Sure, most of the country does not understand that the media is deeply corrupt. Maybe 20% of us know what a chronic problem this is within our democratic system. Perhaps another 20% thinks its a bit of a problem.
Leaving aside the few lunatics on the extreme left who think the media is biased to the right, then that leaves about 60% who are unaware of the problem.
Most pro-National sites are characterised by 1) a deep hatred of the MSM, and 2) a simultaneous overpowering fear of the MSM. They advise the Nats to pretend to be something else, to deny what they believe in, to lie, or the media will crucify them. This advice is wrong. It can’t go on this way. National has to break out, speak truth, and take on the media.
National need to go after the corrupt MSM in unison. They need to stick together in this strategy, and support each other, and not be cowed by that very media into backing down. They need to tell the unaware 60% of voters just how corrupt the NZ media is.
If media are suddenly confronted by a united and vigorous assault from National what can they do? They have two options. They can either straighten up, or they can turn even more against the Nats, therefore showing more of their bias and alerting more voters to their corruption. The Nats, if they do it right, can win this battle.
The mainstream news does not carry anything like the weight it once did. Politicians no longer need to tremble in fear of criticism from the Herald editorial writer, or some Labour flunky on TV or radio. Sure, they have some influence, but nowhere what they once had and they can be by-passed by alternative media.
Key to this battle is conviction. Labour is committed to socialism. When Keiran MacNulty stood up in parliament and boasted of being a socialist, he was cheered heartily by his comrades. Many other Labour MPs called out that they were too. Labour are not ashamed of what they believe in.
National needs this kind of conviction, and its founding principles give them the basics. They need to start believing in those principles again.
Glenn Youngkin, who came from far behind to win in the 2021 Virginia gubernatorial election is an excellent example of a conviction politician. Starting with only 2% name recognition, he eventually won against well known Democrat Terry McCauliffe, who was heavily supported by Barack Obama and Joe Biden. After the win, Youngkin appeared on the Tucker Carlson show, where the following exchange took place:
CARLSON: I don’t know what your advisors thought of this, but you said flat out, we are all equal in the eyes of God. That’s the root of our equality. What did your advisors think when you said that?
YOUNGKIN: Well, Tucker, I don’t run everything by my advisors, it’s what I believe.
National’s weakness on conviction politics grew under John Key, who enthusiastically sucked up to Barack Obama, the Clintons, and the communist Chinese. In 8 years as PM, he did little if anything to divert NZ from its far left political trajectory.
Key was poll driven, and thanked pollster David Farrar during his victory speech in 2014. He then sold his party and his country down the lane by suddenly retiring in December 2016. Whereupon Ardern, with the help of the MMP system and an embittered Winston Peters, won the next election. Pretty much sealing NZ’s fate of falling into a Venezuelan style social and economic collapse.
Sure, its not easy to take on the media, and not everyone can do it. Nigel Farage knows how it is done. Donald Trump did it. Criticism of left biased media has played a big part in recent wins by right wing politicians in South America and Europe.
Media are a key part of the Labour party, if not the main part, and it is irrational and cowardly for the Nationals or anyone to pretend this political reality does not exist. National simply have to take the fight to the media and most importantly, expose their bias to the larger public. Continuing to cower won’t cut it.
THE REDBAITER on X 
17 responses to “National- trembling in fear of the mainstream media”
A B A = anyone but arden. Simple as that.
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“National needs this kind of conviction, and its founding principles give them the basics. They need to start believing in those principles again.”
Even if that born-again belief could happen – not really likely – belief without action is covert cowardice. Something the gNats do well.
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A clean out might do it.
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There’s something VERY wrong at the top, in National. The executive needs a make-over.
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Exactly. Something is very wrong. Too many lefty imposters in the party, and as you say, it starts with the executive. Many put it down to Chinese Communist Party money/ influence. Know for sure that was what was behind Key’s campaign to change the flag. (remove the union jack)
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National must take the gamble (reckon a good one), stating categorically, they will cease funding any media, be it digital, print, radio, Tv.
They have, in the main, driven out their supportive advertisers, real estate being the only loyal remnants, allbeit heavily discounted.
Media should be on an even footing with every other business, not bought off by an incompetent PM, using taxpayers’ money, to get compliant editorial content, fulfilling her communist ideology..
Come on National, start rippling the pond, the swamp needs draining here, as it was in the US.
New Zealand is hurting with gangs, criminals, minorities, leeches, losers, and perverts running amok, with no repercussions from a benign judiciary.
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“stating categorically, they will cease funding any media, be it digital, print, radio, Tv”
Its fairly significant that so far the Nats have not given any indication that they would do this, but its IMHO the most important and effective thing they could do.
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Watch this video of “rising star” (God help us) Erica Standford. See how she refuses to discuss any principled view, and how she prefers to focus on nuts and bolts. See also how she is so easily coerced by the show’s host, for example when he mentions consultation with Tangata Whenua. She quickly agrees, “yes, I will be consulting with them”. She then goes on to completely disavow the culture war. A classic example of a useless politically naïve Nat MP whose only ambition is to do socialism better.
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When I hear Borrows, Mapp, Williamson, et al, it shows a solid decline in the calabre of National MPs over a relatively short period. Starting with the president, the party needs a wholesale purge, now!
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Well said Red ure on the button
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If I had to vote National to get Adern out, I would vote Act David Seymore. I believe the critical mass is changing and NZ’ers are realising what’s happening. Considering your comment about the unawareness of 60% of Joe public as to what the news media are up to is rather unsettling. We will keep keeping on……
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The new framework for the right needs to constructed with a solid foundation. That philosophy and foundation already exists, has deep strong roots and it must be called upon to build again. The mortar of Christendom, in reality not in theory. Not the corrupt clerisy. Whether you like it or not, Christendom built our western world, and could again.
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It’s commentary like this that makes me recommend you as NZ’s clearest-thinking commentator on the right, Red.
The upshot of your post is that in order to be relevant, the Nats need to be less like Labour. But they can’t fight until they have something to fight for, and “we can do socialism more efficiently than Labour” just doesn’t cut it. The National Party’s founding principles represent a plurality, if not a majority, viewpoint for the New Zealand voter and therefore a fantastic place to start.
The National Party hasn’t been a conviction party at least since Jim Bolger got a case of the screaming shits when the media were mean to him after Saint Ruth Richardson dropped the MOAB in ’91. That was the trigger, they lurched to the left and haven’t looked back. To the point where many even now consider John Key to have been a “good” and “successful” PM.
Sadly, without a wholesale cleanout I don’t believe there’s any point to the National Party. I do, however, see an opportunity for a wholesale cleanout. We’ve tried starting new parties, and it just doesn’t work. The New Conservatives represented the brightest hope, but without the infrastructure of an established party it proved just too hard to gain traction. No, for anyone questioning, the brightest hope wasn’t NZ First. If you’re still holding out for Winston, you seriously need to put down the bong.
The green left is wearing the current National Party like a skin suit. I believe the current Nats are vulnerable. I don’t believe the current crop of Nats have any inkling of the amount of rage out there, at the long train of abuses and usurpations perpetrated by successive administrations (both Labour- and National-led) but culminating in these egregious lockdowns and vaccine mandates. I don’t think they understand that turning legal gun owners into criminals overnight, that handing over large swaths of both the land and governance of our nation to a tiny corrupt racist minority, that locking people in their houses, that destroying people’s businesses, and forcing people to have an experimental gene therapy injected into their bodies, enrages people. The Nats sold out their core constituency to support every single one of Princess Cindy’s usurpations.
People are enraged. They have been emasculated, cowed, and treated like children by this government. Some – many, even – have cheered on this subjugation, happily trading their – and our – freedom for the illusion of safety. But others, beginning with a small core who have an inherent trust of anything government but in numbers growing by the day, have spoken out and are increasingly refusing to accept any further infringement. I believe there is a reckoning coming, and I pray with all my might it is resolved before it breaks out into violence. I believe the National Party holds the key to this. If people find a viable alternative to tyranny they will take it, and I believe the National Party, if they manage a clean out in time, can stand in that breech.
The alternative is the oppression continues. Princess Cindy continues her Hugo Chavez impersonation, and it all ends in violence and chaos.
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Spot on Redbaiter.
National need to stop the wokeness . Currently a weak Labour lite.
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Well they have truly self immolated now.
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Holy shit Red. would love your perspective on this catastrophe in the national party.
Hope u have been well my bro
LJ
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Delivered today my friend.
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