P.M. flays news media

Press, 7 May 1981, Page 2

P.M. flays news media

PA Wellington The standards of New Zealand journalists, have been criticised by the Prime Minister (Mr Muldoon), who says that they lack the ability to write objectively. “Properly reported facts interpret themselves," Mr Muldoon told the Hutt Rotary Club yesterday: “An attempt by a journalist who is other than a topliner can he totally misleading, and I am afraid that in the New Zealand news media we have far too much of that.” ; , Mr Muldoon cited as examples the reporting of recent commissions of inquiry. “In the Marginal Lands matter, the news media had my colleagues, Young, and Maclntyre, tried, convicted, and sentenced long before the inquiry concluded” he said. ’ “When, the inquiry found otherwise the subsequent treatment by the news media was largely in justification of its earlier attitude.” It was, Mr Muldoon said, “a sorry day” in New Zealand journalism. Turning to the Mount Erebus crash report, Mr Muldoon said that he had been distressed but not surprised “at the manner in 'which certain journalists have treated my involvement with this matter, preferring to look at it in terms of the political scene.” Mr Muldoon said that the Wellington newspapers were frequently the worst — “perhaps because they are too close to the political scene.”

Some of the material that had appeared in the “Evening Post” in particular, Mr Muldoon said, “can only be described as bad journalism.”