The Herald’s Bias

Like many other Kiwis, my wife and I have had our first Covid vaccination. It was efficiently delivered at the time and place specified, and our second vaccination will take place next week.

The Herald, however, continues to pursue its determined campaign to persuade us – in the face of all the evidence – that the government’s response to the pandemic has been a shambles; in today’s issue, it devotes many column inches to the difficulties a Cantabrian pensioner claims to have had in getting a vaccination.

The one respect in which we can at least be grateful is that we have recently heard less from the Herald’s regular columnist, Mike Hosking, with his constant claim that Australia has handled the pandemic better than we have and that the Australian economy is doing better than ours. Perhaps he has at last fulfilled his promise to move across the Tasman?

But the Herald continues to give regular space to columnists whose only justification for burdening us with their views is that they are unremittingly hostlle to the government. The most recent is Richard Prebble who proclaims that a recent poll showing Labour still well ahead of its rivals demonstrates that Labour cannot win the next election – a classic example of wish fulfilment displacing rational argument.

The only comfort to be drawn from any of this is that the Herald’s political bias is being made so obvious to its readers that they can protect themselves only by disregarding whatever the Herald reports or publishes.