Media smack

In a possibly unprecedented move, Prime Minister Helen Clark and Opposition Leader John Key held a joint press conference yesterday announcing a compromise on the anti-smacking bill currently before Parliament. The cross-party compromise (also involving smaller parties) means the bill is assured of passage.

Under current law, a parent who uses violence against a child can get off in court by claiming it’s “reasonable force”. The bill will eliminate that defence. However, far right Christian groups, including a prominent one from America, went into overdrive to claim that “good parents will be sent to jail!” and other lies and bullshit (I wrote about this here).

The compromise directs police to not pursue cases that aren’t in the public interest or that are “inconsequential” (in other words, the should only purse real child abuse). One far right NZ TV preacher claimed this was a “glorious victory”, even though the politicians weren’t paying any attention to him personally.

Now media pundits are bemoaning the fact that amended bill contains language directing the police, the old “slippery slope” argument. Since the NZ news media were pushing the controversy so hard in the first place, one wonders if it isn’t just the controversy that they were interested in.

Actually, if I were to make one criticism of the news media in New Zealand, it would be that all too often it promotes controversy and division where there’s none and, in so doing, they end up manufacturing the news. Clearly this is something that happens in all Western countries, where the “if it bleeds, it leads” negativity rules. In general, New Zealand journalists are at least paying attention to what Parliament and the Government is doing, unlike their American colleagues. That’s something, at least.

With peace breaking out over the anti-smacking bill, and possibly other issues, I wonder where the news media will look for their next conflict to form.