MEDIA

ZEB JACKSON LIVE WAS LIVE WITH MATT KING NORTHLAND

15TH Aug 2022

https://www.facebook.com/zebjacksonlive/videos/955705595296348 ( a little wait until Matt King tunes in )

We chat with Matt King (Democracy NZ) about the Fire and Fury documentary released by stuff News.

Link to documentary:

https://interactives.stuff.co.nz/2022/08/circuit/fire-and-fury-disinformation-in-new-zealand

14th Aug 2022

Message from Sue Reyland: Admin/Founder Kiwisprotectingourfreedomofexpression.com

Where is Our Fair & Balanced Unbaised Media ?

Government Paid For Propaganda … Interviewing themselves !!

This is a Carefully Crafted Movie to try & Discredit Movements Standing up to the Lies

Using Our Tax Payer Money for Journalism

Carefully edited Sections to portray negativity. The Govt is trying to Cancel our Right to Free Speech

Interesting when Matt King explains how he was an Investigator for 24 yrs & likes to Deal with Facts & Evidence . That is why he talks to Doctors , Neurologists & Scientists !

It Shows the Government is Scared … The Truth Is Coming Out !!

Matt King Northland explains some of the aspects of the Fire & Fury Video released by Stuff Media …

A Government Bought Media Outlet

Thank You Zeb Jackson Live & DemocracyNZ

DemocracyNZ

Chantelle Baker

Counterspin Media

Zeb Jackson Live

The Daily Examiner NZ

Kiwi Voice etc…

Kiwisprotectingourfreedomofexpression.com

We are Not Spreading Misinformation

Unlike Stuff Media we Care for Your Health ..

We Care for Your Human Rights.

Don’t Be Drawn into the Webb of A Govt not Allowing You Both Sides of the Story ..

A Govt Who Will Destroy NZ with the UNs’ 2030 Agenda !!!

Where did it come from Media Ask….

It came from Mistrust of this Government

It came from People who know people who have Lost Loved one’s from a Forced V

Ask yourself why these people are standing up.

This ridiculous Media Documentary has used Scarey Music & all the Tricks …

You are NO FOOL … But the Government are taking you for FOOLS !!!

DemocracyNZ

Zeb Jackson Live

Chantelle Baker

Counterspin Media

Farmer James NZ

Kiwi Voice etc…

Kiwisprotectingourfreedomofexpression.com

Sue Reyland

CONTENTS BELOW OF THE FIRE AND FURY DOCUMENTARY …..

Fire and Fury is a Stuff Circuit investigation into disinformation in Aotearoa New Zealand. It’s a confronting watch (content warning: violence and explicit language), but we felt compelled to make it.

BEYOND
THE
FRINGE

How the mainstreaming of extreme politics has democracy on edge

Louisa Cleave and Paula Penfold
Stuff Circuit journalists

The Wellington occupation was supposed to be about ending the mandates, but a new Stuff Circuit documentary investigates those behind the protest and discovers they have far bigger and more dangerous goals.

OPERATION: RECLAIM, it was titled. A strategic plan, apparently. 

An appeal for “real and tangible action taken by the people in numbers”. A call for public trials of politicians, media, judges, business leaders, for crimes against humanity. A combative opposing force could be expected, it read, and that threat should be met by assembling “former trained, but trusted ex-military, police and even hunters”. 

The action had one agenda: to save the people “from this tyranny”. 

The “plan” was released in February during the Wellington occupation by one of the key figures behind the protest, Kelvyn Alp, a disaffected former soldier with a history of failed attempts at politics, who last year launched Counterspin Media — a far-right online TV channel. 

Alp is a focus of the Stuff Circuit documentary, Fire and Fury. Our investigation centres not on the Wellington protest itself, but those who drove it: Who are they, what did they believe, and crucially, what do they want to happen next?

From the outside looking in, especially on that final violent and terrifying day, it may have appeared the occupation had achieved nothing but destruction and perhaps the slight decaying of societal norms.  

But for those pushing the false information that motivated people to join in and stay on, it was an opportunity to build the movement beyond the fringe. A recruitment drive.

For Fire and Fury we tallied up the numbers to gauge how big an audience Alp and others like him have. While we wouldn’t wish to overstate their influence, the figures don’t lie: combined,

they are reaching hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders, through a mix of mainstream social media, unregulated chat rooms, and video-hosting sites that are hotbeds of hate, where algorithms ply yet more hate and there’s no consequence for publishing blatantly fake news. 

The Fire and Furydocumentary shows you — unfiltered — what the players preach to their followers, how they’re all interconnected, and what motivates them to spread disinformation on issues as diverse as the invasion of Ukraine, the US overturning of abortion rights, and, of course, Covid.   
Watching what they say and the often venomous way they say it led us to another threat which we’ll examine here: the very fundamental risk they pose to democracy. 
Because consistent across their messaging is a plan to deconstruct our political structure from the bottom up, to achieve an “ungovernable’’ country.
Within months of the protest they were beginning to achieve that aim.
Counterspin Media was rallying supporters to rise up and create a parallel society, “your own government, your own structure, your own currency,” then took the message on a road trip, travelling Aotearoa between April and June 2022 with the objective of keeping up the momentum started at the Wellington occupation.
The frustration of failing to get any wins out of the protest had steered them in another direction: local government and discontent over the Three Waters reform of water service infrastructure and management.
Alp and his partner, fellow Counterspin presenter Hannah Spierer, held meetings from the Far North to Bluff, introducing their communities to speakers on conspiracies such as the Covid pandemic being a hoax to bring about a secret United Nations agenda for a single world government. 
It’s concerning then for grassroots democracy that elected officials — councillors in three regions — took part in proceedings, not as interested observers, but in the lineup of apparently like-minded speakers. 
Gisborne councillor and then-member of Tairāwhiti District Health, Meredith Akuhata-Brown, told the meeting the Covid vaccine is an experimental drug (a frequently made but inaccurate claim), causing injury and death (it has, but not at anywhere near the exaggerated rates alleged).
There was low attendance but the meeting was recorded and put online. 
New Plymouth District councillor Anneke Carlson told a healthy-sized crowd that after the Wellington protest ended the way it did, it made her “heart so warm and so happy” to see people turning up for the Counterspin event, thanking them for coming to Taranaki. 
Waikato Regional Councillor Kathy White addressed a crowd in Taupō, telling them media reporting on Thames-Coromandel Mayor Sandra Goudie’s refusal to be vaccinated was an orchestrated attempt to “muzzle” people.
White also spoke about an unidentified friend who she said had died after receiving her second vaccination, standard fare at the meetings where the Counterspin hosts ask people to raise their hands if they know of someone with a vaccine injury. Those apocryphal anecdotes — stories of unknown and doubtful origins — are a long-held tool of the anti-vaccination movement.
Vaccine injuries is a popular topic too for Voices for Freedom, another focus of Fire and Fury. 
Voices for Freedom leaders Claire Deeks, Alia Bland, and Libby Jonson

Led by ”three passionate Kiwi mums,” Voices for Freedom says it stands for (the nebulous but righteous-sounding) “medical freedom”.

In reality, its aims are far wider, and mirror those of Counterspin. 

In a March email to members, the leaders wrote they are “setting up systems of resilience so that we will never again be subject to the whim of tyrannical leaders”. 

They needed a rallying cry because they too were feeling the dying momentum.

“After the protest finished everybody was very flat, sad, broken,’’ regular Voices For Freedom contributor Gill Booth told a public meeting in June. “They’d lost their direction,” she said, urging attendees to focus on a new issue: Three Waters. 

“So the thing with Three Waters is that we can bring that direction back. Without mandates, without the vaccine, it’s a whole different topic, it doesn’t matter what you are or who you are, it’s going to affect you and this can give us one single focus.”

Booth laid out a playbook for sabotaging the democratic process. “If we can pull together so hard in our communities to absolutely disrupt and rip to pieces our local council.

“When you go into these groups just tip them up, don’t play ball. Become ungovernable.”

Booth was supported by Southland farmer James Matheson, who gained a following through the Wellington occupation as ’Farmer James’.

Matheson described how he and 70 others turned up at a meeting to discuss alternative industries for Southland when the Tiwai smelter closed.

‘’I tore shreds off these people for like an hour, then I had to go to rugby practice.

“Be an absolute hindrance,” was his advice. 

The tactics were put into action again in June when the Clutha District Council held a public meeting fronted by key figures leading the Three Waters reforms. 

Clutha Mayor Bryan Cadogan asked for respectful discussion and offered reassurance there would be no change to water ownership, yet it took only 30 minutes for everything to go downhill. 

“Why’s half the board Māori then, what are ya talking about,” unleashed one, not even attempting to disguise their racism. 

As the meeting progressed and the crowd became more confrontational, “Farmer James” Matheson stoked the sentiment, standing up to tell Cadogan, “You’re pretty good at blowing your own trumpet,” before asking again about ownership, adding, with no apparent context, “how long it might take if we’ve got six iwi representatives … how long will it take them to get that concrete poured even”.

It achieved the desired effect on the room and someone else rose to their feet to make an unsubstantiated claim about backroom dealings with Ngāi Tahu. 

Officials reiterated water assets will remain in public ownership with new entities collectively owned by councils.

But those opposed had made up their minds.

Matheson live streamed the two hour meeting on Facebook, attracting 5000 views.

Which is surely a good thing: engagement in local issues is democracy in action, isn’t it? 


That’s not what this is, says an exasperated mayor; it’s a deliberate attempt to undermine democratic process. 

Cadogan says the meeting had been called because of concern about the speed of  “disingenuous misinformation being spread” about the reforms, making it impossible to share facts.

It achieved the desired effect on the room and someone else rose to their feet to make an unsubstantiated claim about backroom dealings with Ngāi Tahu. 

Officials reiterated water assets will remain in public ownership with new entities collectively owned by councils.

But those opposed had made up their minds.

Matheson live streamed the two hour meeting on Facebook, attracting 5000 views.

Which is surely a good thing: engagement in local issues is democracy in action, isn’t it? 


That’s not what this is, says an exasperated mayor; it’s a deliberate attempt to undermine democratic process. 

Cadogan says the meeting had been called because of concern about the speed of  “disingenuous misinformation being spread” about the reforms, making it impossible to share facts.

You only need to watch the hearings of the US congressional committee investigating the Capitol riots of January 2021 to see the real-life consequences of anti-democratic sentiment gaining traction. 

The fact that far-right groups involved in storming the Capitol have been classified as terrorist organisations in New Zealand shows how seriously the issue is being taken. 

But for those at the coalface of democracy, it’s not enough.

“We saw it in America and never thought we could be that silly,” says Cadogan. “But it only took a few months and we had our own civil unrest in Wellington. Society is lagging behind in awareness and mechanisms to deal with this new dynamic.”

Multiple factors led to that unrest: disconnection, long poverty, growing distrust in institutions. 

But there’s another major hook that can’t be ignored: conspiracy.

For Fire and Fury, we interviewed Josie (who wants only their first name used given the horrific transphobia that pervades all these groups). In 2009 Josie started looking for answers to why the world was “dog-shit”, and soon became a full-blown conspiracist. 

Among the theories that gripped Josie for 10 straight years was that a group of secret elite leaders was working to establish a New World Order.

“Everything I thought got filtered through a constellation of meaning that conspiracy theories would give you. I had all the answers … given to me by these elusive freedom fighters.’’

Updated versions of the same theories Josie fell for back then are still trotted out by all the groups we studied. 

In 2021, Voices for Freedom co-leader Claire Deeks spoke alongside big name anti-vaccine influencers at an online international summit promoting the Great Reset conspiracy theory; that global elites are using the pandemic to establish a totalitarian world government. References to the Great Reset soon appeared in Voices for Freedom’s own marketing material. 

Kelvyn Alp (whose Counterspin Media purports to be a “facts and evidence based platform”) is also a believer of the Great Reset and gives frequent monologues about “the transhumanist agenda”.

“Farmer James” cultivates a brand of the beer-drinking southern man working the land and defending family and has called Covid a ‘’scamdemic’’. In March he filmed a group of men gathered in his shed talking about the start of a male “revolution” and in June started his own national tour calling on men to ‘’stand tall’’. 

It’s all delivered with assuredness and contempt for the “sheeple” who haven’t caught up. Which is a common trait amongst conspiracy theory devotees: the belief the knowledge they possess makes them smarter than everyone else.

The problem is, much of what they’ve embraced is driven by highly-adept far-right manipulators whose very purpose, say experts, is to destabilise social democracies. 

The New Zealand spreaders are simply vectors, but they have large, loyal audiences.

Which might help explain why we seem to have a particular vulnerability: in the months leading up to the Wellington protest New Zealanders were embracing Russian disinformation and propaganda at a rate 30 percent greater than Australians or Americans. 

How to fix that? 

At least some of the responsibility falls on social media companies. The next phase of the Christchurch Call agreement will focus on how algorithms contribute to radicalisation and spreading misinformation by feeding people more of what they’re already watching, only worse. How the big tech companies will contribute to that work is unclear, although Stuff Circuit has learned Facebook activated a special operations team to monitor content during the Wellington occupation, with the aim of removing misinformation and posts inciting violence, in real time.

But of course only the mainstream social media companies are — belatedly — trying, and not always hard enough. 

The unregulated chat rooms where this content rages are seemingly untouchable, and indifferent.

With none of the conspiracy theories coming true, Josie felt the need to become more media literate, learning “how to research and engage with information in a way that you can pull out the contradictions and inconsistencies”. 

So Josie watched events unfolding in the capital at the beginning of this year through a different lens to most of us, familiar with the pull, and consequently worried about a descent into violence by a mob or an individual radicalised through the ongoing demonisation of “the elite”.

We witnessed first-hand that there’s reason to be worried.

After reading Alp’s “strategic plan”, we wanted to see what impact it might have on the Wellington protest.

Stuff Circuit was in the thick of it when the protest turned into a riot, and Fire and Fury shows footage we filmed but have not previously released: the scenes are apocalyptic, and

as journalists, we’ve never, anywhere in the world, experienced such visceral hatred towards us. It was dangerous and, at times, it was scary.

The fomented distrust of the media is in itself a sign that democracy here is on edge: the disruptors know destabilising one of its pillars weakens the whole thing. 

We need to be paying attention. Or, as the conspiracy theorists themselves would say, we need to wake up.

NZ On Air

Irirangi Te Motu

NZ On Air is an independent government funding agency delivering quality and diverse New Zealand public media.

They fund:

  • scripted and factual content for a variety of free-to-air television, digital and online platforms

18th Aug 2022

KIWI VOICE

Click Link to view : https://www.facebook.com/kiwivoice2022

#kiwivoice :

Intro

Freedom loving Kiwi doing his best to provide an alternative to MSM, speaking for and to, all Kiwis

http://www.yourkiwivoice.co.nz/

Water & Peace – Kiwi Voice commentary & review of Stuff Circuits tax-payer funded horror-film, focusing on “key players” in NZ’s independent media scene. (Fire and Fury)

* MSM know that the writing is on the wall (or it’s starting)for them, this is why they are speaking out against alternative media. This is a harsh positive for us (the wide awake people). I read somewhere, ” these fact checkers only came onto the scene because the truth that the establishment doesn’t like aired on social media is dangerous for them but setting us free’.

Interesting Comments Re Kiwi Voice Documentary :

It was very amusing to see your shots up on the building 😀…good breakdown and how do they think we don’t have a brain to see they only interviewed themselves and none of the people they told us are so scary and dangerous! OMG….I wonder if they creep into places wondering if any of those protestors are there to poison their minds ….gosh, to think, some of them may have even respected some of them when they were nurses and midwives and teachers and doctors plumbers soldiers etc etc….funny how they know so much about them when they only stood up on the balcony at parliament….no bias there was there? 

I am saddened by all the New Zealanders that lap this bs up and hang off every word that msm feeds them

Excellent critique of this doco ( can you call propaganda a doco ? ) What I feel aggrieved about is that it is taxpayers money used to fund this type of unbalanced nonsense . Penfold and Kate Hannah would not have an income if not for the taxpayer , NZs version of fake news CNN ? Really are we in NZ that far gone .

TONY WALL JOURNALIST

29th June 2022

Tony Wall …. who is a journalist for Stuff thinks there are no side effects with covid vaccines and has called lawyer Kirsten Murfitt crazy for even suggesting such a thing. Please ask everyone to email him directly with their death or effect stories – personal or in friends and relatives.

SHARE. Tony.wall@stuff.co.nz

Sue Reyland’s email sent to Tony Wall today :

Hi Tony

It is my understanding you are a journalist for Stuff & you feel there has been no side effects with the covid vaccines & you have even called lawyer Kirsten Murfitt crazy for even suggesting such a thing. 

Tony it is very important as a Journalist you are up to speed on what is actually happening in NZ & as a journalist produce articles which tell both sides of the story.

I am aware Media has been paid & sometimes bought by the Government to spread their Propaganda. 

Liz Gunn, Counterspin etc… are some of our few Media outlets who are telling both sides of the story. 

This is your chosen career … Do you want to be remembered for being on the wrong side of history or the right side ? Do you want your family & friends to remember you as an ‘honest’ journalist or a journalist that wants to stick with a narrative that is misleading NZers. 

I have had a site for 3 years  (FB & now a website) kiwisprotectingourfreedomofexpression.com    .. 9,000 members all over NZ … Health Professionals, Farmers, Parents,Media, MPs ,  Grandparents, University Graduates, Grass Roots Kiwis … sadly many know of people who have had appalling adverse reactions. My niece is a hairdresser in Tauranga & she has clients who have been affected. I keep in touch with Casey Hodgkinson, she is still unable to walk. ACC have not acknowledged her Vaxx injuries so we fund raise for her needs ie … recently an up-graded wheelchair.

Recently her Mother Anna Hodgkinson & many other families who have been affected by the Vaxx presented a petition to Parliament & a National MP has accepted the Petition for acknowledgement of injuries & sadly deaths.

Growing up I had all my vaccinations & travelling overseas to countries like Africa, Europe , Iceland etc… I had many more. I felt uncomfortable with this vaxx as it hadn’t yet finished its trial & evidently was only meant for a small number of people to trial. A court case with Sue Grey proved this. 

I can forward more information to you ie… Sarah Barnes who died in Hokianga soon after her Vaxx, Rihara Gunn Dargaville who also died … Matt sadly there up wards of 500 now. Some Coroner Certified some still to be determined. ACC can verify the injuries & deaths if you need evidence this is happening. 

I’m sure you are aware Rory Nairn ( Dundedin) was one of NZs first Vaxx Deaths 

Sadly we have recently lost a friend who died of thoracic aortic dissection which has a 20 % inherited chance but the vax is known to have a 80 % chance it may have been hastened. This man’s wife is a Doctor & his daughter in law a nurse & they were fully aware of the risks.  

I would appreciate you  dealing with these deaths in a respectful way & if you chose to produce a story with my information , please have the respect to discuss this with me first please.

Sue Reyland

VASCULAR DAMAGE VIDEO Josef Thoma MD/PhD, general practitioner from Berlin, lucidly explains the findings of vaccine-induced vasculitis and thrombosis made by pathologists Burkhardt and Lange. He discusses the clinical consequences and does not shy away from addressing the political context and historical parallels. https://doctors4covidethics.org/vaccine-induced-damage-to-our-vascular-system/

Attachements Sent with email :

Casey Hodgkinson

Vaccine Injured Reporting Team
Rihari Gunn Vaxx Death Dargaville

Sarah Barnes Vaxx Death Hokianga

BLOCKING FACT CHECKERS

As Leighton Baker mentioned if we weren’t ‘Standing UP’ and Speaking out we wouldn’t be thrown in FB Jail … I’ve done 3 Stints of 30 days. An easy way to Block Fact Checkers is Go to the Arrow on your Time line (Top Right)

Go to Settings and Privacy …..

Go to Settings …

Go to Blocking as if you were going to Block someone Type in Fact Checker

As you can see there is a list I have Blocked just this week.

Xiao FactChecker Tang Dependant Factchecker Zuckerberg’s Fact Checker Christina Fact Checker Fàct Chëckêr Fact Checker Jeff Lowe

All Paid by the Government and FB

Cheers Suzie Reyland kiwisprotectingourfreedomofexpression.com

Matt King … Up at the crack of dawn today with interviews. Still incredible how many people don’t understand that polls aren’t always accurate or reflective of public sentiment – and that mandates are undemocratic, no matter how you spin it. 

Ex-MP Matt King visits Parliament protest
Morning Report (14 Feb 2022)

14th Feb 22

Link Below to listen to interview with RNZ

Ex-MP Matt King visits Parliament protest
Morning Report (14 Feb 2022)

  • Note from Sue Reyland ….Corin Dann has no idea what is ‘really going’ on … he’s a paid Announcer/ Journalist who sticks with the Government Agenda. He will be laughed at in a cple of years when it is made clearer what is really going on. You handled him well Matt King. Must be very frustrating when announcers cut you off & spin their ‘pre-paid agenda’!!

Matt King … Up at the crack of dawn today with interviews. Still incredible how many people don’t understand that polls aren’t always accurate or reflective of public sentiment – and that mandates are undemocratic, no matter how you spin it

3rd Jan 2022

BEST OF THE YEAR

Tova O’Brien: The new face of talk radio

Newshub political editor Tova O’Brien’s move to a new talkback radio station has sent a shockwave through TV3’s newsroom, signalling to Newstalk ZB that its MediaWorks competitor is gearing up for a serious attack on the talk market.

Comment: Question. How do you beat Newstalk ZB’s Mike Hosking? Answer: You don’t. Instead, you go for a different market and hire someone whose profile won’t be crushed by the right wing’s favourite broadcaster.

MediaWorks has learnt some hard lessons trying to take on Newstalk ZB at its own game.

Radio Live did okay, for a while, but then fell into the trap of moving to the right and trying to tempt ZB’s loyal audience away from Mike, Leighton and Larry. It failed, and Mediaworks felt forced to rebrand the station. Live’s successor, Magic Talk, tried to go even further to the right.  The result? An even bigger thrashing.

Tova O’Brien, whether she realises it or not, will be the arrowhead of the yet-to-be-named station. She has been hired to host breakfast and radio is all about breakfast. The hosts of these morning shows set the scene. They are the brand. If O’Brien fails to fire, the station will struggle. It’s as simple as that.

MediaWorks’ new head of news and talk Dallas Gurney once ran Newstalk ZB. He knows what he is up against and he will steer O’Brien away from playing in Hosking’s sandpit. The station’s political tone is likely to be closer to the centre than the right.

A fresh is best approach

By hiring O’Brien, Gurney has tipped his hand. The new incarnation of Magic will be younger, fresher and possibly skewing towards a female audience. It is an obvious place to go. In commercial broadcasting terms, Newstalk ZB’s audience is old and getting older.  Hosking and Kate Hawkesby (Hosking’s wife who hosts the 5am to 6am show) won’t be there forever. It is also a sign that MediaWorks’ new management might be taking a longer view of its investment in talk radio. 

Previous efforts have been riven with a short-term panic approach of reacting to poor ratings by changing presenters and tweaking formats. If Gurney has got his timing right, and is patient, O’Brien will be peaking when Hosking starts trending down. 

That said, O’Brien will have a tough task as she has no radio experience to speak of, and the energy she gets from the ‘face-to-face’ competition with TVNZ and the other reporting teams in Parliament’s press gallery will be absent. She will probably never see Hosking, or engage with him. The motivation to produce a top radio show will need to come from within.

O’Brien’s skill set should suit radio. She is a good interviewer. She is quick and fearless. Her demolition of Jami-Lee Ross will still be lodged in the consciousness of politicians prone to dissembling and spin. She is organised but has that unpredictability that often characterises good radio hosts. There is also precedent for TV political editors moving into radio. Duncan Garner successfully transitioned to radio before returning to TV to host AM and Guyon Espiner did well co-hosting RNZ’s Morning Report after leaving TVNZ.

O’Brien’s appointment coincides with NZME’s chief radio and commercial officer Wendy Palmer stepping away from the role after fulfilling a two-year contract. She will be replaced by ZB boss Jason Winstanley in chief radio role. Winstanley’s first job is to find someone to replace him at the country’s top radio station and keep it humming along.

Newshub woes

The unexpected departure of its political editor will leave Newshub scrambling. O’Brien has been its star reporter in recent times and its news ranks now look desperately short of firepower and experience. Paddy Gower and Michael Morrah are the only two heavy-hitters left, although they will get Amanda Gillies back from the AM Show next year. Well-regarded AM producer Reuben Bradley and Auckland bureau chief, Melanie Jones, have also recently quit.

Earlier this year, MediaWorks poached Newshub’s Europe correspondent, Lloyd Burr, to be its new station’s drive-time host. Burr and O’Brien could’ve been the backbone of a strong TV newsroom for the next 10 years, but Newshub’s considerable investment in them just walked out the door.  

Discovery will not be feeling very kindly towards MediaWorks less than a year after it bought TV3 from the private equity-owned broadcaster.

The two companies appeared to be getting on like a house on fire after the long, drawn-out sales process. Discovery handed over $20 million for the loss-making TV business and MediaWorks sweetened the deal by agreeing to buy a news feed for the swathe of radio stations it owns. It chipped in a bit more for Newshub’s morning show, AM, which it simulcasts on Magic Talk.

The marriage of convenience ended abruptly last month when MediaWorks decided not to renew the news deal and announced it was also dropping the AM Show at the end of the year. Discovery quickly said it was making all its radio reporting roles redundant.

The move, by MediaWorks, to build its own news operation always looked likely following Gurney’s appointment. A news and talk station is helped by having close proximity to a newsroom. O’Brien will bring a definite news edge to the as-yet unnamed station and will be hoping to break a few major stories on her new show. Expect to see her face on every billboard owned by MediaWorks’ big out-of-home advertising division very soon.