Daily Indignation

Forty years ago, 90% of media outlets were spread across 50 companies.

Now, just 5 companies control 90% of the media market.

This consolidation hurts consumers and helps oligarchs. 🧵

The comparison between Willis & Richardson isn't "lazy", like Thomas says (oh the irony) – it's because the current govt is using the same playbook of the National of 1991, blaming the previous govt's out of control spending as an excuse to cut and privatise. It's call a history lesson, dickhead.

Wikipedia: "A 2015 Treasury report said that inequality in New Zealand increased in the 1980s and 1990s but has been stable for the last 20 years[9] although another 2015 article said that New Zealand's rate of rise of inequality had been the highest in the OECD, and that New Zealand's inequality had previously been low by OECD standards.[10] The 1991 budget had profound social effects, child poverty rose from 15% in 1990 to 29% in 1994 while violent crime peaked between 1990 and 1997.[11][12] Income inequality also accelerated, New Zealand's GINI index rose from 0.30 in 1990 to 0.33 in 1996 and thereafter 0.34 at the turn of the century.[13] Poorer New Zealanders saw their standard of living fall from their 1984 level.[14] Unemployment also remained high for much of the decade, from 11% in 1991 to 6% in 1996 and then up again to 8% following the Asian Financial Crisis.[15]"

Journalists in powerful positions like NZ Herald's Thomas Coughlan continue to whitewash the impact Ruth Richardson's budgets had on NZ, blaming her "speed" for the "generational recoil", like it was inevitable. Here's a summary from Wikipedia, which doesn't have to take calls from the TPU.

Thomas Coughlan, NZ Herald: "The biggest political gulf in the room wasn’t between left and right, but between two politicians often lazily lumped together by commentators who mistake symmetry for analysis. Finance Minister Nicola Willis found herself cornered by Ruth Richardson, her distant predecessor. Both are National Finance Ministers, both inherited deficits, both vowed to close them and both, of course, are women — that last attribute being the germ (in both senses) of said lazy analysis. On this day, however, Richardson desired Willis embrace part of her legacy. Fearful Willis’ fiscal consolidation - jargon for getting back to surplus and reducing debt to improve the books - was going too slowly, Richardson urged Willis to go harder. Naturally, discussion turned to the idea of cutting benefit levels, the key lever Richardson used in the 1990s to turn the fiscal corner. "

NZ Herald's Thomas Coughlan once again complains about "lazy commentators" comparing Nicola Willis to Ruth Richardson, even though he then admits Richardson herself wants Willis to copy her devastating benefit cuts.

A lot of our media fell for Willis' "liberal" posing and can't admit it.

Fran O'Sullivan, NZ Herald: "At column deadline, there was no disownment from the Richardson-led lobby that their campaign was imminent. I got an inkling of this several months ago when an excitable NZTU executive director Jordan Williams phoned wanting to place an advertisement in the then-forthcoming Mood of the Boardroom publication I edit attacking spiralling Government debt. I mentioned it wasn’t in my view appropriate to bag the Finance Minister this way within such a publication. These were the combined views of leading CEOs – many of whom were on record – which had yet to be published. Fairness was important. (I referred Williams to Herald advertising to make a call.)"

NZ Herald: We guard our independence zealously!

Meanwhile its Head of Business just openly admits to advising NZTU's Jordan Williams that it's not appropriate to attack the government in their newspaper

Fran O'Sullivan, NZ Herald: "Willis has yet to earn the respect of the Taxpayers’ Union – chaired by the doughty early 1990s fiscal warrior Ruth Richardson."

I find it very funny that the NZ Herald doesn't view themselves as conservative when their Head of Business describes Ruth Richardson as a "doughty fiscal warrior".

The cable, sent to all U.S. missions on December 2, orders U.S. consular officers to review resumes or LinkedIn profiles of H-1B applicants - and family members who would be traveling with them - to see if they have worked in areas that include activities such as misinformation, disinformation, content moderation, fact-checking, compliance and online safety, among others.

Holy shit.

Reuters reporting that new admin instructions on visas are if you worked at a platform in trust & safety or content moderation or on fact checking or online safety at an platform you *and your loved ones* are ineligible for H-1B visa.

www.reuters.com/world/us/tru...

NZ's climate law to change - Expert Reaction Among several changes announced last night, the Government says the Climate Change Commission won't be required to advise on emissions reduction plans. The Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) will also be ...

If Tova O'Brien was actually interested in informing the public (I know, that's not her job, but she's pretending it is), here's a whole bunch of scientists criticising what she calls a "crackpot" theory: www.sciencemediacentre.co.nz/2025/11/05/n...

"THE FACTS The Jevon McSkimming police scandal exposed and serious failings in how senior officers handled abuse of power. The justice system is facing severe delays. Wellington Mayor Andrew Little has scrapped the Tory Whanau-era mayoral business advisory group."

In an editorial bemoaning the lack of trust in institutions, the NZ Herald bizarrely groups a "Tory Whanau-era mayoral business advisory group" to scandals like police corruption.

Just shows even when the left tries to kowtow to the right, they'll still get lambasted for it.

Stuff: "Labour finance MPs put the heat on Willis, but came off looking more crack-pot than crack-team Tova O'Brien December 2, 2025 ... But what Barbara Edmonds, Deborah Russell and Megan Woods brought to Scrutiny Week was a het up and, at times, rude heckling that risked undermining their own credibility and Labour’s. ... None of this is to say that Labour wasn’t attempting to prosecute important issues including whether National was spending less money on infrastructure than it had promised. But the hearing won’t be remembered for showing the minister up on the matter, it will be remembered for the chaotic cacophony of Labour MPs yelling: “Which table?! Which table??!!” at Willis, drowning the finance minister out, after she suggested they had misread a table. ... Had Labour handled its questioning of the minister better, voters may have been more-the-wiser. As it stands, its Finance MPs came across more crack-pot than crack-team and did Nicola Willis more favours than themselves."

Typically useless reporting from Tova O’Brien, who spends her considerable paycheck complaining Labour MPs were too rude to the poor Finance Minister & therefore the public didn’t learn anything. Perhaps they didn’t learn anything because you spent your time reporting on tone rather than substance

Hahaha good one Stuff anyway this 13 year old girl named Metallica is missing

NewstalkZB: Mike's Minute: I think we should get rid of some jury trials Mon, 1 Dec 2025

NewstalkZB's Mike Hosking, who has spent the year decrying judges, now wants to get rid of jury trials for all but serious cases. "Being judged by a jury of your peers - what a wonderful 1800's style thought. But here in the real world it's got a very stale, arduous vibe to it."

I just don't need to know what the Telegraph has written about Dungeons & Dragons. It's a newspaper for people who are frightened of samosas.

NEWS ANALYSIS In Announcing Pardon of Drug Trafficker While Threatening Venezuela, Trump Displays Contradictions

lol. lmao even

Andrea Vance: "Then the Praetorian Guard was stood up and the weekend briefing began. Political columns dutifully dismissed the rumours as just talk, with no solid or real challenge behind them. Nicola Willis’ voice was unmistakable in the backgrounding."

Audrey Young: "Welcome to Inside Politics. It has been a difficult week for Christopher Luxon because, contrary to suggestions, it is very unusual for leadership questions to be put openly and repeatedly to a Prime Minister, as they have been this week. But strong responses from Luxon, National deputy Nicola Willis and Chris Bishop have put a lid on them for the rest of the year. There has been one important outcome, however, and that is that Bishop can be considered the principal alternative to Luxon, if it came to it. There will be no coup. That would ensure a landslide defeat for the party."

Sunday Star-Times' Andrea Vance taking a swipe at political columnists like Audrey Young for dutifully killing the Luxon coup talk.

This kinda confirms my suspicions that Nicola Willis has been behind most of the reporting our press gallery has done since before the election.

International media, you can do better than this.

"Bamboo" is maybe exotic and a compelling hook but it is too easy. The real story here is the growing culture of corruption, including a lack of accountability and oversight, that enabled a chain of human errors that led to this disaster.

It never fails to amuse me THIS is the image NZ Herald chose for Audrey Young's Inside Politics banner. Audrey looks like I feel reading it.

NZ Herald, Audrey Young: Bouquet: Goes to Education Minister Erica Stanford for overseeing a maths acceleration trial being run for intermediate kids who have fallen behind. Great results, and skilled political management of major curriculum changes.

It won't surprise you to learn that NZ Herald's Audrey Young has chosen not to mention National may campaign against the bill they just signed into law, but instead give a "bouquet" to Erica Stanford for her "skilled political management".

Remember: people PAY for this newsletter.

Audrey Young, NZ Herald: "Where’s the electoral mandate? The reforms proposed in local government, in which regional councillors would be dumped in favour of a board of local mayors to work out its future shape, is a radical plan for which there is no electoral mandate. But nobody cares. No one is going to march in the streets to save their regional councillors. And the plan is unlikely to take effect until after the 2026 election, which would provide the mandate if the Government is returned."

Ah the life of a Senior Political Correspondent. You can just decide, a day after a "radical" plan to undermine democracy is announced, with no polling, that "no one cares" and move on.

I'm sure your fellow journalists at NZME don't care, Audrey, and your coverage will reflect that.

(You'll also note the editorial does some false-consensus by saying Labour's CGT policy is what caused it to lose the 2011 and 2014 elections and if they lose the next one it's because of CGT... honestly, Coughlan should've just put his name on it instead hiding behind an editorial)

NZ Herald editorial: According to Taxpayers’ Union-Curia, released this week and published in the Herald, almost two-thirds of New Zealanders want a CGT. But they want it to apply only to real, inflation-adjusted gains, not nominal increases as Labour’s plan is currently proposing. ... Somewhat strangely, however, Hipkins said the party had not considered accounting for inflation. Really? Why not? Given the inflation question is the first asked by many, it seems odd that the party had not given much thought to it. A nominal gain on a property will almost always be greater than a real gain, which considers the impact of inflation. If someone bought a property for $1 million and sold it for $1.1m, the nominal gain would be $100,000, or 10%. But if there was 10% inflation over that time, the real gain would be zero. For better or worse, New Zealanders have stored much of their individual wealth in residential property. For many, a person’s home is also their retirement pot and their children’s inheritance.

NZ Herald, rattled by polls showing 2/3rds of the public support a CGT, desperately search around for an attack line.

"Uh, but it should only apply to inflation-adjusted gains!"

Why? Australia's doesn't

"Uh, a person’s home is also their retirement!"

Labour's CGT doesn't apply to the family home

Someone show this to NZ Herald's Jamie Ensor who a few weeks ago was claiming Trump is “known for his energy and for working long hours”

NZ Herald: Aaron Smale: Nicola Willis shows “utter arrogance” by describing Treaty of Waitangi concepts as “nebulous” Opinion by Aaron Smale Contributing writer·New Zealand Listener· 25 Nov, 2025

NZME wanted to be really, really sure you understood that this is their writer's OPINION, so they broke out the double quote marks, even though they don't do that for literally any other opinion headline.

Would've been easier just apologising to Hobson's Pledge in a text message.

Mike Hosking's many contradictory takes on Covid-19 The nation’s most prominent talkback pundit has oscillated from opinion to directly-contradictory opinion with blistering speed during the Covid-19 crisis.

Mike has always been very contradictory about what we should have done about COVID, as shown by this report from April 2020: www.rnz.co.nz/national/pro...

It's almost like he just hates the left and is actually thick as pigshit! But he rates well!

Today: "Mike's Minute: Britain's COVID enquiry highlights Labour's mistakes Mon, 24 Nov 2025" Previously: "Mike's Minute: If we want to beat Covid-19, shut the country down Mon, 23 Mar 2020 Mike's Minute: Is Britain's Covid strategy proving to be right? Wed, 28 Jul 2021"

I see NZME's Mike Hosking is back to pretending he's a COVID expert, today saying Britain's lockdowns were a mistake and (somehow) the Ardern govt is also to blame for locking down at the same time? Anyway, here's Mike previously saying we should lockdown and Britain was the one to follow.

The Post: "From sugar rush to super savings: Luxon’s KiwiSaver reset OPINION: Good policy is good politics and taking a KiwiSaver boost into the election is a strong move for National. Luke Malpass"

I'm not a Professional Reckons Haver, but telling the public "you're gonna work longer and more of your salary is gonna go into a savings account you can't touch until you retire" doesn't scream "good politics" to me, like The Post's Luke Malpass claims. Maybe you had to be there.

"He also talked warmly of a return to rising house prices, which had been a contentious topic in National, with Luxon speaking warmly of “modest, consistent” price rises, while Housing Minister Chris Bishop has talked warmly about falling house prices in the interest of improving affordability."

But was it warmly, Thomas?

(NZ Herald's Thomas Coughlan, paid writer)

NZ Herald's extensive McSkimming coverage

This is what it looks like when a media org throws all its resources at a story it deems important (and is!): multiple reporters, opinion columns, editorials, digging past the initial revelations, every angle covered, refusing to let the story lie.

Anyway, NZ Herald, about Tim Jago...

NZ Herald, 27 Mar 2025: "Tamatha Paul's crazy police comments set to clobber the Greens and Labour By Audrey Young Senior Political Correspondent"

Aged like milk: Audrey Young

(just in general, but specifically about her attacks on Tamatha Paul's police criticism in light of recent weeks)