One poll does not a decision make
TV3 is going to broadcast a debate tonight of party leaders. The Court has told them how to do it. A Judge has decided that both Peter Dunne and Jim Anderton should be included in the debate. This means that each leader gets five minutes instead of seven. It is unfortunate that the decision was made, but even more unfortunate that TV3 set up such a debate with archaic rules.
Now that the court has decided to include the leaders, why then did it decide not to exclude the leaders that are not likely to be in Parliament. Particularly Rodney Hide. Why also, did it not set a dress code, a speaking order, choose the host, or demand speaking times based on the percentage votes of the party the leaders came from - ie: Peter Dunne gets about 0.02 percent less time that Rodney Hide. Why also did the courts not decide that there should be no advertisments to compensate for the extra time this debate should take. Or specify that Charlie's juice rather than bottled water or Fresh Up be the drink offered to the leaders. Even specify what the leaders must or must not talk about.
The judge said TV3 had based its decision on a single opinion poll -- which expert testimony had said had a margin of error greater than the margins between the smaller parties. Which is exactly what I blogged the other day.
TV3 is concerned about the serious precedent the Court has set. So am I. But TV3 should have never tested the courts in the first place, it should have included the leaders, so I'm sorry TV3, its all your fault that this has happened. If you want to get into matters of public importance, you need to be fair, even if you are a private station.
I'm not watching in protest.
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