The Media and their ethics! Can I really change anything?

So today I experienced something very painful.
I had written a story on a prominent farm consultant who made some comments about dairy farmers and timing of selling their cull cows. He believed they should have sold them much earlier than they did.
His comments were great - he is a great consultant - and when I left the place I work at I honestly thought I had left a good story that farmers could ruminate over.
After a night meeting I came back to find, online, a completely rewritten introduction by a fill in Chief Reporter that was emotive and incorrect. The paper in question did not have a front page story that day so this was spruced up to make it so.
I have always subscribed to ethical journalism. I know there is not enough of it around right now but I have always felt that regional papers were better deliverers of that value.
Today I'm not so sure. In fact my faith in the future of this career was deeply shaken when comments by a very good consultant were changed so much that they could affect his career.
Currently I am doing the Kelloggs Rural Leadership Course and have had to suffer a lot of criticism about "the media". I understand farmers frustration but thought I might be able to change things for the better.
Now I'm not so sure and would like to hear your perspective on journalism and what we can do to make it a better vocation - and to better interpret your voices in the primary industry.

Hosking and worms

It's hard as a journalist who cares about agriculture to stomach seeing someone like Mike Hosking - a so in your pants National supporter - get so much coverage on issues like dairying.
This guy knows nada - I repeat nada about farming. He is arrogant and self serving and more and more his persona is one of a preacher lecturing dumb serfs than it is about quality journalism.
He reads a Rabobank report and takes what he wants out of it to push the National line and tells us we're all just misery merchants.
Well here's something for you Mike. I've been a rural journalist on and off for 16 years. I have grown up, existed and survived in rural communities and I live on a farm. I HATE MISERY. I am not a doom and gloom merchant but I am a REALIST.
I like other farmers operate on facts and figures today, not some projection down the path. What Hosking can't be bothered to grasp is the fact that even if prices improve by the middle of next year (and we have all been saying that) the dairy industry will still be suffering through until 2017.
You see, if he actually understood business, he would know that price turnarounds don't instantly equate to turnaround on farm. If he understood business he would know that we talk in 12 month periods, not weekly pay check periods.
And if he bothered to come to the regions and walk on farms like we do every day he would know there is serious unrelenting pain at the moment and our rural towns are set in some cases to combust.
I cannot believe how far he has been allowed to go on our televisions and radio without being hauled in by the bosses. These days Seven Sharp is more like Fox News than it is journalism.
Farmers don't deal in the negative either Mike - but you diminishing them and harping on is  just incredulous. Anyone can see National is playing the story down because it looks bad going into another election with a declining economy.
So I wonder when Mr Hosking will finally be up front and admit he's ready to stand for National and stop tarnishing the reputation of journalism in this country.
Be a man, come down on farm for a week, stay, do calving for no money - see how many cutbacks are being made, and the pain everyday families are feeling and learn how long it will take to recover. There is a problem - and one the Government needs to get its head out of its @@@@ on and do something creative to help. No-one wants hand-outs but no-one wants to be negated either.
The rubbish Key has spouted about the dairy industry only being 5 per cent of earnings does not help and neither does an ill informed National spouting former journalist.

Fonterra staff cuts adding more uncertainty and stress and signalling the wrong message

So on top of the carnage of the last auction we now have Fonterra slashing and burning staff. I was appalled not only for the staff but for farmers who were already left reeling this morning - only to have the headline news plastered with what looks like a hara-kiri cost cutting measure.
The timing could not have been more inappropriate...and it looked desperate.
The irony is that many farmers have defended the number of staff needed to run such a large scale organisation and the salaries committed to keep the best minds inside the co-op.
They weren't calling for the delete button...not by any means. Farmers are bright...they read a lot, they network a lot and they work social media better than most of the city slickers.
They know they are at the mercy of world prices - Fonterra can't control the price...and yes - in a time when all farmers have to make efficiencies it makes sense for everyone to be reviewing their practices.
But I'm sorry - this just seems like the panic button has been pushed - and the message that sends farmers already completely stressed by their financial situation is that they're screwed...
Fonterra has a responsibility to its farmers. It needs to be the parent in this situation. It needed to help reassure and advise farmers - and yet, instead it became an insular child, sulking in a room.
May-be Damien O'Connor was right when he said this morning on twitter that Fonterra has always been slow.
It's time for vision, cool heads and strong leadership. Sacking a tonne of staff smacks of a business model that has lost it's way. I'm afraid knee jerk is absolutely on the money when describing today's turn of events.
I like how Andrew Hoggard put it when the first round of job cuts were announced:
"As for these reviews Fonterra had the big strategic refresh only a couple of years ago, and a whole bunch of changes since then.  The obvious question is, if we have people in the wrong place why wasn’t all this identified back then and since then? Are these changes being talked about just a routine evolution of a business over time? None of our farms stay still.  We keep making little changes each year.  Is this just the same or is it bigger? The unfortunate appearance is it’s just a knee jerk response."

All roads lead to China - Chinese whispers over alleged houses for trade deals

The two worlds of China and Auckland have again collided and there are Chinese whispers aplenty...for months now I've been hearing of alleged so called agricultural trade deals done in China in exchange for housing in Auckland.
And now Labour comes out with this list which predictably the media have twisted into a racist row. I suggest you look at what Andrew Little is not saying...why is he sticking his neck out over this one, knowing that it could look racist?
He is not a stupid man...I suggest there is much more than meets the eye on this one...may-be more to come. Are there handshakes going on behind closed doors and if so...who is clasping the hand?
There may be nothing in it...then again there might be...(and no I'm not suggesting it's John Key!)
And no, I'm not a Labour or National supporter before you ask...and I don't normally trade on rumours until there are so many of them it becomes a virtual bonfire!
But let's ask ourselves what the price of trade deals with China are...and why Little is making such an apparent mountain out of a molehill.

Craig's legacy...a man that has a passion in Synlait?

We were all shocked by Craig's sudden demise. As a young (cough cough - hate to admit I've aged!) ag journalist in those heady years when Craig took on merging companies who basically loathed each other and managed to get them to not only sit together but work together for the greater good, I admired his tenacity.
He was forthright, quick thinking, and above all brutally honest.
As a journalist I was thrilled that he always answered my calls, and spoke in volumes of  passion about the dairy industry he loved. He wanted it to work...and because of  him it is working. He was always a gentleman but only 36 years old when  he took on Fonterra.
He was brave, fearless and didn't care what others thought of his style.
Former titan of Ashburton dairy farming and chairman of the first Fonterra board John Roadley told me today what a visionary Craig was.
He could see problems before they arose, he said, and his passion for NZ agriculture was not surpassed...
Until now...in a strange irony I have to say that John Penno from Synlait (the opposition) reminds me of Craig...he answers my calls...he doesn't dodge media requests...and tells me in passionate terms what is happening in the market. He is visionary and one supplier told me today how proud they were to be with Synlait...
There is no PR spin (Nathan Guy's office would do well to note that) - no ego...just passion. And it reminds me of a young Craig Norgate determined to succeed.
I know that Craig was not everyone's cup of tea but I know there hasn't been one person who would deny his impact on NZ agriculture.
He made a difference and really that's all we can ask for.

Chopping and changing...dairy farm land remains the same

It seems that Key guy is as slippery as one of those Stonegrill pans my friends are fond of (Teflon John rides again!) ...and if you can unlock the English Key code you'll find they are a teency weency bit worried about the economy in the face of falling dairy incomes.
Yesterday Mr English was saying the dairy industry was "probably a smaller part of [the economy] than most people think".
By this morning, after much questioning Mr Slippery as an Eel Key was saying:
"What happens is that dairy farmers will spend less money in those local communities...(Banks) have a very fluid overdraft system."
That doesn't sound very healthy to my fifth form economic class mind but who am I to comment...
Mr Key pinned our economy on the fact that dairy farm prices are not moving...
I would like to know from you if this is purely PR spin...I haven't seen many if any farms for sale in the past six  months...and with vegetable growers putting equal pressure on sales I can't say if what he is saying is true.
Tell me your thoughts? Is recession really tied up in land value and if so how?

Bill English needs a good strong cup of reality

It was interesting listening to TVNZ's Q and A this morning - my ears perked up when I heard yet another Government line about dairying not being the bee all and end all to our economy.
I say this because on a recent visit to Ashburton Nathan Guy was positively brimming with optimism that prices were just a short term glitch.
And it's more than a little frustrating to hear a farming man like English, although a little glib, saying dairying was "only about 5 to 6 per cent of the whole economy."
"It's only 20 per cent of our exports. The other 80 per cent will be starting to enjoy the benefits of the lower exchange rate, and the lower exchange rate will help cushion the impact on dairy of their lower prices."
He should have thrown in one of his stock standard shrug of the shoulders to really ram the point home...and what was that point?
Perhaps Bill was a little the worse for wear this morning after his night out celebrating the Highlanders' win (and who could blame him!) - may-be his hearing aids need to be turned up just a tad because I'm pretty sure he missed the meeting on the flow on affects of a dairy slump.
To put it in simple terms, our towns are starting to bleed, and when towns start to bleed because of a halt in spending the cities start to bleed too.
Admitting that this might go on a little longer than he had previously thought was a huge step in Bill's PR "economy is fine" campaign that's been on the gramophone now for what? - probably the last six years.
What catches a Government out quicker than a Winston Peter's enquiry is complacency - and betting on getting through by doing what we've always done before.
Right now our sheep meat industry is in chaos - as part of Bill's magic 80 (the rest of us that he can cobble together to earn a quick export buck) we don't look to be on the front foot.
But writing off the dairy sector by saying it's only 20 percent of our exports denotes a little more than optimism - and a need for a good strong cup of reality.
Tea anyone?