Media Manipulation, DomPost hides Shearer poll data
On Wednesday Faifax’s DomPost lead on the front page with a hit piece from Andrea Vance on John Key, inside was their latest poll, quietly laying a landmine for David Shearer to step on.
What is interesting is that Fairfax withheld a substantial amount of their poll and released it yesterday AFTER David Shearer was knifed. Why did they hold this information back?
Was it because it didn’t fit their narrative of attacking the government?
I certainly suspect that is the case. Imagine how different the DomPost would have been on Wednesday if they ran the full information that they had gleaned from their poll instead of running Andrea Vance’s poison hit piece?
The latest Fairfax Media-Ipsos poll leaves no room for doubt over why David Shearer had to go.
When we asked voters if it was time for Labour to cut Shearer loose and replace him with someone else, 46.6 per cent said yes.
But the most damning finding from our poll was the number of Labour voters who also thought it was time to replace Shearer. That figure was 39.6 per cent – only marginally less than the number of Labour voters who thought he should stay, at 47.2 per cent.
With his own party that divided over the leadership, it was only a matter of time before Shearer realised he could not carry Labour to an election victory.
We also asked voters to tell us why they thought Shearer was not up to it – and some of the comments would make you wince.
Interesting isn’t it? Curious that they didn’t run this BEFORE Shearer was rolled.
Strange that Fairfax suddenly has a whole pile of information to share that they didn’t have in the poll they published this week.
Instead, when they published their poll they went with an attack on the PM from a ‘conflicted’ Andrea Vance about spying.
Here is a taste of what people were saying – and an important point to remember here is that these are Labour supporters, not National ones.
“Basically there’s not a lot of trust in him.”
“I think they need someone stronger that will be able to speak better than he does.”
“Because I have heard stories about David Shearer, because he is useless, he needs to go, bring in a new leader of that party and then I am going to vote for Labour.”
“He hasn’t been prominent – he is not seen as a strong leader.”
“He is an intelligent man but not ruthless enough for the cut and thrust of government.”
“He puts people off voting because he doesn’t appeal to people.”
The bad news for Shearer is that what Labour voters were telling our pollsters pretty much reflected what Shearers’ MPs were saying among themselves.
Growing disgruntlement over his lack of political nous is understood to have come to a head about the time of the so-called “man ban” which pitched Shearer against the so-called “identity politics” faction of the Labour Party.
The disinfectant of sunlight is enlightening, just how the media choose and select what it is they want to tell us…their narrative was to attack the government, now this information was going to get stale real fast now Shearer has been knifed, so out it comes. It was more pertinent to the poll results on Wednesday.
As much at home writing editorials as being the subject of them, Cam has won awards, including the Canon Media Award for his work on the Len Brown/Bevan Chuang story. When he’s not creating the news, he tends to be in it, with protagonists using the courts, media and social media to deliver financial as well as death threats.
They say that news is something that someone, somewhere, wants kept quiet. Cam Slater doesn’t do quiet and, as a result, he is a polarising, controversial but highly effective journalist who takes no prisoners.
He is fearless in his pursuit of a story.
Love him or loathe him, you can’t ignore him.
To read Cam’s previous articles click on his name in blue.
