Editorial: Weekly Watch

By Media Matters President, JOHN TERRIS

Sunday, 18 November 2012

MARK SAINSBURY has announced he is to leave Close Up, an announcement which seems to have been received with widespread indifference.  I guess the programme has simply run its course.  Some bloke from Upper Hutt with very odd hirsute appendages, in an Al Capone suit, yelling at the camera as if his audience were composed entirely of the hard of hearing, while meant to convey authority, is actually not a substitute for serious commentary on important events.  This is especially so these days when you can get it hot and relevant via satellite from the BBC, CNN, FOX, and from commentators who actually know what they are talking about.

WHILE ON THE NEWS, I sometimes feel sorry for visitors to this country, English speakers who must be completely non-plussed by the version we speak here.  On TV, they use the word HALP when they mean HELP, and even more strangely ELP when they mean ALP.  Then there are those weather forecasters who say SHOWUZ when they mean SHOWERS, and newsreaders who say OWUZ when they mean HOURS.  Surely news was supposed to be authoritative?  Don't these people realise that emasculating the English language does nothing for their credibility?

FAIR GO recently had a Fair Go at TV Advertisements, and what do you know?  That those chosen by viewers as the best, were also chosen by other viewers as the worst!  This tells us that commercials are made to be offensive.  Recent research reveals that most people turn them off anyway.  The presence of commercials is particularly offensive during films or long-running features like Downton Abbey, serious works which are made to screen continuously.  Interrupting them to sell home appliances is like a person dressed up as a clown jumping up in the middle of a theatre performance to bang on about the quality of the food at the lobby food stall.

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John Terris is National President for Media Matters in NZ, is a former TV producer and also former Labour (Opposition) spokesperson on Broadcasting.