I’m a “political animal”
August 22nd, 2010 at 4:00 pm by David FarrarThe Herald on Sunday reports:
Welcome to One News – if you’d like to know how Australia’s elections work, we’re completely incapable of telling you.
That seemed to be the problem for presenter Simon Dallow when he fronted a segment on our closest neighbour’s electoral system.
As an instructional, the Friday night broadcast told viewers little that was accurate about the 1200 candidates vying for the 150 seats in the House of Representatives and 40 of the 76 seats in the Senate.
In fact, it used a completely different voting system to explain what 14 million voters – of 22 million citizens – would be doing with their votes.
The mistake was picked up by political animal and blogger David Farrar. He told Kiwiblog readers: “What a pity they got it so wrong. Simon Dallow, who fronted it, should send an angry-gram to whomever produced that item.”
I wasn’t aware political animal was a formal descriptor!
Throng report an apology from TVNZ:
We’re looking into how we got this so very wrong and sincerely apologise to our viewers for the very embarrassing mistake.
Kudos to TVNZ for being upfront.
Related posts:
- TVNZ gets Australia’s electoral system and ballot paper wrong
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- Animal cruelty bill to be fast-tracked?
- We’re all animal abusers!
August 22nd, 2010 at 4:14 pm
Here, let me help you.
1. You hired someone straight out of “journalism school” and put them on stories with no supervision from a senior journo.
2. You have no senior journos, or at least not enough to ensure accurate news, because you spend all your news budget on the ridiculously inflated salaries of your numerous, and mostly unnecessary, “stars”.
3. No one is charged with fact checking because that salary would mean a reduction in the clothing allowance of your “stars”.
4. For years now presenters and not editors have been the final arbiter of stories, coming in early and reading, amending and questioning. That was okay when they were people like Judy Bailey and Richard Long, both of whom had spent decades as working journalists before taking the presenter’s chair. It doesn’t, however, work when the presenter has been chosen on looks alone, as is the case with many, or because they can court controversy (and hopefully ratings from dribbling Neanderthals) with schoolboy sniggers about moustaches, or any of the many other, entirely stupid, reasons you hired them in the first place.
5. For all your post-error show of contrition, no one there gives a crap. News presenting is no longer seen as fulfilling your vital role as the Fourth Estate in a functioning democracy, it’s a product to sell ads into, no different to “Dancing with the Stars”. That, indeed, is why the “stars” of both are, for the most part, interchangeable.
HTH
Vote:August 22nd, 2010 at 4:21 pm
“Political animal” now means “someone who could be arsed knowing shit about the next door neighbour’s electoral system before talking about it in public”? You learn something new every day…
Vote:August 22nd, 2010 at 4:25 pm
Rex, you missed the resources spent on finding some “random” people to interview who have nothing useful at all to contribute. They must have a database of the ready in waiting, or a team of staff seeking no one of consequence, or a hot line for volunteers. All for nothing to add to the news.
Vote:August 22nd, 2010 at 4:29 pm
“We’re looking into how we got this so very wrong and sincerely apologise to our viewers for the very embarrassing mistake.”
What about apologies for all the other embarrassing mistakes you’ve made, or is that too much to ask?
“Kudos to TVNZ for being upfront.”
Yes I wonder what the atmosphere was like at the urgent Saturday morning crisis meeting? Let’s hope they’ve thought to make a ‘fly on the wall’ doco about it in order to recoup some costs from this unfortunate debacle. They want compelling viewing, I bet every viewer in the nation would tune into that.
Vote:August 22nd, 2010 at 4:35 pm
I wonder what TV3′s lead item is going to be tonight?
Vote:August 22nd, 2010 at 4:39 pm
Pete George suggests:
You’re dead right Pete, but there’s no resources involved. However you’ve highlighted an important weakness I did miss.
6. Because, when a story of any complexity comes in (and that’s anything more than “cute dog finds it’s way home”) none of your “journalists” are capable of analysis or investigation and even if they were you don’t give them the time and resources. Thus SOP has become: a) Consult the TVNZ database of fame whores and opinionated wankers because actually finding someone with real expertise requires research (refer to 2 above) b) Find someone who thinks “Yes, absolutely”. c) Find someone else who thinks “Hell No”. d) Put hem both on for 10 minutes with an available “star” and hope one of them makes a joke about a moustache so as to generate a headline, because they sure as hell won’t generate any knowledge, or help the viewer decide whether the claims made in the original story are accurate or not.
Vote:August 22nd, 2010 at 4:48 pm
I have relaxed from my nightly rants at TVNZ news now I understand it is no more than entertainment. An inferior reality show because most of them at least feature people with talents like being able to cook a decent meal.
Vote:I now laugh when Barbie or Ken tells me they are going to ‘reveal’ a story we have been able to read all day on the internet or Ken begins the bulletin with a series of questions. I used to yell at him, “You are meant to be telling us, you moron” but now I see it’s all part of keeping me amused.
Thank goodness for the internet. Let’s stop this absurd farce of funding TVNZ.
August 22nd, 2010 at 4:50 pm
Then again you could go out and find any Australian of average intelligence and ask them. The preferential system is used for Federal, State and Local Government elections, so you get plenty of practice filling out ballots. Mind you ask any Australian how MMP works and I’d be surprised if anyone would know.
Vote:August 22nd, 2010 at 4:56 pm
BeaB you left the word “mindless” out of your description.
The rest was spot on.
Vote:August 22nd, 2010 at 5:03 pm
They seem to be a bit obsessed with whales at the moment, apart from using a whale for comments now they seem to think nature programs are due a comeback, as soon as they led the last two nights with more whales I switched them off.
Vote:August 22nd, 2010 at 5:54 pm
Whales beach themselves. Upsetting, and hard to understand. But that is what they have always done, and will always do.
Imagine how many do it on uninhabited Islands, Larger land masses, Antartica, The Artic, and places where humans just don’t get to access.
Sad, but I ain’t going to lose any sleep about it. Anyway, I reckon it is that tosser that got banged up by the Japs confusing the poor fuckers
Vote:August 22nd, 2010 at 6:09 pm
Peter Williams tonight read a correction & apology from TVNZ about Friday’s item, so all credit to them on that.
Vote:August 22nd, 2010 at 6:55 pm
So any news about all the other apologies Rodders or still complete silence on that front?
Vote:August 22nd, 2010 at 7:00 pm
I agree with the end to state funding of TVNZ.
That or break it up into public information channel(s) and commercial infotainment channels. Lets not try and make a public service information channel work as a commercial infotainment channel, or fool ourselves into thinking they can serve the same purpose.
Alternatively have the government nationalise the entire 6-7pm slot of the airwaves completely and kill the adverts, the incentive to keep peoples attention span long enough to lead into the next ad break (TVNZ’s most lucrative advertising slots) is clearly dumbing down the news.
No one can be happy with the status quo – the right or the left surely want better quality journalism presented to people with the power to vote!
Vote:August 22nd, 2010 at 7:28 pm
Absolutely!
Vote:August 22nd, 2010 at 7:29 pm
That’ll teach TVNZ not to just grab the first thing they see off Wiki.
Vote:August 22nd, 2010 at 7:32 pm
Reid, TVNZ’s on-air admission of error is as rare as a four leafed clover, so no one should hold their breath.
Vote:August 22nd, 2010 at 7:42 pm
Auntie BBC seems to be having the same problem. On its Sports website this morning, here were a couple of “factual” assertions that it managed to get wrong about the Springboks v All Blacks Test in Johannesburg / Soweto:
“Until Dagg’s last-minute try, New Zealand had not been in front throughout the whole match …” [Wrong: Dan Carter registered the first points with a penalty on 5 minutes.]
“And McCaw’s late try silenced what had been a raucous partisan crowd at the brand new venue, built for the 2010 World Cup …” [Wrong: built in 1987, it had been upgraded before the FIFA World Cup and enlarged from about 70,000 to 94,000+ seats.]
Vote:August 22nd, 2010 at 8:33 pm
The BBC have a huge amount of problems,not least that they make little pretence of being anything other than a “progressive” mouthpiece.
Vote:I enjoy the BiasedBBC blog by David Vance.
August 22nd, 2010 at 9:15 pm
To be fair to TVNZ, they have apologised a few times this year when Throng has pointed out errors in their bulletins.
Vote:August 22nd, 2010 at 10:00 pm
TVNZ makes a profit that it returns to the government as a dividend.
Vote:August 22nd, 2010 at 10:28 pm
DPF would be one of the cuddlier animals.
As opposed to some politicians, who include snakes, poodles, pussycats, cockroaches, monkeys, rabid dogs, screeching cockatoos, and some very bewildered hippopotami.
Now, who exactly is which…..
Vote:August 22nd, 2010 at 11:56 pm
If you believe that tripe Graeme, you’re a bigger fool than I thought you were.
Where does a significant portion of their advertising revenue come from?
Vote:August 23rd, 2010 at 4:11 am
mattyroo (368) Says:
August 22nd, 2010 at 11:56 pm
TVNZ makes a profit that it returns to the government as a dividend.
If you believe that tripe Graeme, you’re a bigger fool than I thought you were.
Where does a significant portion of their advertising revenue come from?
YOU were never meant to nail the lies spouted by the Chardonnay swilling, expense fiddling, Intellectual Socialists.
Everything is GOOD on the Farm, and in the `Ministry of Truth’.
Four legs better.
Vote:August 23rd, 2010 at 8:17 am
“We’re looking into how we got this so very wrong and sincerely apologise to our viewers for the very embarrassing mistake.”
I have a clue, you are lazy from having no competition and you don’t bother to do your jobs properly while operating with an over inflated sense of your own importance. Witness Paul Henry claiming that they, the media, represent the people and politicans must give the media answers on this basis.
Hands up everyone who voted for Paul Henry…
I was under the impression that he was an employee of a commerical operation. Tell me if I’m wrong. This isn’t just one organisation either, its the entire profession in this country.
Vote:August 23rd, 2010 at 10:59 am
The phrase has a certain respectability since it was coined by Aristotle … and anyway, would you deny it?
Vote: