The NZME (Herald's) Board represents NZ's Old Guard. Its Chair is also a Director of Big Monopoly Bank BNZ, Monopoly Fletcher Building and sits on the Board of (Secret Adviser to the National Party) the NZ Initiative. The Board, in rebuffing a takeover bid by Jim Grenon says, "NZME has a broad audience and to maximize revenue we must produce content which appeals to a diverse range of perspectives". How hilarious. What planet is the Board living on? Decades ago the NZ Herald was a multi-billion dollar company. My mother went to school with one of the owners, Anne Horton, who became a life-long friend, along with her brother, Mike. Now the paper is barely worth 10 bucks. It has a large readership, but has done an appalling job at monetarizing it. But you know what sums up the Herald's Editorial Bias best? Its "Letter of the Week", which the Editors chose as being a great one. Here it is:
NZ must be better than Donald Trump on immigration
For all those Kiwis opposed to immigration, let’s imagine NZ without it - doctors, nurses, scientists, university lecturers, chefs, IT specialists, farm workers, etc. .. We never were & never will be self-sufficient in these important skills, and wishing we could return to a time where that dream existed is delusional. Donald Trump has a similar thought process for America, willing to dumb down a country so he & his deluded followers might look smarter. Immigrants made both countries better, and we should be very careful about changing that. America appears determined to go down that road, let’s not follow them
From some guy in Birkenhead.
Rubbish. The Trump administration is against illegal, not legal, immigration. Attracting the best and brightest to live there is still an aim. That's part of the reason for the tariffs - that manufacturers from around the world should base themselves there and hire the best global talent to work in America. How bizarre for the Herald to choose as its "best letter" one that insults Trump's supporters as "delusional". Who are these delusional types? One half of the US population voted for him. I've no great interest in defending Trump, but the idea he wants to "dumb down" is ridiculous. His own big time adviser, Elon Musk, was born & grew up in South Africa. Trump loves this (immigrant) guy, not just because he's smart and hard-working, but because he based SpaceX in the US, and started Tesla in California. Trump's own wife grew up in Slovenia. Vice President Vance's wife's parents are from Andhra Pradesh, India.
The point is that for the Herald's Editor to highlight a letter that mischaracterizes the US Government's view on immigration, elevating it to "Letter of the Week", tells us just one thing. Namely the sooner the Herald gets taken over, stops spewing nonsense, whipping the Kiwi public into being America haters, and starts reporting facts, the better.