Charlotte's Web

The MSM has spent the last thirty years dismantling the stoic yet informative NZBC formula and dosing up on tabloid sensation and fripperies. Reality TV, slebrification, native advertising. Instead of encouraging the best out of people, it has pandered to the basest elements of the public psyche.

Now that it has conjured up this ravenous, insatiable consumer of content - with all the lack of scruples that an advertising-led agenda entails - the MSM don't get to whine about the hatemail by-product.

Garbage in, garbage out. If you set the level of debate at grunt level, grunting is all you'll get. Change up or shut up.

Onya for the insight, Deborah Hill-Cone. Rebel without applause.

Extreme Holmes Makeover

In two days' time, mainstream baby boomer New Zealand will bury its short dark knight, Paul Holmes. NZ hasn't poured out this much undeserved maudlin treacle since Elvis Presley died.

Amidst all the crocodile tears, only three brave essayists have been more accurate in appraising the ego-driven gnome. The first comes from an unexpected source, Boomer Karl du Fresne, who explains the Holmesathon as TV doing what is does best; onanising itself.

The second was the raw obit by former Q+A producer Tim Watkin, who channels Prima Donna without saying it. Russell Brown ties the Holmes schtick into a larger news and current affairs narrative, including this elegant observation:

He was attracted to people he saw as like himself – battlers against the bureaucracy. And more even than most men of his generation, he believed that if he felt something, it must be right.

Yes, that lobotomised certainty abounds in men of a certain age. I put the blame on Compulsory Military Training.

Holmes is dead and so is the egocentric format he introduced. Say what you will about Seven Sharp, they don't exploit their subjects and re-edit their stories to fit with a producer's preconceived prejudices.

It's the difference between reporting the news and inventing it.

Ride the Walrus

Martyn Bradbury is preparing to destroy Seven Sharp when it debuts tomorrow. I know so, cause he said so on Plebook. Today he's sharpening his hack saw and polishing his mallet, for tomorrow he will lay waste to the sold-out, dumbed-down, infotainwashing Seven Sharp.

I'm setting my standards a bit lower. I wish Boyed, Mau and Mulligan well. Ride the Walrus, guys!

Today is Satyr Day

# Steve Braunias is back with the Secret Diary of Kim Dotcom. I was hoping for Gareth Morgan, but no complaints.

# Toby Manhire is settling into the Herald nicely with a blistering satire column.

# The NBR's Judge Jock has dipped his toe into the poison ink. Aimed squarely at Auckland's Law Jockeys, it is a welcome (and hopefully continuing) addition to the NBR Free to Read section.