Does the New Zealand media even have pundits? Well, we have the curmudgeon columnist crowd, all too ready pass judgement on the politics of the day; but pundits who get TV talk time to give their take on what is driving our political system?
This is a serious question. I don’t really watch TV that isn’t make-believe, and my print media intake is all second-hand copies of the Dominion Post and the Listener and occasional moments of other material. (Yes, I know this makes my fascination with media and this ‘mediawatch’ series quite silly, but it’s my blog and I can be silly if I so choose.) So, do we have pundits?
Reason: I was just skimming through my bookmarks list and found an article I’d bookmarked nearly 3 weeks ago. From Radar Online, it’s called ‘The Iraq Gamble‘ and it profiles eight pundits and shows how their stars have risen and fallen since the Iraq war. All the pundits who predicted quick success have risen to even greater media prominence; the ones who predicted a difficult quagmire have, er, not. (Sure, it’s unscientific, but I give Radar points for trying not to stack the deck too much by avoiding conservatives entirely – all their pro-war voices are at least moderates if not “liberal”. As much as that counts for anything.)
(See also: Kevin Federline appearing in advertisements making fun of his own life; as Fametracker noted, another example of the disturbing U.S. cultural phenomenon known as ‘failing upwards’.)
Anyway, it’s snappy and pithy and worth a read, and I find it important to remember that these guys have influence in the US – because I can’t think of a comparable class of folks here in NZ. Am I missing something obvious, or are we just too small for such people to make a living?
2 thoughts on “[mediawatch] Pundit Meritocracy”
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I assume, here, that you’re making a distinction between a “pundit” and a “rent-a-quote” (aka “commentators”).
The difference being is that a pundit is someone who works for a broadcaster and who is allowed to editorialise, as opposed to someone who is called in for “expert comment” as and when the broadcaster needs a talking head or two.
There’s never been a large culture of pundits in NZ television, I don’t think. I feel that, perhaps, this might be due to the influence of the old Beeb style of newscasting – serious, dispassionate, remote… and often unquestioning of authority. The crusading advocating telejournalist of the likes of Edward Murrow didn’t ever have that strong a foothold under that system.
So, the pundit phenomena has never been, for my watching, all that strong in NZ, excepting for each broadcaster’s “political editor,” who have often been some of NZ’s finest telejournalists.
NZ’s media is more in favour of the same score of so of “rent-a-quotes” who they bring in as required, and whose views, opinions and predictions you’ll often know before they even open their mouth.
Of course, I’m full of hot air. I haven’t watched NZ television news or current affair since the last general election. SO this is probably all old and out-of-date bigotry. =)
Scott A: I share your dislocation – I haven’t watched NZ current affairs since about 2001. But you seem pretty convincing to me.