Hard News by Russell Brown

Meanwhile ...

The web-elf who looks after the site of the National Radio show that I present, Mediawatch, has been busy clearing a backlog from recent shows. This morning you will find (under "recent items") several new transcripts, including those of yesterday's stories about Air New Zealand's PR strategy, and the Newspaper Publishers' Association's slightly odd new copyright agency.

I especially recommend a look at Natasha Utting's wahi tapu story. The Holmes programme (which introduced its original report with the words "prepare to go ballistic") was twice supplied with correct information from the Historic Places Trust on the status of a hill near Tauranga - and went ahead and lied to its audience anyway. Apparently no taniwhas were available that week.