Balance?

Nikki Kaye wrote on FB:

I sat through the Vodafone music awards and listened as Homebrew and other labour politicians effectively endorsed calling John a variety of offensive things. It saddens me that there doesn’t appear to be equity in the way certain politicians are held to account on what they say.

This is a valid point. Compare the number of column centimeters that have appeared on  a jovial comment on a radio show, and on the bile that was spewed at Key at the Vodafone Music Awards and how two Labour MPs tweeted their adoration for the band that did it.

We can contrast the total non-coverage in New Zealand to a similar case in Australia.

A comedian said some offensive stuff about Tony Abbott and his Chief of Staff at a comedy show. Several Labor Ministers were in the audience. Now none of them tweeted stuff about how much they loved the comedian or adored them. They in fact said nothing at all.

However this became a major story in Australia, reported in every newspaper, purely because the Labor MPs present did not immediately condemn the remarks. They later did so, after Gillard did. It was deemed a story just on the basis they were there. It would have been many times worse for them if they had actually expressed admiration for the comedian who made the remarks.

So you have a huge disparity in media treatment – not just within New Zealand – but between Australia and New Zealand.

Now just imagine for a second if senior National MPs had been present at a show where highly offensive things were said about the Labour Party Leader. Also imagine if they tweeted how much they loved the person or persons who said them. Does anyone really think this would not have become a major news story?