It was one of those fascinating contradictions of capitalism that the foreign-owned TV3 always took its journalistic obligations more seriously than the state-owned Television New Zealand.

Sadly that didn’t, and couldn’t, last (which doesn’t imply any improvement in TVNZ; simply that TV3 sank to the same level).

And the man who did the sinking was the now ex-CEO Mark Weldon. He enthusiastically applied himself to the task of converting TV3 to a sewerage farm with a most impressive output of the old proverbial.

MediaWorks, the company which owns TV3 as part of its media empire, was one of six finalists in the 2015 Roger Award for the Worst Transnational Corporation Operating in Aotearoa/New Zealand (the winner was announced on April 30).

To quote from what we wrote when the finalists were announced, back in December 2015:

“MediaWorks was another making its first appearance in the Roger Award, specifically for TV3 killing off Campbell Live. ‘The grounds for nomination are political interference, by killing off the only current affairs show anywhere on television that actually took seriously its mission to be the voice of the people and to hold the powerful to account.’ And considering that TV3 replaced John Campbell with rightwing mouthpiece Paul Henry, another ground for nomination is running an ideological crusade.

“The New Zealand Herald article headline ‘Campbell’s crusades irked TV3 bosses’ (23 May 2015) puts it in a nutshell. The article says that TV3 management considered that the show ‘over-emphasised charitable fundraising, and coverage of the aftermath of the Christchurch earthquake, GCSB spying and child poverty’ (as well as subjects like Pike River).

“There was plenty of evidence that not only did Campbell Live piss off TV management but also senior figures among the directors with close connections to the Government and the Prime Minister.

“To add insult to injury, Campbell Live was, at first, replaced by yet another Australian police reality show, then by a cooking show. And MediaWorks has not stopped there in its relentless drive to kill off current affairs and any kind of serious news. More recently it has announced it is shutting down its newly created 3D current affairs show (which led to a fightback from its journalists).

“MediaWorks has moved in a heavy-handed fashion to extend the dumbing down of its programmes into the one remaining area (news and current affairs) that had previously stood in sharp contrast to the rest of the dismal crap produced by either major NZ network.

“It falls nicely into the playbook of capital’s inherent compulsion to provide a lowest common denominator market for advertisers”.

MediaWorks didn’t win the Roger Award (the Judges Report is at CAFCA). It didn’t even get into the top three. That simply shows what fierce competition there is in the transnational corporate race to the bottom.

The Roger Award includes an Accomplice Award. But that is only for New Zealand organisations or institutions, not individuals. Otherwise, Mark Weldon would have been a very strong contender.

So now, the poopmeister has gone. And good riddance too, from both viewers and his long suffering work force.

As a former Olympic swimmer, Mark Weldon would be very familiar with the axiom “to sink or swim”. He has sunk, but it remains to be seen whether he has taken TV3 with him.

Murray Horton is the secretary/organiser of the Campaign Against Foreign Control in Aotearoa (CAFCA).

The Roger Award judges’ report

The global private prisons operator Serco won second “prize” and third was Bunnings, said the watchdog Campaign Against Foreign Control of Aotearoa/New Zealand (CAFCA).

The winners were announced at an award “ceremony” in Palmerston North at the weekend.

CAFCA noted that IAG/State Insurance had been a finalist for the fourth consecutive year, “which will be no surprise to anybody who has lived in Christchurch since 2010”.

CAFCA said this time the insurance corporation had been nominated for two major reasons:

“To quote the nominator: ‘Economic dominance (specifically insurance market dominance). I draw your attention to the detail hidden in this Press article (19/2/15) which reveals that IAG discloses “a significant portion” of its Canterbury quake costs in “the lower tax jurisdiction of Singapore” and thus paid “an unusually low tax rate of 10 percent in the first half of 2015”.’

“Note also that IAG’s chief executive officer (CEO) was the highest paid CEO in NZ in the 2014/15 financial year, on $4.59 million. There’s money to be made from other people’s misery.”

“And impact on people. Five years after the Christchurch earthquakes started the insurance transnationals (of which IAG/State is by far the biggest) are still making life hell for thousands of Christchurch people. IAG/State is far from alone in this but it is the biggest and some of its practices are the worst.”

‘Too hard cases’
In 2015, noted the adjudication, State had pressurised its “too hard cases” in Christchurch to accept a cash settlement and become responsible for their own repairs or rebuilds.

“This means State wants to walk away from its contractual obligations to those customers. There are still State customers living in caravans and garages,” said CAFCA.

Second-placed Serco was a “new entrant but a thoroughly worthy one”.

The report said: “One of its nominators wrote: ‘Serco has a global reputation for dishonesty, corruption and poor human rights. That tendency has been very clearly demonstrated in their time in New Zealand. Serco’s Fight Club mentality is a real response to a culture created from the top’.”

A “close” third-placed Bunnings also made its first appearance in the Roger Award.

“The grounds for its nomination were “displaying contempt for its workers and their rights”.

“This year (2015) it has demonstrated its’ contempt for workers by seeking the casualisation of workers’ hours. Under Bunning’s proposed hours of work clause, the company is seeking the power to change workers’ rosters every four weeks, subject to a two-week notice period.”

Other companies
Three other shortlisted companies in the “worst transnational” competition were: information technology company Apple, TV3 owner MediaWorks and banking group Westpac.

Award judges this year were lawyer and academic Dr David Small, Auckland writer Dean Parker, unionist and Migrante founder Dennis Marga, Auckland Action Against Poverty activist and former Green MP Sue Bradford, and feminist social and political commentator Deborah Russell.

Judging criteria, says CAFCA, are by assessing the transnational (a corporation with 25 percent or more foreign ownership) that has the most negative impact in each or all of the following categories in Aotearoa/New Zealand: economic dominance – monopoly, profiteering, tax dodging, cultural imperialism; people – unemployment, impact on tangata whenua, impact on women, impact on children, abuse of workers/conditions, health and safety of workers and the public; environment – environmental damage, abuse of animals; and political interference – interference in democratic processes, running an ideological crusade.

Radio New Zealand reported that IAG said it was disappointed to have been named New Zealand’s worst transnational corporation.

IAG’s head of corporate affairs, Craig Dowling, said the award showed a tragic lack of understanding of earthquake issues, and the insurance sector’s role in helping tens of thousands of families.

• Insurer gets gong for bad behaviour
• Full Roger Award report