Miss Lee or Misled?
January 27, 2025
By NZB3
Melissa Lee, before becoming a politician, was a great presenter on Asia Downunder (1994-2011.) I remember watching her anchor and rather than flick away I had to watch because the team she was part of was making great, informative television. Then she turned to politics.
Lee was at the wheel as Minister for Media and Communications at the start of National 6.0’s reign but soon lost it. Despite her TV credentials she evidently didn’t have the green light to go ahead and try to “safe” or capture the Legacy Media from her Boss, Chris Luxon.
Since the Legacy Media very much wants to be saved they took it out on Melissa. When Three News crashed and burned Melissa not only watched with little interest but didn’t even murmur a eulogy. At least, that’s how it was portrayed by the press gaggle when Lee responded on the checkerboard court at Parliament Buildings. Microphone Media Tribe Angry! Make Minister Suffer!
National 6.0 evidently don’t have a plan right now for ‘saving’ or controlling the dying mainstream media. Each government wants to do that for every political institution (of which there are too many, and growing) we have. Taking Over usually means deleting or restructuring the institutions so they can be rebuilt in the image of the government of the day. Labour 6.0 were so set on this that they restructured the “Health System” in the middle of a “Pandemic.” National 6.0 have just started doing it with “Science.” Team Blue is trying to delete all of the Team Red flags or else change them into Blue ones.
Last time anyone seriously tried a capture job on the media was when Broadcasting Minister Clare Curran met with Carol Hirshfeld in 2018. Too cloak and dagger. That went to bits. However Labour 6.0 did capture the media and pump it full of money later. They did this in the guise of a Public Interest Journalism Fund using the pretense of their COVID Panic.
That one was only a temporary capture though. It dropped $55,000,000 of our money on the media just while the Panic Lasted. Labour 6.0 also dipped its toes in by creating a media corps of State reporters called Local Democracy Reporting. For a few million dollars we now pay 20 or more government press officers to tell us about our democracy. However, they stopped adhering to their brief a while ago and now write articles about lifestyle, architecture, and advertising puff pieces. Maybe more? I’m looking into it.
According to the Local Democracy Reporting program head, David Reid, the stories they’ve been telling on behalf of their political masters are beyond reproach. How does he know? Because his political masters have not reproached him! “And since the project’s inception in 2019, how many stories have been questioned by the purse holders at NZ On Air? Not one. Not a single email, telephone call or meeting has questioned the editorial output of any one of the reporters.” RNZ (2022)
Evidently nobody has yet planted a Team Blue flag on David Reid and probably never will; Therefore his LDR will doubtless be shortly destroyed/replaced by Melissa Lee’s replacement as Media Minister, Paul Goldsmith.
When the Media and Communication Minister does come out swinging his axe our MSM will very very sorry indeed. I think they have misled themselves into thinking the State intervention will save them and ought to have stuck with Miss Lee.
Lee’s neutrality was better than the butchering to come. They didn’t know when they were well off. Government is not going to stop the Social Media or AI waves from destroying, finally, their Dinosaur Priesthood. Radio NZ and TVNZ, for example, will wish they’d been nicer to Miss Lee.
So now Lee is on the way out, probably not to make the List for the 2026 General Election. Most recently she has also lost her Ethnic Affairs portfolio and some of the reaction has been hilarious: “Let me be controversial. Just a point, regardless of how you feel about Melissa Lee and her performance, it is shocking Luxon has just appointed a pakeha male to be the Minister of Ethnic Affairs. Speaks volumes.” says another Asian Kiwi, Alex Lee, on his Linked In.
Lee followed up his Completely Disinterested and Unbiased Take on Lee’s demotion with an opinion piece in the Press today (27/1/2025) titled The message Melissa Lee’s demotion sends to our ethnic communities.
“The displacement of Melissa Lee represents more than a political miscalculation — it reveals the persistent gap between New Zealand’s aspirations for diversity and the reality of power distribution in our institutions. It diminishes the significance of ethnic representation in our Government and paints a disheartening picture of how little we matter. ‘Asan Asian Kiwi deeply invested in our nation’s progress, I find this situation profoundly disappointing and indicative of how far we still must travel towards genuine equity. The principles of diversity, inclusion, participation, and belonging must evolve beyond aspirational rhetoric to become foundational elements of our governance structures. Until we address the systemic inequities that marginalise ethnic…” – Alex Lee, Press
“What could be more funny than Maori Elites proving they are Maori Elites by striking back with their full privilege as soon as someone threatens Maori Elites! ‘Because Racism.’” – NZB3 (2023)
I haven’t read anything so unaware and self-serving as Lee defending Lee since Maori Elites lashed out in public against criticism of….Maori Elites. Back in 2023 Maori Elites wrote an open letter saying it was “racist” for politicians to do other than listen to them. As a sign that they are elites with great command of the media this letter made instant headlines. Hardly an endangered species are they?
Lee is not related to Lee or even the same type of Asian New Zealander. Yet here he is, a man who says he has been an unwilling Token Asian, mourning the loss of this Government’s top Token Asian.
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Image ref. AHNZ Archives (2009)
note: Is Melissa Lee a Miss or Mrs? Can’t easily tell so poetic title wins.
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