WAIPUKURAU, New Zealand — I have a few email addresses from congressmen and senators in Washington. I sometimes get responses to what I send or have to say to them. Some of them have read the SDJW and have seen Alon Ben-Meir’s article entitled ‘Repercussions of Israel’s Fractured Democracy’ (nothing wrong with that article) and Bruce S. Ticker’s story ‘Impeachment unlikely to affect Democratic control of the House‘???. So I won’t send Joel Cohen’s item entitled “Trump seeks Israel’s help in Election” because one or more dopey members of Congress might take it seriously and make an issue of it.
Also they might try to find out what Prime Minister Jucinda Ardern said to Donald when she told him about the changes she has made to our gun laws; yes he asked her about it. Anything that looks like, smells like, sounds like an AR15 has been banned. Any modification made to any weapon legal or otherwise is also banned. I have sent them coverage of her meeting at the UN with Donald.
Seriously Now.
The impeachment issue here has shown up the bias of American media coverage against Trump like never before. Radio New Zealand and TV New Zealand separately provide the same service here as the BBC does in The UK. Friends who work for those organizations have said they are privately embarrassed to have contracts with CNN otherwise known as (H.R.)’Clinton’s News Network’ which provides sound and video footage for radio and TV, so wherever they can, they are using different sources for both sound and video. It is quite noticeable now. A check on Radio NZ’s website shows that they have covered every twist and turn of the impeachment issue but not one of the written articles that are on the site are sourced from American-owned-and-based news organizations. All the articles come from British-, Canadian-, or Australian-owned organizations. The first article they published on the second whistle blower was from the BBC.
The New Zealand Herald published in Auckland and its NZME stable mates are all running stories today (Tuesday 8th) on the second whistle blower that come from Conrad Black’s Canadian-owned London UK Telegraph Group. The only American sourced item is from AP. your press association. The Associated Press item has a headline, ‘Busy week in the House’ outlining what is on its agenda this week. It’s about impeachment but you can’t really spin what the House is going to do on that. Yesterday they published four stories from AP.
My point here is that NZME has a contract to get American news from The Washington Post and The New York Times but is not using those sources as much as they usually do.
The other media group here used to be owned by Fairfax Australia and is now known as Stuff which comes from the name of its web site. Today’s edition of the capital city Wellington newspaper The Dominion Post has one international news item sourced from America. Its title is ‘Venezuela, at crisis point, is giving oil away to Cuba.’ Credit for that goes to the Miami Herald. Coverage of the second whistle blower is the same story as published in the NZ Herald from the Telegraph Group London.
Their website is a jungle and hard to find your way around. I saw one article that had logos for The New York Times, Reuters and The Washington Post. The photo may have been from the NYT. Reuters is British owned and I don’t see the connection between it and The Washington Post in the article.
When it comes to the newspapers referred to I am not commenting on what is on theirwebsites any more than my Stuff comment.
TV New Zealand has an interesting situation on its website. Of the items I have seen on its site, it is doing its best to present both sides of a story. I looked at three items sourced from CNN or CBS. In all three situations they have combined those items with items from Fox News, so you click on the headline and get both sides of the story, or at least two opinions on the same story. All three items were Impeachment stories.
The other free-to-air radio and TV group’s news department is called NewsHub. Its main stations with news are Newstalk ZB and its two TV stations are TV3 and Prime TV. Newshub provides news of various standards to other music and sports stations in its group.
Its website has covered the impeachment issue comprehensively as Radio NZ has. It, like RNZ, has not published any written articles on the impeachment issue sourced from American-owned media.
Newstalk ZB is the main to competitor to Radio New Zealand’s National Program which runs a nationwide show out of Wellington or Auckland while Newstalk ZB runs a network with local breakouts at different times of the day. Mike Hosking is the lead out of Auckland and Mike Yardley is in Christchurch. Here on the east coast of the North Island we get the feed from Auckland. I am close enough to pick up the feed from Wellington but I prefer Auckland. Remember we operate in one time zone.
Mike Hosking is the flagship morning broadcaster of NewstalkZB . He has a blog which comes out under the NewstalkZB Banner but is mostly issues from his point of view. Mike Yardley has an item on Hosking’s Blog to which I provide the link here. He talks about the “hyper-partisan all in orgy.” (listen to the voice recording which talks about bringing pitch forks to the orgy) and the “rabid rush to judgment” of the Democrats on impeachment.
I leave it to you to read and listen and get my point. Bruce S. Ticker take note….
Our editors and I suspect Australian editors can see the nonsense coming from the US media about Trump and impeachment as well as the facts. They and I read the transcript of the President’s phone call and the August 25 whistle blowers letter within hours of them being released. We can read, we understand American English, and we can see the nonsense from seven-times Adam Schiff and others. We could watch his parody of the transcript with a copy of it in our hands. All mainstream media in New Zealand are keeping their distance from American Media as best they can. Sometimes it can’t be avoided
If you want to impeach the President, then do it legally. It has to be more than an INQUIRY, (yes that is how many of you seem to pronounce the word “Inquiry” and I find it amusing). To give what is happening legal standing, it has to be put to the House as a whole and voted on by all members. After the vote is taken and passed, it will have ‘Legislative Purpose’. Then of course the Republicans will be involved and they can subpoena witnesses and ask questions which of course the Democrats don’t want to happen. Nixon’s and Clinton’s impeachments were both put to the House for a vote.
I can’t end this without a swipe at Lawrence Baron’s ‘Humoring the Headlines’ of October 2nd.
The word Spy…. defined as a whistle blower who follows Protocol, but only after the protocols have been changed to allow second-hand information to be used in a whistle blower complaint. As we see now they need a second intel spy because the first one got rubbished. I understand there are more spies standing in line.
Constitutional Oversight….. Oversight of the Executive branch is now Persecution and Harassment of President Trump at any cost.
SCUM = Fake News….. That’s what New Zealand editors see coming from the American media and why they source most of their articles from foreign-owned media on the impeachment matter.
Coup…. The attempted overthrow of President Trump by The Democrat party, the USA media (not the SDJW) and the intelligence community without going to the Senate.
Deep state….. That is Washington. A good name really as the city is built on a swamp. You only find civil servants outside of DC, Mostly in small town and mostly small city USA. A large number of water rats or swamp rats who have a hatred of President Trump live in Washington.
President Trump is correct in his action not to supply information and documents to the House until this impeachment is put to a vote of the House. He is entitled to know who is accusing him of wrong doing.
Why carry on this crap when it will be defeated in the Senate? The house has to get on with the business of the people which includes ratifying the new trade deals with Mexico and Canada. A victory for President Trump.
Thank goodness for the American farmer, today’s deal with Japan does not need House ratification.
I am not saying that editorial opinion or coverage here is pro-Trump but it is a bit more balanced than what most of you are getting.
By the way, today October 8, 2019 is the 250th anniversary of the arrival at Gisborne of Captain James Cook on board his ship HMS Endeavor. His claim to fame in North America is that he surveyed the St. Lawrence River for the Royal Navy. He was killed on his second trip in Hawaii after leaving New Zealand .
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McCormick is chairman of the Hawkes Bay Province Friends of Israel, based in Waipukurau.
McCormick is chairman of the Hawkes Bay Province Friends of Israel, based in Waipukurau.