Remember when journalism in eN-Zed was about holding power to account and delivering robust, localised reporting? Remember when journalists tackled the Rob Muldoons and asked hard questions? Remember when jourbalusts challenged private busineses’ press releases? It was all such a long time ago.
And oh my, how journalism has changed. We’re now subjected to an unrelenting deluge of low-effort, low-IQ content from our supposed “mainstream media” giants – RNZ, TVNZ, and Stuff.co.nz – and frankly, it’s an insult to every taxpayer who unintentionally bankrolls this farce. And they’re all lined up with their hands out again. “Come on taxpayer, give us more of your money. Don’t make us operate like other businesses.”
Let’s start with the lazy, ubiquitous filler: Australian-based “news.” It’s bad enough we’re fed constant updates on Sydney house prices and whatever Australians are thinking about heart disease or Meghan Markle or the price of cockatoo food. What’s utterly degrading is that our ‘journalist’ or ‘editors’ can’t even be bothered editing the text. Reading about what ‘we’ are doing in ‘our’ country, only to realise the article is referring to Australia and written for an Australian audience, is an insulting experience that speaks volumes about the complete lack of editorial oversight or pride – and respect for the readers/customers. Inagine if any other businesses operated like this.
But the sheer triviality doesn’t stop there. Prepare yourself for the head-spinning cognitive dissonance of scrolling past a report on the devastating humanitarian crisis in Sudan, only to be confronted with a “breaking news” alert about… a nationwide mince and cheese pie competition or survey or post on FB (which of course is just an ad for a pie shop)? Seriously? This flippant equalisation of profound global suffering with frivolous, clickbait papp is a damning indictment of what these outlets consider “news.” It’s lazy, it’s disrespectful, and it shows a complete lack of understanding of what truly matters.
And then there are the “opinion pieces” – oh, the opinions. Don’t eN-Zed’s journalists have opinions! And don’t they feel the need for all of us to have the same opinions! Need an analysis of the new All Blacks coach’s tactical deficiencies? Turn to a column written by a staff writer whose most intimate encounter with rugby appears to be accidentally sitting on a television remote during a game. This is insightful, professional analysis at its finest, folks. Instead of genuinely insightful sports journalism, we’re fed uninformed, teenage-angst-riddled ramblings masquerading as expert commentary.
To top it all off, the basic, embarrassing errors are constant: glaring typos, incorrect grammar, and punctuation mistakes that make primary school teachers weep. It demonstrates a fundamental lack of professionalism and care, suggesting they simply don’t give a damn about the quality of their work.
We, the eN-Zed taxpayers, pour millions of dollars into these businesses. In return, we don’t get impartial, facts-driven reporting. We get a mix of unedited Australian fluff, trivial nonsense, and woke-washed opinions delivered by biased political activists pretending to be journalists. eN-Zed’s journalism is an anorexic shadow of its former self, a lazy, uninspired husk content with taxpayer handouts and delivering a product that is, frankly, embarrassing. It’s time to demand better, before mediocrity becomes the irreversible standard.
Or is it too late even to hope? At the very least, can we stop handing taxpayer money to them and expect them to operate like private businesses – which is what they are?
eN-Zed 