Speaker: The real balance sheet
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Thanks Tim. It’s probably also worth observing that while Paula and Eugene were working on the Teina Pora story, they did so on top of their regular duties. They didn’t have the luxury of disappearing for years on a story, they just worked harder.
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The value of 3D, of any investigative journalism, can’t be measured by ratings.
Until broadcasting licenses come with a non-negotiable requirement for news and current affairs journalism, clowns like Weldon will continue to devalue its worth.
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A great post Tim, investigative journalism at TV3 is under siege and not doing terribly well elsewhere in Godzone either. I thought 3D was publicly funded, but perhaps that was a subsidy.
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Thanks for this, Tim.
It is hard to be optimistic about investigative journalism in New Zealand. Who still does it?
I'm no media expert, so off the top of my head: David Fisher at the Herald, John Stephenson (who gets defamed for his troubles), Nicky Hager (who gets his rights trampled on), maybe somebody at Radio NZ? Phil Kitchin has jumped ship to a press secretary's job (I don't blame him personally, everyone has bills to pay and if media conglomerates won't, then somebody else has to). Do the monthly magazines still investigate (and no, I don't mean Investigate) ?
Without scrutiny, what do those in authority do? It's a rhetorical question, the answer is there in any history book.
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Sacha, in reply to
There was an NZonAir grant for 10 investigative episodes during the year, sub-branded as '3D Investigates". The move to can the show came straight after the last of them screened.
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Rosemary McDonald, in reply to
Who still does it?
Kirsty Johnston. Simon Collins. Off the top of my head.
I gave up on telly when all free to air channels aired the same type of program at the same time.
You used to be able to watch two channels at once...the ad breaks were staggered.
They tumbled to that...and there would be the same ad on each channel at the same time. Remote redundant. Telly gone.
Methinks these investigative programs have been the victims of their own success.
Doesn't do for the hoipolloi to be made aware of inconsistencies, incompetencies and possible corruption in the Police.
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Russell Brown, in reply to
Kirsty Johnston.
An absolute champ who upends every round she takes on and shakes out the stories.
For the the flak it gets, the Herald in general provides more support for investigative reporting than any other news organisation in the country.
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Thanks for a well thought out piece Tim. I'm sure you echo the thoughts of many of us who appreciate the art of good journalism.
The publication of Dirty Politics exposed this government's ongoing strategy to manipulate the media and silence any effective criticism of their policies. But a year on, apart from Slater junior's obvious and deserved fall from grace, little else seems to have changed.
While conspiracy theories are usually best avoided, it doesn't take a genius to join the dots between Key's friend Weldon, flag committee member Christie and the current government. And it's difficult to see any other logical explanation for the insane rush to kill investigative journalism at TV3.
Weldon's "come up with another show within six days" exercise is a farce. Over the years TV3 has enjoyed a tradition of excellent current affairs journalism from 20/20 through 60 Minutes to 3D. Regardless of the programme's title, the underlying ability of a small group of TV3 staffers to produce cutting edge current affairs has remained constant and no amount of rebranding will change that.
One wonders what Mediaworks' owners Oaktree Capital Management must think of this fiasco. After all, Weldon was brought in to return TV3 to profit in preparation for its eventual sale. Destroying the company's credibility and trashing its ratings would seem to be at odds with this goal.
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Kumara Republic, in reply to
Without scrutiny, what do those in authority do? It’s a rhetorical question, the answer is there in any history book.
Jeremy Scahill put it best: "know what's worse than government propaganda from state-owned media? Government propaganda from non-state-owned media."
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Kumara Republic, in reply to
One wonders what Mediaworks’ owners Oaktree Capital Management must think of this fiasco. After all, Weldon was brought in to return TV3 to profit in preparation for its eventual sale. Destroying the company’s credibility and trashing its ratings would seem to be at odds with this goal.
If MediaWorks goes under for good this time, would Weldon and Christie go cap in hand to Prostetnic Vogon Joyce, who has past connections with the company? I can easily see the loss-making TV3 being sold for scrap and split off from the still-profitable radio division.
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Sacha, in reply to
And it's difficult to see any other logical explanation for the insane rush to kill investigative journalism at TV3.
It costs a lot to do, is enough of a reason if the benefits are not financialised or compelled by regulation.
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Alfie, in reply to
It costs a lot to do…
While that’s Weldon’s excuse, it’s not entirely true Sacha. I’ve worked across a lot of different TV genres and current affairs doesn’t cost the earth. Drama is the most expensive television to make while good investigative work only requires a comparitively small team – usually just the camera crew, producer, presenter and editor. The costs of executive producer and PA are spread across more than one programme.
By comparison, Trash TV like The Block costs much more per hour to produce than 3D.
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Nice post, but depressing.
From all the discussion here and input from folks who actually know shit it just seems that TV3 management have made a decision to go in a particular direction. From everything I've read about Weldon and Christie they won't ever admit they have made the wrong call, even long after the company goes into receivership and they been fired. It will never have been their fault that the plan failed just that people failed to understand what they were achieving.
Meanwhile we lose yet another source of journalism in NZ.
We could always vote in a government that actually valued journalism and was willing to spend tax dollars on maintaining it, or put our own money into scoop.
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Duncan Greive was enthusiastic about the launch of the “new” MediaWorks a year ago. Last week, he wrote this:
Now 3D has been put into the Campbell Live sleeper hold, after being shunted from a plum 6.30pm Sunday slot, straight after the news, to a terrible 9.30pm Monday slot, following that well-known current affairs lead-in Heroes Reborn. Shockingly, its ratings fell.
But it’s hardly alone there. The Block had its worst debut ever. X Factor had its audience drop by a third between seasons. Jono and Ben has suffered too, mostly courtesy of a series of disastrous lead-ins post Campbell Live. Some of the overall decline is attributable to the loss of Home and Away, sure. But some must be linked to the callous and contemptuous attitude toward news the channel has exhibited.
News used to be a signature of TV3 – pacy, punchy, no-bullshit news. It had an energy and attitude which seeped into everything the channel did and stood for. But the summary execution of two of its biggest news properties, despite an uproar and Campbell Live‘s extraordinary ratings, gives credibility to the conspiracy theorists.
They’ve long muttered that the Weldon-Christie duo really are ridding TV3 of anything resembling hard news, anything problematic to their political views.
I still don’t think that’s the case. Seems too crazy, despite the circumstantial evidence. I’m leaning more toward another diagnosis: incompetence.
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I have little to add other than a deep appreciation of this piece, and a fervent wish that Mark Weldon's knackers be nadgered, and his groats scropled, possibly eye-wateringly.
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If ratings across much of TV3's programming are falling...does this mean that the IQ of the country is rising?
There may be hope yet.
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Bart Janssen, in reply to
I still don’t think that’s the case. Seems too crazy, despite the circumstantial evidence. I’m leaning more toward another diagnosis: incompetence.
It is interesting how long people will persist in denying the obvious, even long after the train has run them over and the accident inspector has blamed them for ignoring the alarm bells.
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Guys! Everything's okay! They've saved The Bachelor!
(News from the Herald's spy.co.nz, which is eating the lunch of yet another MediaWorks flub, Scout, on what I'm guessing will be a fraction of the budget.)
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With an increasing exodus to Netflix and the internet, TV viewing figures have got to be heading south fast. News is too expensive for the hourly revenue it generates. Bought in film and drama, which would have been the big cash cow a few years ago is getting less and less attractive when $15 a month (including Unotelly – and a third the price of Sky’s cheapest package) gets you better movies and no adverts.
Which leaves TV channels struggling for the portion of society whose life revolves around the travails of reality TV characters and have a need for such content on a timely basis to discuss with other sad fucks. When Netflix starts to hit that market (or Endemol and the like just start selling directly) then that goes. Not to mention that such things go out of fashion, eventually.
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Trevor Nicholls, in reply to
By comparison, Trash TV like The Block costs much more per hour to produce than 3D.
Maybe, but trash TV like The Block is basically sponsored programming: product placement and stealth advertising.
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Sacha, in reply to
or put our own money into Scoop
Yes - their PledgeMe page has about a week to run.
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Sacha, in reply to
and NZonAir actually contribute to crap like expensively-licensed local versions of foreign 'talent' competitions. #grrr
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Sacha, in reply to
They've saved The Bachelor!
I reckon Te Bachelorette would be more interesting in NZ. Christie!!
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Sacha, in reply to
Investigative journalism costs a lot. Agree about 'news' and drama.
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Sacha, in reply to
"come up with another show within six days"
Hot on Bookface this week
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