TELEVISION TURKEY

Television One's new promo is extraordinarily stupid. That TVNZ has presumably lavished a lot of money on this turkey while, at the same, sacking 60 staff from News and Current Affairs, is also extraordinarily irresponsible.

The promo shows various New Zealanders, gormlessly shining lights into the night sky. Why are they doing this? Is it an attempt to make contact with alien life who are flying around the earth in flying saucers? Perhaps its an attempt sabotage New Zealand's electric power grid?

No, its another attempt by TVNZ to present itself as part of some 'national experience' with, of course, TVNZ the conduit for this childish nationalism.

So scattered among this promo are various Television One presenters. Look- there's Mark Sainsbury and Paul Henry siting in car gazing vacantly up at the night sky. Neither look very happy. Maybe they don't like each other.

And there's newsreaders Simon Dallow and Wendy Petrie emerging from the TVNZ bunker to gaze wondrously up at the sky. Both look like extras from Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

Television One, under Labour's broadcasting policy, was supposed to have fulfilled public service obligations - while at the same time, meeting commercial obligations. It was a disastrously conceived policy that was always doomed to fail and so it has proved to be. Television One is awash in reality shows, cooking shows, fluffy travel shows, various shows fronted by by various TVNZ 'celebrities'. Any kind of serious content has been shoved outside primetime into the late night hours, Saturday afternoons and so forth.

It's kind of appropriate that TVNZ should produce a promo like this because it sums up most of its programming - insubstantial pap about not much at all.