Guest column by Peter Bale: The talkback election
Election 2023’s stale debates about co-governance, public debt and crime bubbled up from the simplistic bogs of talkback radio, writes Hoon co-host Peter Bale in a plea for nuance, depth and substance
I seldom engage in New Zealand politics or journalism but I did touch on it in this piece for the Bernard Hickey Substack, The Kākā. You know that Bernard and I talk "top quality piffle" in our Hoon podcast, live on a Friday and in edited form on The Kākā the next day. -
TL;DR:
Talkback radio is a powerful force in Aotearoa New Zealand, reinforcing the core beliefs of its listeners with a simple crowd-sourced format unlikely to challenge those who take part.
However, talkback and its close cousin talk radio, is the home of simplicity — a desert to nuance. It has a “Just the facts, Ma’am” conceit of straight-talking commo…
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