Source: Family First
MEDIA RELEASE
4 September 2023
Ad attacking Luxon is OK, meanwhile an ad promoting women is banned
Family First CEO Bob McCoskrie is stunned that an ‘attack’ advertisement on National leader Christopher Luxon by a union has been allowed to be printed in the NZ Herald as a full wrap-around on the front page, yet an advertisement recently requested by Family First to be printed and asking for a debate around the definition of ‘woman’ and its implication in public policy was cancelled.
“It’s outrageous because the union attack is an unsubstantiated ad hominen personal attack. And secondly, it is designed to pass of as a news headline which will confuse some people. Our advertisement was simply calling for a debate and was within the newspaper and was clearly an advertisement with clear identification of who was publishing it.”
This questionable behaviour of the media (on what it chooses to print or not print) is troubling, especially leading into Election 2023.
“It appears that the media and advertising agents are acting as judge and jury on what the public can see and hear. Where does this place their coverage of the political debate leading up to the General Election. What else are they censoring?”
“Most importantly, are these actions of the legacy media spelling the end of independent civil discourse on controversial social issues?”
At the beginning of July, in a disturbing display of media censorship, the major daily newspapers (NZ Herald, Stuff (The Post and Christchurch Press) and the Otago Daily Times appeared to band together to pull the publication of our full page advertisement at the 11th hour. The advertisement was part of a nationwide campaign asking the simple question “What is a woman?”
Bob McCoskrie is calling on a formal inquiry into the increasing and disturbing level of bias and censorship which is seeping into our media.
