Ian Bayly: TV One descends to mind-numbing stupidity

For 12 nights in a row, One News reported on the circus surrounding Michael Jackson's death. Photo / Martin Sykes

Despite living in Australia for many years, I'm still a New Zealand citizen, and a New Zealander at heart.

I recently returned to New Zealand to visit loved ones and to have an off-season holiday.

The one aspect of contemporary life in New Zealand that I found most disappointing was the degenerate state of TV programmes. My observations are based mainly on watching, or attempting to watch, TV One for the 6pm news and the next two or three hours over the period June 28-July 9.

On the first evening, TV One managed to devote the whole of the first six minutes of news to the late Michael Jackson.

The station management had apparently formed the judgment that the most significant thing that had happened in the world during the preceding 24 hours was the unseemly circus surrounding the death of an egocentric, drug-crazed weirdo who had contributed nothing significantly beneficial to humanity.

Thereafter, TV One revisited, like a dog returning to its vomit, the Michael Jackson circus every night, for significant periods, for the next 11 nights.

On July 8, the whole of the first 14 minutes was devoted exclusively to the Jackson circus - yes, it was so important that it was uninterrupted by commercials. But that wasn't the finish of it - they returned to it again for another two minutes during the news.

Next, at 7pm we arrived at Close Up, and did we move on? No, the first segment of about 10 minutes was again devoted to - you've got it - Jackson! For the second item on Close Up we had the highly elevating experience of being introduced to The King of Porn. But TV One had already shown that it could do better than that; on July 7 it excelled itself by devoting the best part of an hour (9.30-10.30 pm) to "The Perfect Vagina".

These last two items may be taken as symbolic of my judgment that TV One finds difficulty in elevating its aim much above belt level.

Lest this comment suggest that I'm a sexual wowser, I hasten to say that I have no objection to erotic movies or the tasteful depiction of sexual acts. It is simply a matter of judgment and the exercise of good taste - commodities in short supply at TV One.

With respect to some sort of balanced presentation of significant world events in the main evening presentation of news, New Zealand's TV One is significantly worse than the main commercial TV channels (7 and 9) in Australia. In my view, TV One has lost the plot, and if it is to be considered New Zealand's TV flag-bearer, it is a disgrace to the nation.

I'm not sure whether to admire or deplore the ability of New Zealanders to tolerate the mind-numbing stupidity, frequency and duration of commercial advertisements.

There is no escape as New Zealand inexplicably and unwisely allowed government-funded, non-commercial TV to disappear off the radar. I returned to Australia with renewed appreciation of ABC TV. It is a powerful beacon in the wilderness of Australian commercial TV much of which is little, if any, better than NZ TV One.

Australian state broadcasting also still has considerable merit despite the fact that it is now (formerly it wasn't) commercialised to a significant degree. Every night at 6.30 local time, SBS World News Australia is capable of presenting a balanced, world-wide coverage of news for approximately half an hour with only one relatively brief commercial break.

It is able to sift through significant world events and come up with a fairly rational order of priority in which to present them. I would invite those New Zealanders who are able to do so to tune into SBS at 8.30pm, compare it with what they have seen on TV One, and draw their own conclusions.

New Zealand excels in so many fields. In many respects New Zealand makes a disproportionately significant contribution to the good of humanity and the elevation of the human spirit. Why has New Zealand TV been allowed to slide into such a degenerate state?

* Ian Bayly was born in Taranaki, spent more than 30 years at Monash University, Melbourne, was a reader in zoology and awarded the rare degree of Doctor of Science. Bayly Bay in the Vestfold Hills, Antarctica, is named in recognition of his contribution to Antarctic science.