Author: Gavin Ellis

Gavin Ellis is a media consultant, commentator and researcher. He holds a doctorate in political studies. A former editor-in-chief of the New Zealand Herald, he is the author of Trust Ownership and the Future of News: Media Moguls and White Knights (London, Palgrave) and Complacent Nation (Wellington, BWB Texts). His consultancy clients include media organisations and government ministries. His Tuesday Commentary on media matters appears weekly on his site www.whiteknightnews.com

5G Coronavirus conspiracy theorists applaud demise of sub-editing

 

A recent item on the Stuff website reminded me – as if I needed reminding – why we should all bow down and thank God for sub-editors.

Pacific health director Gerardine Clifford-Lidstone told MPs the virus had ‘seeded itself’ in Auckland’s gang communities and among rough sleepers during an online select committee briefing on the Government’s response to the pandemic.

Either the Delta variant has mutated to the point it can travel via broadband or that story and a sub-editor had only the briefest of encounters, if they met at all. At least the name was correct: She is Gerardine, not Geraldine. Continue reading “5G Coronavirus conspiracy theorists applaud demise of sub-editing” →

My apologies

Some may have received a notification of the posting of a new Tuesday Commentary at the weekend. The post was premature and should have been scheduled for Oct 19. (I’m getting ahead to cover a short hospital stay). It is now scheduled to appear on that date. This week’s commentary laments attrition on the subs’ bench.

Media lessons from a pandemic

It appears we are a nation of selfish malcontents for whom enough is never enough.

That is one of the conclusions I’ve been forced to draw after seven weeks of Covid lockdown in Auckland. And, because my isolation has been broken only by a few medical appointments that are valid reasons for leaving my security-guarded community, I gain my impressions through our media and a diet containing a surfeit of opinion, some of it in the guise of news.

I am confronted daily by examples of peevish bleating, whining, and complaining. I hear demands for certainty where there can be none. Continue reading “Media lessons from a pandemic” →

Discovery gambles on sweeping change at AM Show

 

Don’t believe what your old granny told you: A new broom doesn’t always sweep clean.

Nor is a clean sweep always a good thing.

However, whichever way you look at it, TV3’s AM Show looks like it has been taken to the cleaners.

The show’s original on-camera line-up will be gone by the end of the year and the network’s new owner Discovery is hinting there will be even bigger changes next year. Continue reading “Discovery gambles on sweeping change at AM Show” →