10 June 2004

“No Politicians, No Extremists” Just Foreigners!

State Of Tvnz Spending The Real Issue Says Peters

Rt Hon Winston Peters wants Television New Zealand to explain how much it is costing to import a host for the State of the Nation programme tonight and whether host Anita McNaught is being issued with her own gold plated credit card.

Mr Peters said today that he could not imagine the state-owned broadcasting system of any other country importing a front person for a programme on nationhood.

“TVNZ already has an unfortunate reputation for being a reckless and frivolous spender of taxpayer dollars.

“The SOE’s executives, who have their feet, hands and noses firmly planted in the public trough, have now decided to spend extra dollars bringing a British front person to join them.

“Perhaps they have forgotten that New Zealand is no longer a British colony and that we do have a number of television front people who could do an excellent job.

“If the BBC was planning a programme to discuss Magna Carta or the Royalty, it is hard to imagine that state broadcaster inviting Sean Plunket to front it,” said Mr Peters.

ENDS

© Scoop Media

Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>