Nussbaum is right to say that the "level of debate and reporting in the major newspapers and at least some of the television networks is impressively high." In fact, India is one of…

With a nod to the other thread, imagine this happening:

American Secretary of State / British Foreign Secretary says, before the Senate / Commons, that leading figures in business, with strong ties to…

Yes, more world news would certainly fill the hour. But how many non-sport reporters does NZ media usually have overseas? Three or four? So "foreign" news tends to be a bit detached – or it's a straight grab from ABC or CBS of…

I don't believe enough news happens in NZ to fill an hour, so the space has to be stuffed with trivia and beatups.

I'd agree, although the point that spending effort/money might uncover more NZ news. But I doubt the accountants would approve. Gossip is cheap to report news is…

Anyway – saw Taking Liberties today at a local cinema. If you haven't…

I don't believe enough news happens in NZ to fill an hour, so the space has to be stuffed with trivia and beatups.

This mornings top 4 headlines in the Herald
– minor power cut in outer Auckland suburb…

Yup, it's an artefact of prohibition, and specifically the ability of NZ to interdict imported drugs and precursors. Meth and dope are the only drugs that don't rely on illegally imported substances and are thus…

It qualifies as a "good" landing – everyone walked away.

Not quite an "excellent" landing – that's one where the plane is able to take off again.

I understand your points. I guess my point is that I believe that there is a need for a national news broadcast, that genuinely tries to broadcast significant and important events. So that the public might become more informed.

You are of course right there is no imperitive…

NZ 20/20 are working on a piece about the…

but came across this interesting comment in the readers' feedback to the story on Stuff

OMG! Amongst all the dross in those readers' feedback/your views pages, someone is actually doing the journalists' job for them.

How terribly Web 2.0
Another nail in the coffin...

Good spotting, so young Millie may have heard it all before. I hope Dr E has as good a grip on reality as stephen walker of tokyo.
Given how enthusiastic Kiwi experimenters…

Of course that should read 'what I used to stir into my' coffee . . .

__"Why have reports failed to recognise that…

Amen.

Some folks from LEAP – http://www.leap.cc Law Enforcement Against Prohibition – were here a couple of years ago, and Eddie Ellison (20+ years at Scotland Yard) told me meth was only briefly popularly…

meth, freebase, sugar, television, nicotine:
the latter seems prevalent...

I know what you mean ... but ... I know at least a half dozen people who caned it every weekend FOR YEARS on E without any problem. They remained (by and large) fully…

Hey, Dancing With The Stars is just the latest iteration of mind-crushingly dumb light entertainment – a genre with a long and honourable pedigree in broadcasting. That I can (just…

I cannot fathom how people can even mention crystal methamphetamine and MDMA in the same sentence.

Mild use of crystal methamphetamine results in:
1. Narcissism
2. Lots of boring monologues
3. Higher metabilism and the possibility…

Fluffy?!?! This means Jack might just be able to play against South Africa this weekend! This is HUGE news!

Er, sorry to disappoint you, but he's still having the family time.

The irritation isn't the content per se, but the conflict between the content and the packaging – broadcasters provide entertainment (gossip / sensationalism / garbage) but try to frame it as important, or informative, or newsworthy or In The Public Interest.

Sing it, sister. If they stopped claiming it was…

I'd respectfully suggest to Bart that if he turned his eyeballs elsewhere – and, say, tens of thousands of others did so – someone might get the hint sooner rather than later? The marketplace isn't a one way street.

With 900,000 people watch the final of Dancing With the Stars,…

While I suspect that there is a socially significant number of people who have simply given up on TV, they don't tend to get counted in TV stations' strategic rationalities – along the lines of "They don't vote for us, so…

Bart, many of us might like to see more worthy news, less 'trivia', more analysis, more world events etc etc etc, but I have to ask, in a fully commercial model, where is this imperative of which you speak?

This is an entirely rhetorical question, Damien, but I suspect TVNZ…

Fluffy?!?! This means Jack might just be able to play against South Africa this weekend! This is HUGE news!

Ok, so it's an important sports story. But I don't know who he is, so he and his newborn are further down my list of news than any P child is.

can anyone in this forum say that they did nothing stupid and or illegal at that age?

P & receiving $30k stolen goods? I can say that.

TV1 or TV3 could choose to deliver news at 6 pm. Instead they play for ratings. The NZ herald does the same. There is little of the NZ media that doesn't allow ratings to define what they present to the public.

Bart, many of us might like to see more…

This all to do with payback, no two ways about it.

Perhaps; if so it's unfortunate that there are so many odious people happy to throw shit at someone's hitherto largely anonymous children to get back at them.

The Herald's website reports this morning that a rugby player named Chris Jack and his wife have just had their first baby.

That's far more fluffy news than Millie Elder being in court,

"All Black places wife, child ahead of rugby" is, I would submit, still bigger news than you…

Surely neither you nor Damien believe people should get what they want?

This reminds me, I heard (Hey, hey it's) Andrew Shaw on the radio the other day, explaining why it's someone else's fault a long time ago that TV programmers shower us with shit each day.

Am I alone…

It occurs to me that I'm more likely to know someone who has a drug problem than someone who's been in a plane crash.

You're infinitely more likely to know someone who has gotten drunk and been an obnoxious arse in public, or (even worse) gotten behind the wheel of…

Yup a great big pair – platinum plated ones:).

...what people profess to want and what the ratings seem to suggest they want can be at odds...

Surely neither you nor Damien believe people should get what they want?

Of course trivia and gossip rate highly. Good grief…

The Herald's website reports this morning that a rugby player named Chris Jack and his wife have just had their first baby.

That's far more fluffy news than Millie Elder being in court, yet no one gets outraged that the media are reporting the commonplace occurance of a birth.

Fluffy?!?!…

Not everyone flies – but everyone remotely familiar with NZ knows the product of Paul Holmes .

But for a money story to break through past sex/death/celebrity/drugs to the top of the bulletin, it needs the essential qualification ... taxpayers' money. That pushes the buttons. Outrage-ometer is on high.

Otherwise it's just numbers and that's boring as.

Plus the average age of reporters…

It occurs to me that I'm more likely to know someone who has a drug problem than someone who's been in a plane crash.

While a plane crash is a pretty thrilling news story, a young person with drug-related troubles is something I can relate to more personally than a…

my partner and I looked at each other in astonishment that the plane story came second after Millie on TV3 6o'clock news last night!

It occurs to me that I'm more likely to know someone who has a drug problem than someone who's been in a plane crash.

While a…

I'm just saying that the stats on the Herald page show you what was most clicked.

Won't trivia stories always win on clicks? Person A reads business news, person B reads Auckland news, Graham Reid reads the music reviews, but they all glance at the trivia and schadenfreude section. Does…

I read this story (in at No. 1) with a shudder.

God, I hate flying in those small planes...

But to suggest that simply because they have a large readership then what they publish is NEWS – is bollocks.

Equally, to argue that because lots of folks read the story about Ms Elder's drugs charges then it is NEWS – is also Bollocks.

Would that make it a pair…

If that kid grows up to be a run of the mill 19 year-old drug…

Can't find the Chris Jack Baby Shock! story on the main page of the Herald site, come to that.

That's far more fluffy news than Millie Elder being in court, yet no one gets outraged that the media are reporting the commonplace occurance of a birth.

You can rail all you like at the media for putting Millie Holmes front and centre in their bulletins, but the stats don't lie.

warning rant below

Ok David, I know you love sarcasm but on the off chance you believe the above I'll argue with the statement.

Womans Day/Womens…

Just in case that isn't enough to get it printed, it also offers the journalist/publication the chance to sound off about usesless celebrities,…

Pimenta no cu dos outros é refresco.

Now, how about that Pepidemic then?

Oh and random prediction for the week's coming gossipy news in either Stuff or the Herald: WAGS! I've seen at least three big papers run with…

how many of the folks who pushed those stories up the Herald's hit parade were just getting off on seeing Holmes – and presumably his spoilt rich-bitch daughter – get thoroughly humiliated in public?

I'll punt that that'd be quite a few. I further punt that Dancing with the Stars…

I'm also proud that I could honestly say I didn't actually know who Millie is.

Me neither till yesterday. Is she related to Gilda?

Does anyone remember the rage for hyperventilating (on purpose) until passing out at intermediate age?

Yup. This was 1980. You had to have a helper behind you to squeeze your diaphragm in a kind of Heimlich manoeuvre after you'd huffed and puffed for a minute, in order to bring it…