A few days back I wrote a post that lamented the lack of political diversity in media education in NZ. A letter signed by a large number of NZ media educators complaining of the government’s decision to withdraw funding for TV station TVNZ7 revealed a deeply embedded left wing mindset in the media education framework.

Lets concede a point here. I’ll never agree with it, but maybe there is an argument (I’ll call it Number One argument) for hard working New Zealand families being forced to contribute their own money to an elitist broadcaster who broadcasts what those educators consider should be broadcast.

However, there is also an argument (Argument Number Two) for letting people who earn money spend that money as they want it, and if they want to see left wing pap, then they can voluntarily subscribe to a channel offering left wing pap, and if they want to see endless reruns of Jerry Springer, then they should be able to voluntarily subscribe to that channel too. After all it is their damn money. They worked for it. They should be able to spend it as they want. Perhaps in a way that doesn’t even include the dying media of TV and radio.

Here though is the real point- Why isn’t there a clique among NZ media educators who subscribe to the free market argument? Where is the diversity of political ideology that a broad education would demand? Why are they all apparently besotted by argument Number One? How did it come about that the education of journalists in NZ is monopolised by a bunch of commies? Is this why journalism is such a perverted and discredited craft? Held in greater contempt than at any other time in its history? I reckon it is.

Last Monday we were treated to yet another onslaught from this band of Stalinists courtesy of an article by Paul Norris (a teacher at the New Zealand Broadcasting School at the Christchurch Polytechnic) in the NZ Herald. Its the same old rubbish. A narrow minded elitist demanding that other people’s money be stripped from their earnings so Norris can watch television he approves of. Nowhere does Norris touch on the other side of the argument. Here are just a few of his pejorative, argumentative, subjective and unsubstantiated comments presented as unchallengeable truths-

“Our media landscape is changing for the worse.”

“Why should we care about this situation? First, because viewers will be disadvantaged by the loss of these channels.”

“Most other channels are strictly commercial, screening programmes that are driven by the need to bring in the advertising dollar.”

“how can we tolerate a situation where New Zealand ends up as the only country in the Western world that has no mainstream public broadcaster for television?”

“Is this the best we can do – that our entire diet on mainstream television is driven by commercial imperatives, where we are treated as consumers to be sold to rather than as citizens requiring information and cultural nourishment in order to participate adequately in our society?”

“it is a fully commercial broadcaster whose mission is to deliver profits”

What sick nausea inducing communist pap. Where the damn hell is the other side of the argument? I could counter all of this rubbish from Norris in 3 minutes, but here’s the point- If such counter-argument is due, IT SHOULD BE COMING FROM WITHIN THE BROADCASTING MEDIA EDUCATION FRAMEWORK. It isn’t. They’re all cast in the same deeply red political mold and it is not good enough. The minds of our young people wanting to be journalists deserve better than to be soaked in the ideology of far left educators at the expense of a broad education in the craft.

Here is the bit where Norris really gets into his Marxist stride, advocating regulatory theft from private broadcasters so his largely unwanted commie crap can be broadcast.

How about a levy on the net profits of commercial broadcasters above a certain figure, say $30 million? The rationale for this approach is that if there are no requirements on the commercial broadcasters for any kind of public broadcasting – programmes driven by the public interest – then they should pay for this privilege by contributing to the overall media landscape within which a measure of public broadcasting can be found.

This is code for- “we can’t raise the $30 million ourselves, so let’s elect politicians who will steal it from private broadcasters”.

Fund it yourself you commie arsehole, and get all your co-signers on your pathetic whining letter to chip in. Or forget it. You have no right to other people’s money, and that you would pervert democracy by voting for politicians who would do your bidding and steal that money is an even greater immorality. You want it, you pay for it.

And resign as an educator too. You commies are all for diversity except when it applies to political ideas. Get out and let some fresh air into the training industry. Some air that favours freedom and liberty. The stinking overpowering stench of Marxist crap left over from last century has to be banished from our educational framework. Its existed and dominated there for far too long, and its failed results are apparent for everyone not infected with the fatal sickness of cultural Marxism to plainly see.