Mediawatch Midweek: 3 October 2018

Mediawatch Midweek is our weekly catch-up with Lately's Karyn Hay. This week: Colin and Karyn chat about expats' takes on the US Supreme Court scrap, non-stop 'property porn' on TV, another major cold-case podcast - and how a golf magazine freed a man in jail for a murder he didn't commit.

NYT's epic expose on Donald's dollars

It filled eight pages of the New York Times print edition today.

“I built what I built myself,” the president has repeatedly said. But an investigation by The New York Times has revealed that Donald Trump received the equivalent today of at least $413 million from his father’s real estate empire. What’s more, much of this money came to Mr. Trump through dubious tax schemes he participated in during the 1990s, including instances of outright fraud, The Times found."

14,330 words! (Counting captions and subheads.) https://t.co/e2Icuw7tU7

— Joshua Benton (@jbenton) October 2, 2018

Expats' exasperated takes on the Supreme Court circus

The media has been stuffed full of coverage and comment from those Supreme Court Senate committee hearings on Capitol Hill last week - and all the fallout since.

There was so much said and written out of Washington and beyond last week on every medium, I didn’t know were to turn for a fresh voice.

But on Graeme Hill’s Weekend Variety Wireless show last weekend, i found one former basketball coach turned broadcaster John Dybvig. In his in weekly slot ‘Letter from America’ he voiced the agony of an American whose country has been dragged through the mud. 

His interview came with this health warning:

John Dybvig does try to contain himself, but there are a few swear-words used in his piece, so listen to this week's Letter from America at your own risk.

(He wasn't actually all that rude . . . ).

The Letter from America title is a homage to Alistair Cooke's weekly 15-minute radio talk for the BBC broadcast to the world (and RNZ) from 1946 to 2004 - making it the longest-running speech radio programme hosted by one individual in history.

The genteel Mt Cooke was also good with the anecdotes - but calmer and less prone to swearing. 

So was another UK journalist commenting this week from the US: the Economist's US editor John Prideaux. In this week's Economist Radio podcast he sits on the fence and says says it's a 50/50 call whether Kavanaugh ever takes a Supreme Court spot.

But Prideaux is certain that if he doesn't, the righteous anger of the stymied Republicans means that someone even more conservative and on-message will get the job. A case of careful what you wish for . . . ?

Non-stop 'property porn' - but who pays?

The Block came to the end of its run with predictable wall-to-wall mentions on every MediaWorks outlet - and plenty more from Stuff and the Herald, which turned social media comment into a story condemning host Mark Richardson for "patronising sexism:"

Stuff's Coleen Hawkes said t was "flat, forced and unfair" and also "smelly."

"Three doesn't need to show clips referencing farts, bum cracks, things that blocked toilets, the girls measuring the length of their unshaven armpit hair, and Ben sniffing his pits having refused to shower for weeks on end. "Smelly" TV is not good TV," she wrote.

But The Spinoff's Duncan Grieve disagreed about "the armpit girls" - contestants Chloe and Em.

His take:"Chloe and Em, who spent three months working incredibly hard for far less less than minimum wage. But they emerge as modern feminist icons – blocking toilets with tampons, comparing armpit hair growth and displaying a more bold and unashamed sexuality than most TV romance contestants."

But he also noted the increasing intrusion of sponsors' and their products:

"It was everywhere, all the time. When you add in the ad revenue from the ads that played between the big ad, you’re looking at a huge proportion of Three’s overall commercial revenue coming out of this one property. This is now settling as the new model for free-to-air linear TV: multi-night tentpole reality productions; multi-product integrations; promoted across all platforms and channels. To many it’s a vision of hell. To our media companies, it’s life, and hope."

"You’re going to see a lot more television like this," Grieve warned. 

As if to make his point, Grand Designs NZ returned tonight to Three for its fourth series.

It's a very different viewing experience, but also similar business-wise.

From the start, it's been a foreign format that's a partnership between MediaWorks and ANZ . . but also us.

New Zealand on Air put the almost a million dollars of public money into this. That's even more than the early series which - incidentally - can't be seen anywhere on-demand by the public that paid for them. The brands of NZOA and ANZ even appear together in the show's logos. Should taxpayers be in a joint venture with a bank over yet more shows about high-end property projects?

Another major murder podcast . . but a goodie

There are heaps of of investigative true crime podcasts on the market  - here and overseas.

All our major media companies have done at least one now that MediaWorks has launched ‘Grove Road’ by reporter Mike Wesley-Smith  - all about a murder in 1985 for which one man’s been in jail for nearly 30 years.

Grove Road, investigates the conviction of Alan Hall for the murder of Arthur Easton. Hall has
always maintained his innocence.

It’s very well produced with killer (‘scuse the pun) theme music - and guess who appears in the scene-setting in the first episode . . . (SPOILER: Lately's own Karyn Hay frpom way back in 1985).

Many cold case podcasts leave me a bit . . er, cold, but this one is compelling with the journalism and the process all on show.

The first four parts are available now - four more to come. Check out the website for the supporting material too, such as 3D renderings of the scene.  

And while on the subject of media taking up the case of people in prison for murder. . . .

Man freed from prison by . . . a golf magazine

After 27 years in prison, Valentino Dixon walked free in the US last week  - after an investigation by Max Adler of . . Golf Digest.

A county court vacated Dixon's murder conviction. Adler was there to greet Dixon as he left the courthouse.

After 27 years in prison, Valentino Dixon walked free today. With an investigation Golf Digest's Max Adler helped open, an Erie County court vacated Dixon's murder conviction. Adler was there to greet Dixon as he left the courthouse.

(:@NewsRadio930) pic.twitter.com/RgIZw4RoTg

— Golf Digest (@GolfDigest) September 19, 2018

Dixon was man wrongly convicted of a Buffalo street corner killing in 1991 after 27 years in prison.

There’s a great interview with Max Adler in the excellent Irish podcast Second Captains. It’s subscription only, so you’ll have to sign up to hear it. But you can read about the story here:  

Where golf fits into this man’s life, how he is now, and the story of how the man who did in fact commit the crime admitted his guilt, are all in the mix too in this outrageous story.

200 greatest songs by 21st century women

Music lists can be lame - but I learned a lot from this one from NPR’s Turning the Tables - “an ongoing project dedicated to recasting the popular music canon in more inclusive – and accurate – ways."

"This year, our list, selected by a panel of more than 70 women and non-binary writers, tackles history in the making, celebrating artists whose work is changing this century's sense of what popular music can be. The songs are by artists whose major musical contributions came on or after Jan. 1, 2000, and have shifted attitudes, defied categories and pushed sound in new directions since then.

FYI Lorde's Royals  is at #6.