Our mass media – mindless, mischievous, malicious…? Is it actually corrupt?

See below. From Bruce Moon, to  the editor of The Nelson Mail, Sunday, August 5, 2018

Dear Victoria,

A lot of propaganda and very distorted stories about land have been circulating recently in the news media, including the “Nelson Mail”.  What is invariably concealed is the primary fact that the tribes were only too eager to exchange large areas of surplus land for material goods which the Europeans provided.  To provide that “balance” which our public library and the chief executive officer of the City Council have asserted to me as being so essential, I provide herewith therefore an article of mine which is not propaganda but is accurately based on the hard facts of history to which references are given.

 

You may recall, too, that on 2nd March 2016 the “Mail” featured prominently an article by John and Hilary Mitchell which I found to be inaccurate and unbalanced in several respects.  I wrote for you therefore a piece to correct their shortcomings, but you chose to ignore it.  I am pleased to report,  however,  that not long afterwards it did appear in the “Northern Age” whose editor, Peter Jackson, shows the great merit of printing material as freely from one side as the other, thereby allowing his readers to make up their own minds on matters of importance.  It is attached below.

Very recently, too, a correspondent sent me the editorial page of the “Mail” for September 9, 2000 with the bold “Mailbox” headline “Dr Mitchell’s ancestors guilty of genocide too”.  Two letters, by B Tod of Motueka and David Curl of Nelson, describe the brutal pre-1840 practices of Maori tribes including the genocide and wholesale cannibalism inflicted on the innocent people of the Chatham Islands by Ngati Mutunga and Ngati Tama – from whom John claims descent.  John had apparently written in support of  Tariana Turia who had made the outrageous claim of a “holocaust” in British settlement of New Zealand – a term surely more accurately applied to his own tribe’s behaviour.  Curiously, on the very same page the “Quote of the week” reports then Finance Minister Michael Cullen stating that Ms Turia had accepted the Prime Minister’s edict that “ministers should not use That Term” [sic].  Well, well!

 

I refer also to my talk “A Jaundiced View of the Treaty” for whose title I selected John’s own reported words.  As far as I know and notwithstanding my cordial invitation, nobody from the “Mail” attended its very successful presentation on 7th July at the rooms of the Hearing Association whose acceptance of the importance of free speech evidently outweighed its fear of “a health and safety issue”.  This had, I understand, cowed the Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology, the Elim Church, the Masonic Temple and Fairfield House into declining to make their premises available.

 

Thus it is attached too for your information.  It was delivered to a very attentive full house – in fact a notice to that effect had to be posted two minutes before its scheduled start.  There was not a single attempt at heckling or any other disturbance; questions and comments were courteous and relevant.  Its success is at least a small contribution to the defence of truth, fairness and democracy which are so much at peril in New Zealand today.  Elsewhere, in consequence of its earlier banning, it has appeared in various social media and assuredly been read by many more people that would ever had done so had it been delivered as intended in the first place.

As one commentator put it, Nelson now appears to be the prime candidate for the distinction of being the first town in New Zealand to indulge in book-burning, though possibly Auckland may vie for that dubious distinction.

 

With my compliments,

 

Bruce M

This very brave man has long been been fighting back. Who is going to help him?

This is a serious question. New Zealand is now in many ways at the crossroads – and it depends on each of us which way it’s going to go… as so much needs to be reclaimed – ( To understand how, see www.100days.co.nz).

What can one conclude, looking at the record of our media giants these years, and the utter bias demonstrated by the now almost inevitable, one-sided presentation of very important issues?

These include the heavy-handed promotion of the politics of racial superiority.

The lack of much-needed scrutinising of the massively costly and divisive Maori supremacy movement – by no means supported by most part-Maori  – but  gaining far too much mileage in being pushed by a relatively  few radicalised extremists – has reached disgraceful levels.

And the biggest challenge to every New Zealander has to be that none of us can walk away and say it doesn’t matter.  It matters very much.

It is individuals, accumulatively, who count. We can ring up the local newspaper – and say we’ve had enough – tell the editors. They won’t like it – but we needn’t grieve over that 🙂 And if you have done your bit…and someone else does the same thing…on it goes. Even if it was only you – you count.

Or what about contacting Talkback – and/or asking your MP, your paid employee, what he/she is doing to represent you and the majority in opposing this damaging movement?

MPs don’t like Talkback. No surprises there. It so very often tells them how so many New Zealanders really feel…

And behind it all, what about the fine individuals you/ we let down, by doing nothing to support them?

We don’t have to be experts in any particular area to realise that there are things very wrong in a number of important areas.

What about saying that we’ve had enough of deliberate bias? And does it raise the question of a basic corruption within these media? 

One brave man, among others, has long been challenging this.

For a copy of Bruce’s attachments, please send a return address. Thank you.

Amy Brooke – Convenor – www.100days.co.nz