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Pulp Friction

There is a discontent in the plush retirement village of ‘Eminent’ New Zealanders.
‘Pulp!’ they chant loudly – over the clatter of false teeth and MBEs and the Grand Order of Knowing Better Than Everybody Else. Who better to understand pulp than a group whose diet must be strained and refined?

‘Television New Zealand should be fully funded by the government! (a.k.a ‘Hard Working New Zealand families’) For such an apparently intellectual mob (albeit now subscribers to the large print edition of the journals of record) one can’t help but wonder how much more out of touch they could possibly be. Perhaps reception in ivory towers and palaces is a little fuzzy.

Unlike the malcontents listed I don’t claim to represent the views of anyone but myself. But I think that Television in New Zealand is pretty darned good. There is variety. Some is good and some is bad. Very little is appalling. Variety makes it an interesting diet and one consumed happily by the great unwashed…er, majority…of us quite happily.

There is another small matter. That of being rather small. With a total population of a smidge over 4 million people, who are really very diverse in their tastes, it makes little sense to divert resources into creation and production of high-brow programming that a marginal segment of the potential audience want to see, or can stay awake for, let alone through.
And of course there is also the cost of the beurocracy to commission, fund and promote such a channel.
Think how many, and I can imagine this is a point that will be near and dear to the aging agitators hearts, think how many hip operations those public funds would pay for.

Tear down the Zimmerframe barricades, double the meds and, for God’s sake wipe up that spittle.

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