Fran on media
Fran O’Sullivan writes:
News media went for Simeon Brown with the cheap shot that his appointment as Health Minister meant getting an abortion could be threatened.
The media posse at the National Party caucus retreat this week wasn’t focusing on his priorities for this weighty portfolio: how he would ensure New Zealand does develop a first-class health system amid the disarray left behind when a major centralisation by the last Labour Government to form Health New Zealand resulted in chaos. All too complex in today’s media world? Surely not.
Instead, its members picked up on an obvious smear by a pro-abortion lobby suggesting Brown’s appointment meant abortion services and funding delivered by the health system were in jeopardy. His appointment was a “provocation”, the lobby claimed.
It was ridiculous.
This reflexive approach by press gallery journalists in particular drives coalition ministers to exasperation. The default position is often to go for the negative first instead of trying to understand what new policy positions involve.
If (fr example) the Sensible Sentencing Trust objected to a new Minister on the grounds of their personal beliefs, does anyone think the media would run a story on it? Of course not.
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