NZ MSM death throes.

What has gone wrong with NZ MSM.

Ideally the New Zealand MSM (Main Stream Media) will serve three functions for the maintaining and betterment of democracy

1. Reporting : Make available to the public factual information so the public can make their own decisions as to the politics that are occurring in the country.
2. Investigating : Seeking to find abuses of power within the democratic system
3. Communicate : Providing an area where the general public and elected politicians can meet exchange opinions and perspectives.

Without the MSM providing these three functions, democracy is open to failure. And the ability of the MSM to exist into the future is in doubt.

This is because if the MSM doesn't report, investigate and communicate, the MSM must will become just a mouthpiece of the state, where not even censorship is necessary for the state to leverage the MSM.

We are at the cusp of this  in New Zealand post the 2014 general election, with two of the three functions in disarray.

Investigating

Nicky Hager published his dirty Politics book which provided hundreds of leads for journalists.

Thankfully this was effectively reported, however the next stage investigating, has seen very little development since the books publishing, nor have there been any serious attempt to discredit the book.

Similar the 'Moment of Truth' with Greenwald, Assange and Snowden has seen little published in the MSM, apart from the opinions of the ruling National Party's supporters.

Communicating

Communications by the MSM  are failing as many of the commentators and opinion writers are biased strongly to one pole. Thus they cannot show both sides of any political story and are thus being forced to continue repeating the same mis-truths.

Concluding

If this situation continues the core function of the MSM that of reporting is in danger as it will be come apparent that the MSM can no longer report all the news as many of the stories will be in conflict with others. And at this stage the MSM will become just a mouthpiece of the state.

The beginning of this can be seen in today's political media with the fixation of the media on the non event that is the Labour  leadership contest. Whilst the situation is interesting the MSM can only grasp the issue of politics but has reduced it to personalities. As if it was a reality TV show.