Dominic George: Non news getting far too much oxygen

These days, it seems, almost anyone can come up with an online petition. Photo / File

There have been important news stories this week, not only for agriculture, but also for the country. Silver Fern Farms' venture with Chinese food giant Shanghai Maling and the continued rise of Fonterra's global dairy auction prices are stories that have received relatively adequate exposure from the news media.

But, as a journalist, it struck me recently that we need to be more vigilant who we give oxygen to. From the rabid right to the loony left and every bugger in-between, it seems any old message from any old idiot can see the light of day. I thought that's what social media was for. Any triviality can be aired and judged by the great unwashed. It's when that ethos creeps into mainstream media that problems of credibility arise.

The lead story in Tuesday's edition of the Otago Daily Times read, "Mayor Blasts 'Racist' Petition". Naturally, like many others I suspect, I read the article to find the source of this alleged racism.

It turns out there are two petitions, both in relation to Dunedin Mayor Dave Cull's proposal to set up a centre in the city to harbour Syrian refugees: one is pro, the other anti.

The anti-refugee petition calls on John Key to refrain from a resettlement centre in Dunedin, while the other encourages him to do so. The article tells us the anti-refugee petition was set up by a guy from Christchurch (there's a surprise) who attracted about 200 signatures from people in at least SIX countries. The pro-refugee petition has attracted a mere quarter of that number.

Clearly, not many people give a damn either way, at least according to the petitions highlighted in this story.

The Cantabrian charmer didn't even respond to the paper's request for comment, while the local student who thinks it's a good idea to resettle the refugees in Dunedin was quoted as saying, "... they have a lot to give". How does he know this? They may, they may not. More likely some will and some won't, but let's reserve judgment, eh?

Giving voice to those who don't deserve it is certainly not confined to this one newspaper and, to be honest, had I been in charge of content that day I would have run a similar story under a similar headline. I'm merely pontificating for the sake of filling column inches, but I think the point still has some validity.

Look at some of the other stories out there, in particular the disgraceful banning of Ted Dawe's award-winning book Into the River, at the behest of our own quasi-evangelist Bob McCoskrie and his merry band of militants. The fact they've got so far is an indictment of the Censor's Office, which has given weight, via a convoluted, typically New Zealand process, to the mere opinion of a small group of zealots.

Here's an idea: if you don't want to read the book, or don't want your kids to read the book, then don't. Just don't impose your virtues on the rest of us.

A book ban is a big story and the protagonist in this one was McCoskrie, so fair game but, in general terms, he receives too much oxygen. As do the All Blacks at times. Case in point, right now.

We've learned this week that the All Blacks got on a plane, flew to England, got off, met people, checked into a hotel, blah blah blah. The issue, of course, is that when you convince your employer to send you to cover an event offshore you must provide the content to justify your jaunt.

I have faith our legion of reporters in the UK will be able to unearth interesting and original ideas at some stage of the tournament.

While I'm on it, the flag debacle has received saturation coverage to the point that it's become confused and convoluted, as predicted on these pages a few weeks ago. Far too many people have had their say on this in the mainstream media. There are calls for the Tino Rangatiratanga flag to fly alongside whichever one is chosen, or not chosen.

Let's just have them all. You choose whichever one you want for any given occasion; problem solved. Now, I'll draw up an online petition, get 20 people to click on it and hopefully it'll make the front page somewhere.