Sulphur City Housing.

National says "No Vacancies" at the inn.

A lot of people in this country, on both sides of politics, believe that our media is biased. I’m not one of them, but the problem is that they do an awfully good impression of it.

Where some see conspiracy and the influence of shadowy figures, I prefer to think of it simply as sensational clickbait. Coupled with a general lack of journalistic standards. An issue of proficiency not partisanship. Let me give you an example.

How many times have you seen a headline on the news, perhaps on some government announcement, and the very first thing they tell you is “National Party spokesperson XYZ says…” Before they cross to the gurning face of one of the usual suspects, contorting in horror at what they say is the catastrophic/shambolic/unacceptable news.

This is before they’ve even shown the Government Minister, who’s making the announcement being questioned, or covered the story, beyond giving us a headline.

You could argue that it’s good for democracy, that the opposition get plenty of air time, and the news doesn’t just show the government telling us what it wants us to think. Fair enough, but then you have to apply it equally. Because if you don’t people are going to look at it and say “hang on a minute, how come when my side announces something the other lot are all over it, but when they do… tumbleweeds..?”

Take for example this article from One News yesterday, in which Chris Bishop lavishly praised the performance of the government.

I’m kidding, he said they had “catastrophically failed”, just for a change. Not so much the boy who cried wolf, as the boy who has cried there is an asteroid with 10,000 zombie wolves about to land on your head, again, and again, and again. Over to his partner in positivity:

Rotorua MP Todd McClay said that Labour had given up on one of New Zealand's premier tourist destinations.

It's time that Rotorua residents got their town back. National will rebuild and restore Rotorua's reputation as a great place to live and as a high-quality destination for domestic and international visitors.

Labour has put emergency housing and Rotorua in the too hard basket.

Rotorua MP, Todd McClay. Image: RNZ.

The One News article contained no analysis, or questioning of whether what was being proposed was realistic. There was no reaction telling us right off the bat what the other side said in response.

There were three people quoted at length in the article. National's housing spokesperson, Chris Bishop, National's social housing spokesperson, Tama Potaka, and for some variety, as mentioned, local National MP and concerned sky watcher, Todd McClay.

Nobody from any of the housing agencies. No one from any of the political parties. No prominent locals or concerned citizens. Just three National MPs telling us it was awful and they were going to make it go away.

Meanwhile over at Newshub they at least quoted the mayor of Rotorua, Tanya Tapsell, who was the National Party candidate for East Coast at the last election. Mayor Tapsell had recently said “the situation in Rotorua was already improving, with the number of emergency housing motels dropping from 29 to 11”, but added the job wasn't finished.

Rotorua Mayor, Tanya Tapsell. Photo: RNZ.