Sunday, January 28, 2007

Hacked off Journalists

tanty time
Kerre Woodham puts on her 'angry' face today, in a tedious spasm of outrage demanding the CYFS-watch blog be shut down. Our media, the so-called "voice of the people," want to stifle any public opinions they deem distasteful or disagreeable. When did hacks become censors? 'Journalist' Kerre reproaches bloggers for their
anonymity:
"most of the nasty little people contributing to the anti-CYF blog aren't willing to be identified. For that reason, the site should be shut down. Along with any site that doesn't identify its contributors."
Ignoring long established literary traditions of pseudonymity (plus the many msm articles 'vaguely' attributed to NZPA, Reuters, Editorial, etc) Ms Woodham wrongly conflates blogging with journalism. Hacks, unlike bloggers, are paid to write their tripe, adhere to professional standards and a code of ethics [don't laugh], and have huge media resources at their disposal to disseminate messages. Kerre smugly suggests having her photo and name published renders her accountable. Anyone with unanswered emails or letters to news outlets knows mere contact details & verifiable identities don't make the media any more fair, accurate or responsible.

Kerre concedes there may be problems at Social Devt ministry, including exorbitant sums of tax dollars disappearing into a bureaucratic black hole. Yet she shows little enthusiasm for any media investigation into the CYFS quagmire. Whatever happened to "the public's right to know"? A good (sic) journalist would research the alleged failings of CYFS, instead of dismissing the complainants as messed up, irresponsible individuals. In the vacuum of media inattention, bloggers themselves must fill the void.

1 comment:

S. Baldrick said...

Back in the day when A-cup feminists like her were rebelling against the "patriarchy", etc, she would have sympathised with the downtrodden minorities struggling to effect social change against faceless bureaucrats in their favour, like the anti-corruption CYFS blog. (Credit to them for trying to put a face on the faceless.)

Alas, leftists like her have long since become the establishment. Far from revolutionaries, they are now the ones invested in nothing changing, particularly when it comes to entrenched feminist agencies of Government that only oppress men (and thingy, ummm.....children).

Feminists never got the hang of the family thing anyway - to say the least!