Suspicions that legacy media conspired to try and reduce NZ First’s vote in the 2023 election campaign.

NZ’s legacy media of course did not report the real news on Winston Peter’s weekend State of the Nation speech. The speech was pretty much a litany of mostly justified complaints of media bias, but was notable for one very interesting disclosure.

Mr Peters has implied that media’s hostility towards his party is driven by their knowledge that he tried to dissuade Labour and Jacinda Ardern from establishing the Public Interest Journalism Fund. Labour apparently told media of Mr Peter’s opposition to the fund, which he rightly warned would be seen as a bribe.

According to Winston, Labour told media “this guy is trying to stop us helping you”.

There is a serious implication here. Mr Peters is saying that because they knew NZ First had disagreed with the PIJF, media allowed their resulting animosity towards the party to influence their reporting during the 2023 election campaign.

Mr Peters claims his party was virtually ignored by media during the run up to the election. He says reporters largely failed to attend his campaign meets, and actively worked to hide the fact that these meetings were well attended and his party was attracting a significant level of public support.

This is an important claim given NZ’s MMP voting system. Where breaking the 5% threshold is so critical to success. Fewer people will vote for a party if they think it is unpopular, as they see it as a wasted vote.

So by hiding the popularity of NZ First, media effectively dissuaded an unknown number of people from voting for the party, thereby reducing the number of seats it would win.

This then leads on to NZ First having less influence on govt overall compared to the seats it may have won if voters had not been fooled into thinking their vote might be wasted.

In broad terms what this means is that a corrupt legacy media, rather than informing the electorate in an open and non partisan way, (as it should if it wants to fulfil its traditional role as the fourth estate), instead conspired to undermine the election. Thereby putting the entire legitimacy and integrity of NZ’s democracy at risk.

The attached video presents the highlights of Mr Peter’s fiery State of the Nation address. Long pauses and long periods of applause have been cut, but I have tried hard not to alter the meaning of Mr Peter’s words in any way.

He addresses media bias, the PIJF, the incompetence and radicalness of the Greens and Maori party, (including the race reference) Jimmy Shaw’s qualifications scandal, the Treaty of Waitangi, foreshore legislation, excessive and unendorsed immigration, fake Maoris the scandal of the forced vaccinations, and a whole lot of stuff that is really interesting. If you’re looking for somewhere to put your vote in the next election, I recommend a watch.

Once again, the Nazi issue is a legacy media beat up and probable distraction. Mr Peters was really only reminding us of the historically dangerous concept of superiority based on race.

The real point too in all of this, (that Winston is trying to make) is that legacy media should have called Rawiri Waititi out when he first made the claims that Maori had superior DNA. They didn’t because they’re biased. Or cowards. Take your pick.