The trust in our media is in freefall for all to see. And it’s well deserved.
Before we look at the results, take into account that the research organisation (Horizon Research) is actually left-
leaning – it’s an online survey of New Zealand adults who are
members of a Horizon’s panel – enticed to join with gifts like iPads and cash etc. Horizon Research predicted that the Yes vote in the cannabis campaign would win by 5 points. Don’t tell Chloe -but they lost by more than 2 points. And as we also know, the left is far more proactive than the right and far more likely to sign up for these polls. So when left wing media get low scores in trust, that’s really saying something!
Key results (which are damning)
- In 2021, fewer than half of New Zealanders trusted news in general! (declined from 53% to 48%)
- trust in the news people themselves chose even fell from 62% to 55%
- 94% are concerned about stories that are spun or twisted to push an agenda
- even for left-leaning Radio NZ and TVNZ, 1 in 3 didn’t trust them
- look how low Spinoff is (well deserved of course) but remember that the sample audience will be left-leaning
- In our view, Newstalk ZB is performing badly for 2 reasons – one, the left hate Mike Hosking with a vengeance, and two, the ZB news service leans further left than Radio NZ. It’s deteriorated significantly. Perhaps someone could pass that on to the stations who take their news feed.
It’s pretty shocking when half of your audience don’t trust you. And that distrust is increasing.
But the media have worked very hard to achieve this low rating
If you want to see a classic example of why the media aren’t trusted, read our analysis of how they covered the cannabis referendum.
It’s a sad state of affairs – but fortunately most people are becoming awake to it.
We’re a-woke! 😊
