Mediawatch's weekly catch-up with Lately. This week Colin Peacock talks to Karyn Hay about an ice cream headache for the ad watchdog, a dodgy dolphin dilemma for the broadcasting watchdog, Simon Bridges begging to be fact-checked, top Kiwi coaches open up - and tough questions asked about Whakaari White Island.
Photo: RNZ
Tough questions kick in over Whakaari
One week after the tragedy on Whakaari White Island, tough questions were raised in the media as the prospect of inquiries and even overseas legal action loomed.
On Friday Jacinda Ardern praised the local iwi Ngāti Awa for its response - which Ngāti Awa itself noted in a special press release.
But at her post -Cabinet press conference on Monday, Jacinda Arden appeared to roll back a bit on whether there would be a comprehensive inquiry after all to run alongside a coronial one and a Worksafe one.
It got awkward when she was asked if it was appropriate for Ngāti Awa to be involved in a memorial when they could be potentially under investigation as the owner of White Island Tours.
“It’s important to remember regardless of the commercial interests they are local iwi and they have been providing an important role locally,” she replied.
The next day, Tuesday, Morning Report grilled Worksafe’s boss when he refused to say if White Island Tours had been audited by Worksafe - then he minster responsible confirmed it had.
The same day in The Guardian's Eleanor Ainge Roy reported:
“Many Māori the Observer spoke to said it was wrong for anyone – tourist or otherwise – to set foot on the sacred soil of Whakaari, considered a living ancestor by the local tribe, Ngāti Awa.”
With its distance from the shore and the ease with which the crater is accessed, as well as her beauty, she is a national taonga – treasure – and there’s something “wrong” about selling tours to a jewel of Aotearoa.
She didn't mention Ngati Awa’s ownership and expansion of White Island Tours.
National’s social media spin on steroids
Last week we talked about the National Party’s misleading ads with mathematically unsound charts and graphs - mocked by commentator David Slack like this:
— David Slack (@DavidSlack) December 11, 2019
This week The Spinoff’s Alex Braae asked him about the tactic:
“I don’t think there’s anything we say that’s not verifiable. People run the ruler on this stuff –
Perhaps not unverifiable, but misleading?
I don’t accept that, give me an example.
That bar graph that went up on the National Party twitter account two days ago that showed a very distorted perspective –
But the facts are the facts. I mean, the numbers of what petrol was under us, and what petrol was under this government, it’s 24 cents more a litre at the end of this term than it was in petrol taxes. The other side of that is talking a big game on child poverty. Jacinda Ardern was – still is – going to save the world, and seven out of nine indicators are worse. City Missions around New Zealand, certainly in Christchurch’s case, they want the National party back because we got stuff done on this.
I’m not remotely cynical. I want to be fact checked.”
There’s a challenge . . . . .
Decisions, decisions . . .
Photo: 123rf
There’s been some fascinating 'upholds' from the broadcasting watchdog lately.
The Broadcasting Standards Authority (BSA) has upheld part of a complaint that an interview on RNZ’s Checkpoint headlined: UK’s drug-buying agency CEO: Why we like to say ‘yes’ was misleading.
Guyon Espiner interviewed the CEO of the United Kingdom’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) about NICE’s methods and approach to approving drugs for purchase - with reference to Pharmac.
The Authority found that “listeners were invited by the item to draw negative comparisons between the role and functions of NICE and of PHARMAC in the New Zealand context, which was misleading through the omission of relevant contextual information about the two agencies.”
(Mediawatch expressed reservations about that interview at the time).
In other news, a former journalist who had sex with a dolphin (seriously) had his fairness complaint against The Edge’s Dom, Meg, Randal and Dom upheld. He is best known for his controversial novel Wet Goddess (2009), about a love affair between a college student and a bottlenose dolphin in the 1970s.
Lesson? You’ve got to treat interviewees fairly even if you think they’re “sick in the head”
However, Newshub’s Tova O’Brien is in the clear on taste and decency for saying “snafu” on the news.
Ice cream headache for ad watchdog
But a complaint about an ice cream ad that had been upheld earlier this year was this week overturned after the ice cream giant Streets appealed.
In September, a majority of the ASA Complaints Board ruled the outdoor advertisement for Streets ice cream breached the code requirement that advertising not undermine the health and well-being of individuals.
The original decision caused controversy at the time it was announced, with National MP Judith Collins telling The AM Show it was "insane".
In its appeal application, the advertiser argued the phrase “Ice cream makes u happy” did not meet the threshold to undermine health and well-being.
"It agreed that the phrase “ICE CREAM MAKES U HAPPY” is puffery and associated with a product that is recognised as and understood to be an occasional food."
On the Mike Hosking Breakfast, fill-in host Mike Yardley condemned her as a “nameless outrage warrior,” which was unfair because ‘E Fowler’ did put her name to the complaint about the poster on the wall of the local Whangarei dairy
“The statement ‘ice cream makes you happy’ is an irresponsible message to tell parents and children. Foods should not be advertised as way to improve people’s mood. Ice cream is a food that is high in fat and sugar. Eating ice cream to make yourself happy is damaging to one’s health.”
Streets pulled out all the stops to get the decision overturned.
“The marketing of occasional or treat foods commonly involves promoting the enjoyment and happiness of consuming such foods.”
It gave examples including:
Whittaker’s Sante bars:
‘Sante: … Long, thin and elegant, sante means health in a happy way. And these certainly make you feel happy’
Cadbury dairy milk:
‘… It contains more joy than most people can handle. Even our most experienced chocolatiers need to bliss out in the joy-decompression chamber after a day of making Cadbury Dairy Milk Chocolate.’
New Zealand Natural ice cream: ‘What does happiness taste like you say? We’re glad you asked. Like mint ice cream blended with choc chips and mint fondant chocolate cups. Happiness tastes like this scoop of world famous ice cream”
“No reasonable consumer could be expected to believe that the happiness experienced when eating an ice cream is equivalent to good health – mental or otherwise,” said Streets’ winning argument..
Kiwi coaches open up
Photo: INPHO 2019
On Sunday, Radio Sport’s Martin Devlin did a surprisingly moving ‘exit interview’ with the outgoing All Black coach who said he’d learned to respect the media - and even sympathise with them:
And after that Martin Devlin said he has thought media hadn’t shown previous coaches respect after World Cup failures. He even said he’s learned to cope with defeat better too.
Closure?
Anthony Hudson Photo: Photosport
Meanwhile former All Whites coach gave an interview to the Coaches’ Voice site about taking ver the team in 2014 - in which he said:
“For the Kiwis, culture is everything.
New Zealand want to be proud of what they do, and I had to tap into that mindset. Before I demanded respect, I had to respect them.
I traveled up and down the country speaking to different groups of people.
I spoke to top rugby teams, coaches, historians and the locals. I started talking to the team about what it means to be a Kiwi. If I hadn’t done that legwork, the players would never have respected me.”
Who knew we took our sports culture so seriously?
