I was surprised to see 3News ‘back-announce’ a report from the first day of The Greens annual conference last night with a pure propaganda statement from the Prime Minister.

"The Prime Minister has just contacted us ..."

“The Prime Minister has just contacted us …” What the hell?

Whoever was running the newsroom at the weekend made a really odd decision.

Reading Mr Key’s statement — which had nothing whatsoever to do with Russel Norman’s criticisms of National’s [alleged] cronyism (speech notes here) and their [alleged] anti-democratic actions in government — was so ‘off’, so supine, that it made me question 3News’ credibility.

What piss-poor news judgement. (In my opinion.) Way to look like a government lapdog, 3News.

Watch the report Norman accuses government of cronyism at 3News.co.nz and observe (listen below) the completely irrelevant ‘statement from the gummint’ — spin which wouldn’t be out of place in Vladimir Putin’s Russia.


3News gives Prime Minister John Key the last word in a report on The Greens co-leader’s speech attacking the government.

Mr Key’s statement was regurgitated, near-meaningless positioning (spin). 3News’ Carolyn Robinson read it out respectfully like a good little employee of the Ministry of Truth.

What were they thinking?

– P