Investigative journalism?

Speaking of Voices for Freedom, last weekend investigative journalist Melanie Reid from Newsroom did a video piece on the protest - Visit to Freedom Village - which featured the Voices for Freedom leaders in a very positive light.

Melanie Reid is no stranger to controversy. Back in 2017 she did an investigation into the debunked anti-vax film Vaxxed, portraying it in a positive light.

And way back in 2004, NZ Skeptics awarded Melanie Reid our Bent Spoon award for her coverage of claimed psychic medium Jeanette Wilson. At the time, Reid was on TV3's 20/20 programme, and Wilson had a series called Dare to Believe. Reid's investigation on the 20/20 documentary programme of Wilson's purported psychic powers came to the conclusion that she was genuine!

Back to the video from last week, Reid portrayed the three Voices for Freedom women as just concerned mums, and asked no critical questions.

Reid should have probed their anti-vaccination stance, and questioned whether they were vaccinated. She should have asked why they claim the protest is all about ending mandates when all of their communications heavily promote anti-vaccine misinformation and conspiracy theories.

She should have also asked them more about their funding sources. While she asked the question, she allowed Claire Deeks to waffle on about how their funding was largely from individuals in small amounts.

In reality, Voices for Freedom, while claiming to be a not for profit organisation, is a limited liability company with the three women as directors. Their own FAQ page on their website claims they will make information about their finances public:

"Like any well run organisation receiving funding we intend to provide basic information on finances such as to provide accountability and transparency at appropriate junctures and at least annually."

To date, after being in existence for over two years, they have not done so. Voices for Freedom is a large misinformation organisation - spending large sums of money convincing people not to be vaccinated, and spreading conspiracy theories.

Today, Radio New Zealand did a piece which criticised Reid's Newsroom video which makes very interesting reading and listening.

In the accompanying podcast, a person (who remains anonymous) tells the story of how he was concerned about the lack of vetting of vaccine injury stories. He decided to submit some made up stories of his own to an anti-vax website and was then contacted by Melanie Reid to do an interview on vaccine injury. It would appear that Reid sits firmly in the anti-vax camp herself.

Committee member, Jonathon Harper has these comments:

So what is a skeptic to make of all this?

1. previous serious credulity and gullibility may be a predictor of future behaviour
2. the conspirators are partly right in that mainstream media cannot always be trusted
3. nevertheless, VFF seized upon Reid's reporting apparently claiming it is reliable
4. maybe Ardern and other politicians were correct in refusing to talk with VFF etc (there may have been a slight benefit by reducing paranoia, but I think not enough)