The proposed shutdown of Newshub by owner Warner Brothers Discovery will lead to the loss of hundreds of jobs.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon told State-funded media RNZ that while the shutdown is unfortunate, the media industry must innovate to survive in a changing landscape. Consumer habits had changed and there was a need for media outlets to adapt to maintain sustainability.
Luxon said any intervention by government in the media sector was ‘unlikely’.
The closure of Newshub, which has been a significant player in New Zealand’s media landscape since its inception in 1989, would leave state-owned TVNZ and Whakaata Māori/Māori Television as the only free-to-air television newsrooms, raising concerns from some quarters about the impact on media plurality and democracy.
Labour media spokesman Willie Jackson said he was surprised at the closure although he was aware of the organisation’s financial difficulties since last year. Labour leader Chris Hipkins said democracy depends on an informed citizenry, which in turn relies on a ‘diversity of information sources.’
Various political leaders and media personalities also spoke to RNZ about the closure, with some expressing sadness and concern for the democratic implications of reduced media diversity. The article also touches on criticisms of the media by politicians and the struggle of the media industry to maintain trust and sustainability in a rapidly evolving digital environment.
Act Party leader David Seymour said competition was important in the media sector for a healthy democracy and suggested the possibility of another commercial operator using Newshub’s resources. Seymour said there was no likelihood of government involvement in the media market, as the government was ‘not there to prop up any particular medium’.
Meanwhile there was little sympathy for Newshub’s predicament on Twitter, with most users blaming the organisation for its own demise, largely as a result of its failure to provide balanced and accurate reporting during the COVID crisis and for pushing ‘woke’ agendas like climate change and racial division.
Here’s last night’s Newshub broadcast about their closure (2024-02-28). pic.twitter.com/xRSnS9YRdF
— NZ Media Watch (@nz_media_watch) February 28, 2024
Cry me a river!@LloydBurr and @MelChanGreen spluttering tears on air this morning about losing their jobs at Newshub’s AM Show.
We’ve got no tears for you!
Your media outlet fully supported the bullshit government narrative that Covid unvaccinated people should be removed from… pic.twitter.com/zsQldKAVtz— Resistance Kiwi (@ResistanceKiwi) February 28, 2024
The early narrative around the end of Newshub appears to be “loss of democracy”.
C’mon. New Zealand lost democracy when media took the PIJF money.
Dress it up however you want but when the public loses trust in journalism, this is the result.
— Rachel Stewart (@stew_rachel) February 28, 2024
Let’s start a Gufundme so that The Daily Telegraph can get hold of the most relevant of those resoruces and become the third player in the market.
“Various political leaders and media personalities also spoke to RNZ about the closure, with some expressing sadness and concern for the democratic implications of reduced media diversity…”
LOL… what diversity exactly? They all report the same establishment talking points in the same biased way. There are compilation clips online where various newsreaders are overlayed all speaking the exact same words in chorus – check them out. These people are the epitome of fake news, and what they don’t openly lie about, they obfuscate by simply not mentioning. Last week’s news today (well, half of last week’s news anyway).
Media diversity IS happening BTW, it’s just that it’s happening online through X and places like this website and various other corners of the internet that the global elites are desperately trying to crack down on with freshly penned hate speech laws.
And these “various political leaders” RNZ spoke to are well aware of all this BTW. What they’re REALLY sad and concerned about is the loss of their stranglehold on information. Plain and simple.
Good riddance…..
The comments above in red reflect the public’s opinion. The fact that the MSM continues to push a policy of injectable genocide, global government lies, and going to maximum lengths to insult the intelligence of viewers and taking glee in the same is disgusting.
Get woke, go broke…& now the advertisers know what a boycott is: or- is that also racist and anti-semitic?
Now- what will happen to the channel when it’s vacated?
To the NZ Broadcast Minister and NZ Broadcasting Authority; It had better NOT be another shopping channel, Maori Channel (they have 2 so far) or another SDA religious channel!
We don’t need another ‘Juice Channel’ either!!!
Maybe Discovery will offer the actual Discovery Channel, History Channel or the National Geographic Channel…something useful for those who are now home-schooling to avoid Covid mandates, and staying home wagging classes to avoid bullying in the schools!
But, at least we’ll be able to avoid the narcissism and inner arrogance of the morning show hosts, and their LGBT agendas, Globalist endorsements, and refusing to discuss or allow airtime for the minor political parties. The entire experience has been one massive Globalist NWO psy-op!
TVNZ is next in the sights of cancellation with the Breakfast Show, and the elements that utilise the Sinclair News Service as repeaters, a tactic carried out by propagandist Josef Goebbels…also tired of Hillary & Jeremy in the evening, and the early evening programs that are reflective of ‘Socialist Engineering’…!
They’ll all get redundancy. Meanwhile-
Over at TVNZ and RNZ, they’ll be offering early retirements PLUS redundancies to those who are near retirement age (ie Mike Hosking, etc.) and those leaving will probably be replaced by former Newshub employees / reporters.
That’s how displaced socialism works in NZ via the Old Boy Masonic Networks and the Old Girl ‘Pathways to Success’…
Maybe Mike McRoberts will go to Al-Jazeera and report from Gaza….
TVNZ and Whakaata Māori/Māori Television need to go
And we may as well unhitch this other bottomless pit
Air NZ
Agree. These organisations should not have govt funding. Let them fail. As for air nz, get emirates to do domestic. We’re tired of being ripped off in the regions and being served by fat people covered in tattoos with fake eyelashes resembling dead caterpillars. No standards. The pride I once felt in my national airline has LONG gone.
As they were nothing more than a propaganda arm of the govt and by extension globalist interests they will not be missed.
This seems like a definite win for free speech. Lets hope all of mainstream media follows this path..
“Labour leader Chris Hipkins said democracy depends on an informed citizenry, which in turn relies on a ‘diversity of information sources.’”
Does he now. A bit different from what he and his leader were saying in the middle of lockdowns, masking and jav mandates. Couldn’t have any sources not parroting the fear narrative. An informed citizenry would not have gone along with the agenda like a propaganda fed one did
“The closure of Newshub…would leave state-owned TVNZ and Whakaata Māori/Māori Television as the only free-to-air television newsrooms,”
…and equally woke, arrogant state propaganda.
The smug architects of public opinion surely must have seen that coming. The architects might survive another day. The actors/presenters are just beyong stupid and without morals and integrity and deserve to be dealt with by the corporate as the expendables that they are.
YOU have rooted the NZ public!
How about fill the vacant spot with RT
In a 5 eyes country where the public would be in danger of learning objective and balanced information about Ukraine?! 😆
Dont’cha know Russia bad?!