from theRedBaiter.com
One is from Stuff’s “Chief Political Reporter” Henry Cooke and another is from the editorial writer at the Otago Daily Times. The current editor at the newspaper is Barry Stewart.
If there were any mature and responsible people in charge, both of these media people would be fired for such rank misjudgements (in fact one of them is the person in charge).
Cooke tweeted the following [Wednesday]. It’s a picture of petrol containers stored under the table of the protest organisers [at Parliament on Tuesday]. Why did Cooke consider such a picture worth posting? The obvious implication is that they were there to fuel molotov cocktails or create other incendiary events.
Mr Cooke added the comment that the petrol containers “could definitely just be for a generator”. Of course they were, so what was the purpose of the tweet other than to generate unnecessary fear and smear the protesters? Henry later deleted the tweet, but his subsequent lame excuses don’t wash.
In fact the containers were indeed there to fuel the generators used to supply electricity to the PA system during the protests. Mr Cooke’s deceitful implication should get him fired of course, but it won’t because he is who the the NZ media are today.
There is no accountability. From management to junior reporters, they’re all Henry Cooke and they’re all quite content to make these kind of wild cowardly smears and baseless assertions. The implications of Cooke’s tweet, that the protesters are dangerous terrorists, has been amplified daily right across the NZ media.
For example the Otago Daily Times today runs an editorial implying the protesters are a dangerous virus within New Zealand, and absurdly and maliciously connecting them to Brendon Tarrant, the psychopathic Australian man who carried out the Christchurch mosque massacre. Here’s the key quote from the editorial-
It was echo chambers, some parallel viral views and delusions that helped foster the evil Christchurch-mosque murderer’s attitudes and actions.
Just vile and disgusting. Tova O’Brien of Newshub of course compared the events to the US capitol riots (beaten up by the lying Democrat controlled US media into an act of insurrection). Ms O’Brien’s complete report on the demonstrations was a shameful litany of smears, hyperbole, fear mongering and a prime example of the completely irresponsible sensationalism that identifies her reporting [not only her party political broadcasts, but those of Jessica Mutch McKay of TV1 also — Eds].
The media have an important role in western democracies, in that voters have to be informed in order to make the right electoral choices. New Zealand is denied this important component because our media are largely immature half-educated children with very little life experience, and/ or political activists devoted to progressive [read Woke] causes.
It is why the country has drifted into a soft tyranny, and the protests we see are the people fighting back. Its expected that the fake media will discredit the protesters, because the fake media are all fans of the current tyranny, and they helped build it.
They have said recently they’re upset by the attacks on their profession at the protests. After such stuff as is exampled above, from Henry Cooke and Tova O’Brien and the ODT, what the hell do they expect?
The government’s integrity has gone and so has the media’s. It represents shameful unprincipled behaviour by both, the government lusting for power and the media lusting for money.
The behaviour by STUFF with its sycophantic apology for “colonialism” I have no doubt, lost the papers a welter of subscribers. Both TV and Stuff newspapers are now subservient to a ruthless government.
Remember to have a PA system when you make your Molotov cocktails kids.
And the below comment is just projection, they are clearly talking about themselves.
“It was echo chambers, some parallel viral views and delusions that helped foster the evil Christchurch-mosque murderer’s attitudes and actions.”