How to Irritate Me

1. Call your debate amongst the minor parties "The Kingmaker", which is not only a ridiculous and sexist term, it's also highly inaccurate. Under MMP it's not about one minor party coalescing with one major party really, it's about several blocs of parties that shift around their alliances depending on the issue at hand (and of course naked political advantage sometimes).

2. Screen said debate, a vital part of our democratic process in an election year, on your new digital channel which most New Zealanders cannot get without shelling out some biggish bikkies for a new fangled box thing. Needless to say we don't have one in our house and I'd be interested to know if there are many people out there who do.

3. Make the debate available on the internet, which is certainly more accessible than your digital channel, but still not really a practical option for many (sadly me included).

4. Show it on your free-to-air station, you know, the one that is supposed to be delivering Charter Television, and Our Stories, and all that, and put it on at midnight. On a Sunday. And don't advertise it.

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Shows like this debate are important. They are a part of our democracy, part of the scrutiny that politicians, their parties, and their policies should face from our media. To squirrel this stuff away in such a manner is disgraceful, especially as it seems to have been done in such a manner solely to big up the launch of TVNZ7.

Yes it's good that TVNZ is getting with the times and going digital. It's great that they are making their content available online and on demand. But they still need to do the basics, for the vast majority of viewers who are still looking at the boring old cathode tube during primetime, and in this case they are not.

Luckily Idiot/Savant has watched the debate for me. Perhaps I could get him to vote for me too?

Feel free to add links to your own reviews in comments, it's the only way I'll get an idea of what happened!