1969: First televised national news broadcast
November 3, 2021
By AHNZ
Dougal Stevenson had the honor of being the broadcaster to read the first televised national news broadcast. This was the NZBC, from Wellington, on November 3, 1969.
Things were very different back then, setting a high standard that ended only as recently as about 2010.
Early broadcasting in New Zealand aspired for high standards in fact-checking, diction, pronunciation, and grammar. Our media also strove for the tradition of being impartial about the news. They were there to report it, not to tell you what to think or offer editorial opinion.
“Looking back on the past 50 years of national news broadcasting, he said there had been a major change to the language used today.
It was not as “careful” as it was in the early days of the NZBC.
“Someone was always in the background, listening to the broadcasts and picking up problems with pronunciation, phrasing and grammar.
“Week by week, various memos would turn up, listing all the mispronunciations heard on air that week.”
He said watching today’s television news could be “infuriating” at times.” – Veteran broadcaster recalls the tie that binds, ODT Nov 2019
This morning1, by contrast, I happened to watch TVNZ’s Breakfast news which was anything but impartial. The sports report involved the newsreader almost pumping her fist in glee, reminiscent of Wendy Petrie’s famous live fist-pump concerning the David Bain trial of 2009.
“The profession avoided showing emotion “at all costs” during the late 1960s and 1970s, he said.”
It could end a broadcasting career if a presenter were to laugh or cry on air – or heaven forbid, fist-pump in celebration of a verdict while covering a court trial.” – ODT
Likewise, while reporting on the potential demise of many National Party Members of Parliament, Jenny-May Clarkson was seen beaming with non-impartial glee! (I’ll post that video next to make the point.)
Western Civilisation learned the hard way to have freedom of speech and freedom of religion. To live and let life. To form our own groups and not persecute others for forming theirs. Conflicts between Protestants and Catholics where burning each other at the stake tit-for-tat style for decades finally got our people, via the hardway, to the conclusion that it’s best to exercise impartiality rather than enforce official positions.
This was the tradition Dougal Stevenson inherited and carried but it’s the one that will need to be re-discovered once the un-professionals of today finally take it too far. We’re not far away from that point now.
“He said the collection of information for news and current affairs broadcasts was also very different today. “It’s much looser now, and the public has an expectation that presenters in news and current affairs will ask ‘the hard questions’.”“It took a while for that side of broadcasting to gain momentum and become the accepted. “There were some very, very courageous journalists at the time who really stuck their necks out. “Today’s television journos owe a hell of a lot to those people, because they broke through.” – ibid
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1 Written May 2020
Note 2021: Since writing the above our MSM has been rewarded richly with taxpayer money. The quid pro quo has been to pay the Labour 6.0 government back with good press. This very much is the ‘taking it too far’ mentioned above. Newsreaders have become sock puppets for The State. A sad ending for the legacy media which once had good people and good content.
Note 2021: Sean Plunket’s plan for new media platform ‘The Platform’ in January makes me uneasy due to what Sean says to Mayor Bruce of Westland in this clip.
Note: Companion video (below) to earlier post to demonstrate the lack of impartiality. Contrast State TV news broadcasting now, 2020, with how it started out in 1969 and it’s a world of difference.
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