Dessenting

"Honesty is praiseworthy. He who practises it will have estimable admirers." L Broughton

For the last 25 years, New Zealand has enjoyed the Murray Ball, Footrot Flats cartoons. They feature a rural setting starring "Dog," his master "Wal" and a host of other politically correct characters. The cartoons are still published in numerous newspapers. There has also been an animated movie and the usual Dog and Wal advertising gimmicks. Murray Ball has been NZ's most successful non political cartoonist for many years.

But alas, Murray Ball is a thinking man and has grown tired of picturing the NZ lifestyle as
perfection personified. Now, he is drawing political cartoons showing the realities of NZ
society. He hates the hypocrisy of political correctness being used to window-dress
incompetence and like most sensible people, he doesn't like the happenings in Iraq.
Accordingly, he draws attention to such inconsistences with his superb cartoons. But owing to the monopolistic NZ media, no one will publish what he regards as his best work. Not one NZ media outlet will confront reality.

This doesn't say much for the supposed independence of the NZ media. The mere suggestion that not all is well, is unacceptable, and only items regarded as politically correct are publishable. Pushed to the background are honesty, decency and commonsense. These are the values that built a viable NZ from the cesspit of the South Pacific in 1800s until about the 1980s. Sadly, what was once a thriving society is now deteriorating to such an extent, that about 600 people are leaving for greener pastures each and every week.

The media will tell you their sole function is to educate the public. But let's be honest. Their prime function is to get results for their advertisers and profit accordingly. With all aspects of NZ business controlled by government, challenging authority might result in reduced revenues from advertisers that depend upon government goodwill. Thus, truth is glossed over using spin doctoring so popular with politicians. Making money is the only reason the media exists. There's nothing wrong with making money but as truth has the habit of emerging sooner or later, so why not invest time and energy in integrity? Is that too much to ask?

The NZ public is not as stupid as the media would believe. Newspaper advertising revenue and circulation are slipping while Internet advertising has increased by 5.5%. Some Internet columnists occasionally have readers numbering hundreds of millions, while many NZ hacks are struggling to reach fifty thousand. Naturally there are good and bad in all forms of media and the Internet is no exception. Online porn is very popular but boring after about five minutes. If you've seen one 'whatsit,' you've seen them all.

The future for the Internet looks uncertain. Politicians hate it because they can't control the content under existing laws. With government and mainstream media in each other's
pockets, what's the odds that some form of restriction will be introduced using national
security as an implausible excuse? Truth is not of course in the national (politicians) interest. China uses blanket restrictions and the US uses subtle pressure on an unfavourable website's Internet Service Provider. The demise of the dissenting Yellowtimes website was a classic example of political pressure. It was preferable for the ISP to dump one customer than lose its business licence. One guess who issues business licences?

I would like to see the NZ media stand up for the truth. But let's be logical, can you imagine NZ newspapers publishing this article?