Nine months later, is still the "Gulf of Mexico" to news outlets
#HackerNews #GulfOfMexico #NewsMedia #Journalism #CurrentEvents #Analysis
A free and independent press — once a given in the United States — is now under threat from authoritarian tactics, institutional weakness and a growing public disregard for truth, putting democracy at serious risk. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/commentary/2025/10/09/world/global-lessons-form-a-press-in-peril/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=mastodon #commentary #worldnews #newsmedia #journalism #freespeech #democracy #donaldtrump #humanrights
Political talking points - or "key messages" as Nicky Hagar called them in The Hollow Men - are a cancer on political communication. Expressly designed to allow politicians to make public statements without actually *saying* anything.
There's some great examples in yesterday's FOP on RNZ, where CLuxon and Rimmer vomited up and ate the same verbal hairballs they've been retaining since 2023;
https://www.rnz.co.nz/podcast/focusonpolitics/2025/FOCUSDISCONTENT
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Political journalists need to stop playing into this game, by quoting these verbal smokescreens as if they're serious serious public statements. My advice would be to publish only the first use.
The second time they're used (or maybe the third), add to a Key Messages website maintained by a consortium of newsrooms. Give each one a unique KM number, and a URI that links directly to an example.
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#TIl about the #PublicSpaces Incubator, which ...
"... brings together ABC (Australia), ARD (Germany), CBC/Radio-Canada (Canada), RTBF (Belgium), SRG SSR (Switzerland), ZDF (Germany), and New_ Public (United States) to re-conceptualize how to use PSM [Public Service Media] platforms for public connection and conversation."
This might be of particular interest to @cubicgarden, given your recent role at the BBC.
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@WalterMenteth
> BBC at risk of losing trust over Israel-Palestine, Ofcom boss says
"Losing"? FFS, holocaust survivors are speaking out against IDF violations of Palestinian human rights;
https://www.thenational.scot/news/25309584.holocaust-survivor-stephen-kapos-speaks-gaza-genocide/
Meanwhile BBC heads are censuring and censoring artists for standing with them. As well as censoring journalists for reporting on the IDF atrocities in Palestine, and their unprovoked invasions of a number of neighbouring countries. WTF?!
2 years later, the Post.news domain is dead as the proverbial dodo, and FlipBoard and NewsCast are doing essentially the same thing successful in the fediverse. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't feeling just a little smug : P
"... we’ve been saying over and over and over again that the most important thing is telling the truth. As Mike Brock keeps saying, 'two plus two equals four' and you can’t let them get away with telling you otherwise.
This isn’t just about getting the facts straight for their own sake. When media coverage systematically misrepresents who is initiating violence and who is responding to it, it provides cover for further escalation.
@mmasnick, 2025
"We have to be clear on what ground truth is, and that requires that the media stop accepting propagandist framing."
@mmasnick, 2025
For the last few years, legacy news media have been singing songs of their great social importance as fact-checking institutions that surface important information in a timely. Here's their chance to prove it. So far they've been less than impressive.
The dominance of kiwi news media by NZME/ OneRoof and Stuff/ TradeMe is starting to look disturbingly like the supermarket duopoloy.
The state of the legacy news media industry summed up nicely in a sub-2 minute comedy sketch;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBw61xgcfCw
A one-up on this sketch:
How can anyone say NZ news media have a left bias when The Post is publishing political "analysis" pieces by Luke Malpass, which read like a series of NatACT talking points.
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"[Pattrick Smellie says of future news outlets] they'll be smaller, driven by editorial concerns rather than advertising imperatives. Today's ... news publishers he said, both in Australia and NZ, have in practice now become real estate advertising platforms, with newsrooms attached."
#ColinPeacock, 2025
https://www.rnz.co.nz/podcast/mediawatch?share=a2db3e6a-d412-44ff-880b-c9c90f7a449f
Burn!
For those who can afford to vault the paywall, Smellie's full piece can be read here;
https://businessdesk.co.nz/article/opinion/the-future-of-news-yet-another-reckon
"Having dedicated health reporters in key newsrooms makes a huge difference, and giving those reporters the time to cultivate their contacts, to dig through documents, to make OIA requests."
#RachelThomas, 2025
https://www.rnz.co.nz/podcast/mediawatch?share=61d7c2a9-7bca-435a-b796-b5d87c90ca92
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#podcasts#RNZ#MediaWatch #healthcare#NewsMedia#HealthReporting