Many people who read G News were shocked but not surprised to read the headline in the NZ Herald yesterday :
"Christopher Luxon’s show of strength is perfect for our angry era - Bryce Edwards’ Political Roundup".
Worse Edwards wrote :
"Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in politics. That’s refreshing and will be extremely well received." - Bryce Edwards.
Worse Edwards proceeded to reinforce the views of a stream of right wing commentators while excluding the views of the Opposition in a so called "Roundup".
First Duplicity Allan blithering about "a show of strength" and how Labour were weak, followed by Peter Dunne rambling about Luxon's Butcher's Knife and how Luxon was sending a strong message, then Claire Trevett,
then Ben Thomas, then Jo Moir ...and a few journalists who added to the action hero status of Luxon.
You get the picture - this was a round up of right wing propaganda - the pom pom team fluffing Luxon, not a round up of democratic voices.
There was no roundup of Chris Hipkin's view, Priyanka got no say, Forget about Debs at TPM, not one Green voice was heard, as the entire left block was silenced, throttled, buried - the silence was deafening as Bryce set about his work and unseen philanthropists paid him to do so - and Victoria University stood by and looked the other way.
There was a brief pondering about a poisoned chalice being handed to Paul Goldsmith - but sadly no context about the "complexities" from Bryce as he eagerly asserted that "Luxon is appealing to our anti-political grumpiness" without any evidence of this nor all the evidence Luxon was going down the toilet with his latest self praise.
I recalled that shortly after Waitangi Day in mid February 2024 - the same Bryce Edwards was trumpeting on The Platform and other media that a TPU poll which showed Act on 14% heralded New Zealand's BREXIT MOMENT - as Bryce read into a single Atlas Network Poll - the idea that Seymour's "Treaty Principles Bill" was gaining traction and momentum.
This was shockingly wrong and the next polls soon shut Bryce up and nobody mentioned it again. ( Still no Talbot Poll for April btw )
But here's the rub - on 14 February 2024 the Atlas Network NZ Initiative economist Eric Crampton stepped up and loudly declared that the Fair Digital News Bargaining Bill would be best left to die in a ditch - and he warned of all sort of unseen consequences experienced in Canada over a similar Bill.
Crampton was singing loud about the Atlas Network objections to the Bill because the next day - 15 February - media heads were making submissions to the Economic Development and Innovation Committee. ( led by Act )
On 18 February Colin Peacock reported that Melissa Lee would consider the response from the EDSI ( Economic Development, Science and Innovation ) Committee on 29 May 2024 - to all the submissions made by the heads of media and Facebook and Google, which would inform amendments to the Fair Digital News Bargaining Bill.
Clearly and obviously Melissa Lee will never get to consider that report on 29 May 2024.
Bryce never mentioned that - and Bryce also failed to mention that NZ First is strongly in favour of the Bill :
"Of the governing trio, only NZ First is strongly in favour of the bill. It campaigned with a policy of requiring “major global tech platforms like Google and Meta to support NZ journalism by paying a fair price for NZ published content” - Duncan Greive , SpinOff 15 Feb 24.
Yes Bryce had missed out the clash going down between Luxon, Act and NZ First - with Melissa Lee the fall girl cast between the warring Three Headed Taniwha !!!
Labour had introduced the Bill on 17 August 2023 and Act had opposed it ( Atlas Network in drag ) and so had National if you traverse the first reading on 30 August 2023. Speculation was rife whether Act and National would support the Bill after the election - and there was word they had toned down - but NZ First was set against them.
What else did Bryce not "roundup" in his "Luxon is my strong hero" roundup?
Reports in mid February filtered down to NZ from New York- that Google were developing AI-Integrated search capability - and Melissa Lee - said she was not happy with the Bill in it's current form - in particular with regard to this new AI search development.
Copyright was a issue here...
"...the biggest current issue is not addressed at all in the Bill. This is the complex situation where news articles are copied and uploaded into the "learning" databases of generative AI companies like OpenAI’s ChatGPT." - Ken Moon
No word from Bryce about any of that, what else did Bryce fail to mention?
After the news broke in late February that NewsHub was going to close, Melissa Lee was asked to give Cabinet a rundown on the state of the industry - which she did so on 4 March.
Lee spoke about the following 4 points :
1. ) Whether Cabinet wanted her to investigate what intervention the Government might take to directly help the industry.
2. ) Whether reducing or scrapping the fees broadcasters pay Kordia for providing the transmission network would be one example where the Government could offer direct help.
3.) Whether the Fair Digital News Bargaining Bill could be reworked to consider other options such as a direct levy ( a new tax ) on the online platforms.
4.) Modernising the Broadcasting Act. This would require legislative change. Lee has previously spoken about the Broadcasting Act 1989 to match modern technology and encourage the media to “harness” innovation.
It was after this initial engagement with Cabinet that Lee then told media she would be taking a paper to cabinet soon.
Subsequently - media speculated that Lee had made a rookie mistake - and failed to consult with Winston Peters and NZ First - but - neither Lee nor Peters would answer questions regarding the process Lee had gone through, or whether she had properly consulted with coalition partners in line with their expectations.
This was all smoke and mirrors - clearly Winston, Seymour and Luxon were at each other's throats and Lee was being pushed around - from pillar to post - an untenable position.
Yes I think Lee mishandled the media but looking at all of the above context Bryce missed out - she became the fall girl - and now the Atlas Network ( Act and National ) will try to prevail on Winston and use Goldsmith as the guy who says - we are ditching that Bill ...or some similar watering down or delay.
That cabinet is going to get choppy in May.
Clearly Luxon needs media to keep fluffing him like the NZ Herald and NewsTalk ZB do - but ditching the Bill may mean there's a media revival against Luxon and his BS?
That's probably enough over one coffee. What do you think?
Friday Morning Coffee
Morena
G
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