1936: Single Source of Truth
March 25, 2024
By AHNZ
Today in history, 25 March, 1936, Labour 1.0 started radio broadcast transmissions from the Debating Chamber.
Michael Savage’s new Government scared some New Zealanders. Had we elected a bunch of open Communists to run our country?
Yes. Would they run it that way? Kind of, yes!
One thing Labour had to do was circumventing the Mainstream Media to make sure Savage was the Single Source of Truth.
The House did not want this but Savage realised it was easier to make his own broadcast messages than buy off all the media outlets.
Savage was in control of which debates transmitted and who would speak on air and so what New Zealanders would get to hear.
“The New Zealander is the only citizen in the world who can settle back in his easy chair and actually hear his Government making laws. His House of Representatives in Wellington is wired for sound..Savage…wanted the House proceedings broadcast, on the grounds that the press did not give the Labor Party an even break. He put New Zealand’s transmitters under direct Government control, appointed himself first Minister of Broadcasting.” – Time magazine (1943)
“I agree with your leader in a recent “Star” on broadcast debates. The so-callcd debates do not by any means represent what takes place in “Parliament oft’ the air.” More than one Government member has made much about the admission of the five-year-olds to school—a much more useful, purpose would be served by the admission of some of the 50-year-old M.P.’s to school. Before any member is allowed to broadcast he should be required to pass an educational test. Many of our sixteen-year-old boys and girls who listen in will get a shock. Wireless is supposed to be for the amusement, entertainment and education of the public. The Parliamentary debates are fraudulent; they do not represent Parliament—they are not amusing or educational. They are just political bluff. On both sides of the House. ” – letter to Auckland Star (1936,) Papers Past
“…a counter to what Labour perceived as a largely hostile Press, and when it came to the parliamentary debates broadcast in later months, both context and speakers were carefully selected and speeches limited in duration, to better presetn Government views. If my father had expected the full cut-and-thrust of political debate, unabriged and free from any editorial filtering, he must have felt he wasn’t quite getting his money’s worth from the radio he’d bought.” – Alwyn Owen, New Zealand Memories (152, Oct – Nov 2022)
Kiwis tuning in were shocked to hear what their politicians were really like. Lack of order, bickering, a din. Far from the Socratic Academy of wise patrician statesmen we imagined. Politicians bare more of a resemblance to alpha hormonal teenagers at private schools who excel at playing dominance hierarchy ape games and have gone on to make a profession of it. This is the way our laws are made.
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Image ref. John Cecil Hill cartoon, Te Ara; AHNZ colorised (2024)
Ref. Martin (2004)
Ref. First radio broadcast of Parliament, NZ History.gov
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