On Media7 this week
Thursdays at 9.05pm, with encore screenings on Friday at
9.05am & 1.05pm, Sunday at 10.05pm, Monday at 10.05am and
2.05pm.
The Editorial Image
There was some outrage last week when a cartoon featured in the
Dominion Post depicted Paula Bennett, who had just announced
the government's intention to fund long-term contraception for
beneficiaries, appeared in the same frame as the war criminal,
Josef Mengele, the Nazi "doctor" in charge of human experimentation
at Auschwitz.
Bennett was shown in grossly fat caricature, wearing a yellow print
frock, where the polka-dots were depicted as human skulls.
David Farrar described it as "a grievous judgment of error" [sic]
and in a letter to the paper demanded an apology.
That's unlikely to be given, because of the historic latitude
allowed editorial cartoonists to depict our leaders, the great, the
good and the exalted in generally unflattering lights.
Had the same association been explicit in a written opinion column,
let alone an editorial, there would presumably have been a greater
scandal, a complaint to the Press Council and possibly a defamation
action, launched against the newspaper.
Luckily, our press culture has usually allowed cartoonists, acting
on the part of their editors and on the part of the public to
ridicule or "take the rise" out of public figures in the interests
of satire and political and social commentary.
No matter what the editorial writers opine, the cartoonists will
draw worse.
And this tradition is coming to the fore as the Key Government
moves into its second term and the long-honeymoon between the media
and the Prime Minister hits some rocky patches.
On Media7 this week we have three of New Zealand's finest in the
form of Auckland illustrator, Anna Crichton; Herald
Cartoonist, Rod Emmerson and the man who served it up to Paula
Bennett, Trace Hodgson.
Media7 is recorded in front of a live audience in the TVNZ
Auckland Television Centre on Wednesday evenings and is first
broadcast at 9.05pm on Thursdays on TVNZ 7.
The show is replayed several times during the week. (Friday 9.05
am and 1.05 pm, Sunday 11.05 pm and Monday 10.05 am and 2.05
pm)
Media7 is broadcast both on FreeView and on Sky Channel 77. It is
also available on demand from
TVNZ's
website
, can be downloaded as a podcast
http://tvnz.co.nz/media7/podcasts-2757335
and is available on
YouTube
.
There is also a
Media7 FaceBook page for viewers to place their
feedback and to learn more about the show and follow us on twitter
@media7nz.
People wishing to attend the Media7 recording session and to be
part of the audience should go to TVNZ TVC entrance in Hobson
Street Auckland between 5.15 and 5.45 pm.
