By dropping this interview, the PM wants to hide things from you and replace it with advertorials for the National Party. That\u2019s what\u2019s happening here.<\/p>\n
In the US Pete Buttigieg, or \u201cMayor Pete\u201d, the former South Bend mayor, presidential candidate and Transportation Secretary under Biden, takes exactly the opposite approach. He has built his profile by going on Fox News, fronting up to its ultra-conservative hosts and trying to persuade them and the Fox audience of a different way. It\u2019s a contest of ideas \u2013 it\u2019s great TV and you learn a lot regardless of your lean.<\/p>\n
And it\u2019s good politics for Buttigieg too \u2013 conservatives see that he\u2019s not a bad guy \u2026 for a Democrat.<\/p>\n
Mayor Pete can do it because he knows his stuff, believes in his position and can confidently sell it. Which is the problem with Luxon. He can\u2019t. He doesn\u2019t have the ability to face up to a tough interview and come out of that exchange looking good. That\u2019s a problem for the leader of a political party and an even bigger problem for a prime minister.<\/p>\n
Dallas and Donna Gurney own the Whananaki General Store. Photo \/ supplied<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s an idea you can have for free: wouldn\u2019t it be a true demonstration of how closely RNZ and TVNZ can work together if the next time the PM was due to come on Morning Report, John Campbell handed it off to Tova. You could broadcast it live across both TVNZ and RNZ. It would show politicians you can\u2019t hide from those holding them to account. You don\u2019t get to pick and choose your favourites.<\/p>\n
I\u2019d also be thinking about having a flip chart constantly on the Breakfast desk counting the number of weeks the PM hasn\u2019t fronted up. Make it a running theme and embarrass him into appearing. Remind the audience every day, the PM doesn\u2019t want to talk to you. He doesn\u2019t think you are worth the time.<\/p>\n
In the past, on a big news day, you\u2019d hear the PM on the radio in the morning, then on Holmes and Campbell Live at night. We had programmes such as Assignment. 60 Minutes. Backbenches. 3rd Degree and many others. Apart from Jack Tame\u2019s excellent Q&A and a smattering of radio interviews, these opportunities are now gone, replaced by algorithms and social media echo chambers.<\/p>\n
The late broadcaster Sir Paul Holmes. <\/p>\n
We should expect our Prime Minister to uphold what protects democracy, not dismiss it when they\u2019re not good enough to stand up under the pressure.<\/p>\n
If not, the result can only be politicians who feel they can get away with anything. And that is a slippery slope.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Posting videos on Facebook is not media. It doesn\u2019t fact check you. It doesn\u2019t dig beyond the first…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":394959,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[17517,1970,7054,16426,92642,25056,165527,58831,307,2082,105808,5620,185,16427,111,43,139,69,96136,23853,21536,116401,6445,39163,6041,102],"class_list":{"0":"post-399215","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-because","9":"tag-believe","10":"tag-breakfast","11":"tag-christopher","12":"tag-coward","13":"tag-dallas","14":"tag-ditched","15":"tag-ditching","16":"tag-dont","17":"tag-for","18":"tag-gurney","19":"tag-interview","20":"tag-is","21":"tag-luxon","22":"tag-new-zealand","23":"tag-news","24":"tag-newzealand","25":"tag-nz","26":"tag-obrien","27":"tag-scared","28":"tag-spin","29":"tag-tova","30":"tag-tvnz","31":"tag-tvnzs","32":"tag-weekly","33":"tag-with"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=399215"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399215\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/394959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=399215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=399215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=399215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}