ZB Plus is a new subscription-only digital platform launched by Newstalk ZB in September last year. Its editor is Philip Crump, who formerly blogged as 'Thomas Cranmer'. According to Crump, the intention is 'to build a new voice in New Zealand journalism that tackles the biggest issues in the country, breaks news and stands up for everyday Kiwis. Nothing will be off the table.'
The intention might be to build a new journalistic voice, but its team of opinion writers are not exactly new. They have been around for years, writing for other outlets. There's no new writing talent on display here, and there's little chance that the reader will be met with views that they have not encountered many times before.
And, mirroring Crump's own conservative politics, the ZB Plus stable of pundits are all from the conservative end of the ideological swimming pool. Among the 'right-thinking' commentators are former ACT MP Muriel Newman, neoliberal ideologue Oliver Hartwich and radio journalist Jamie Mackay.
While ZB Plus might not be an uncomplicated attack dog for the right, in the way Sean Plunket's online radio station The Platform has turned out to be, it still remains generally free of liberal opinion, and anything to the left of tepid Labourism is absent altogether. It's worth noting that ZB Plus had discussions with The Platform last October to canvas 'a possible relationship' between the two brands. Nothing, so far, has developed out of those discussions.
Perhaps one of the reasons well known commentator Chris Trotter has been recruited to the ZB Plus cause is to provide, on the surface at least, some 'progressive' alternative views to its diet of conservative opinion. Trotter has taken to describing himself as 'New Zealand's leading left-wing commentator', even if most of the left thinks otherwise. Indeed, it's a strange form of 'left wing commentary' that exhibits a consistent hostility for socialist politics. In fact, the only reason that Trotter ever mentions socialism is in order to attack it.
It's also superbly ironic that Trotter, who has spent many years claiming that the future of the left continues to lie with the Labour Party, is now providing his tacit and carefully worded approval for the new coalition government because it's supposedly providing the people 'with what they want'. That, to put it mildly, is a puzzling argument since most folk have not been clamouring for further economic austerity - which is what they will get from this government. Trotter's qualified approval for the Government and his support for Israel's genocidal military campaign in Gaza are a good indication though of what constitutes his so-called 'left wing politics' these days. He's probably a good fit for ZB Plus for that reason.
In recent days ZB Plus has been chasing the allegations surrounding Green MP Golriz Ghahraman. It was Philip Crump who broke the story that she may have been involved in a second shoplifting incident. While Crump will argue that he is simply doing his job, it's hard not to conclude that Crump, no fan of the Green Party, delights in sticking it to one of the Government's political opponents. It will be interesting to see whether Crump and ZB Plus will be as vigorous in its journalistic scrutiny of the coalition government.
Recent events though suggest that ZB Plus may well prove to be 'a pleasure to work with' as far as Chris Luxon, David Seymour and Winston Peters are concerned. While ZB Plus, for example, has gone after Ghahraman with gusto, it has had nothing to say about the Government's failure to call for a ceasefire in Gaza. And it has remained silent as the Government has come out in support of the bombing of Yemen by the United States. In both cases, does the silence from ZB Plus mean it approves of the Government's actions? We should be told. But it does indicate that ZB Plus has a skewered set of priorities if it thinks an alleged case of shoplifting trumps the slaughter of innocent men, women and children in Gaza.
Fair comment, Steve. Neither the Right, nor the Left, are what they were when we entered the political fray nearly 50 years ago. Humility requires me to point out, however, that I do not describe myself as "New Zealand's leading left-wing commentator" - those are the words of the publisher. The best place to look for a self-description of Chris Trotter is on his blog "Bowalley Road". No nonsense there about being New Zealand's leading leftie!
ReplyDeleteI wonder if it's not a case that it isn't that NZ political scene has changed and that labels like 'left' and 'right' no longer apply, but more a case of Chris Trotter's politics continuing their rightward trajectory. It's madness to claim that you can be left AND support Act. How does that work? Maybe Trotter should describe himself as a 'former left wing commentator'. He should own it and stop trying to pretend otherwise.
ReplyDelete