Tag: Trump

BBC’s response to Trump must be ‘We fight…We fight like hell’

It was as obvious as hair dye and fake tan: Donald Trump was always going to sue the BBC, irrespective of whether the broadcaster made a grovelling apology for its astonishingly stupid video editing of a speech delivered shortly before the Capitol was stormed.

Even a plausible offer of compensation – had it been made – would have been insufficient to stay the hand of the man who has already caused immense harm to the public broadcasters of his own country and who has sued American media for billions. The opportunity to strike what he hopes is an existential blow against the progenitor of public broadcasting was irresistible.

There was, therefore, no surprise in his announcement on Saturday that he will sue the BBC for between $US1 billion and $US 5 billion over the clip in a 2024 Panorama programme. I doubt it is a coincidence that $US5 billion almost matches the income the BBC will receive this financial year from public licence fees (the bulk of its annual income) or that $1 billion is the annual corporate cost of running the public broadcaster. Continue reading “BBC’s response to Trump must be ‘We fight…We fight like hell’” →

Trump Filter reveals NZ news media need more protection

I am tremendously grateful to the current president of the United States of America for adding even greater validity to the defensive mechanism I have named in his honour – The Trump Filter.

Before I go further, I should also thank Mr Trump for adding the word “tremendous’ to the lexicon of verified facts.

But to return to The Trump Filter.

It is a process I have developed against which I test the robustness of political decisions and, in particular, legislation produced by the New Zealand Government.

The filter applies a simple question: “Could this be misused or abused by a future government or leader, the nature of which we do not yet know?”

I don’t pretend the test is a novel one. It is really no more than an assessment of the ability of constitutional safeguards to do their job on behalf of the public. I do, however, suggest that the actions of Donald Trump provide us with excellent benchmarks against which to view the potential future misuse or trashing of things that this country takes for granted or, in some cases, holds dear.

There were warning signs in Trump’s first term, but his current term as president has created unprecedented assaults on institutions once thought fully protected by the US Constitution and the amendments embodied in the Bill of Rights.

Domestically and internationally, he has ridden roughshod over far more than the length of this commentary can accommodate. However, last week the impact of one of his more vengeful acts prompted me to apply The Trump Filter to the current state of a century-old institution in this country.

Let me address a specific question: “Does New Zealand’s public service media have sufficient safeguards to protect it against a future government or leader, the nature of which we do not yet know?” Continue reading “Trump Filter reveals NZ news media need more protection” →

Media in peril if Trump playbook falls open here

Observe carefully how American President Donald J. Trump systematically weakens the ability of journalists to hold him to account. He is creating a playbook for others to follow.

It would be easy to tut-tut, shake one’s head, and utter statements about “poor America”. Yes, the United States will be much the poorer through the actions of the most undemocratic president it its history. However, our concern should be driven as much by self-interest as concern for the good people in the country formerly known as Land of the Free.

Trump’s assault on media could be replicated in New Zealand. Perhaps not by our current government, but by the politicians we have yet to meet.

For that reason, we need to develop a Trump filter and ensure we develop safeguards that prevent the misuse of power we are seeing played out in Washington. The protections will need to be robust. Who would have imagined that the Constitution of the United States and the First Amendment would have proved impotent in the face of presidential assault?

Trump has employed multiple levers to weaken and intimidate his country’s news media: De-funding, withdrawal of accreditation, intimidation, and ‘lawfare’ (the use of legal strategies to harass and silence news media). Continue reading “Media in peril if Trump playbook falls open here” →

Tar from Trump’s brush could splatter NZ media

Do not look upon incoming President Donald Trump’s widely anticipated assault on the American media with sympathetic detachment. Watch, instead, the way our own media systematically becomes spattered with tar from the same brush.

Attitudes are no longer formed solely from domestic influences. The Internet has not only broken down national information boundaries: It has removed the distinction altogether.

For those who receive most – or all – of their news through social media, the source has become either irrelevant or undefined. As a result, attitudes toward journalists and the institutions in which they work have become as transnational as the platforms from which the viewpoints are formed.

Yes, it’s early days but virtually all of the alarm over Trump’s well-signalled assault on press freedom is being directed at how he will make life very difficult for United States media. It has led to expressions of deep sympathy from abroad for American journalists and a collective exclamation: “Thank God we don’t live there’. Continue reading “Tar from Trump’s brush could splatter NZ media” →