Monday, June 14, 2010

Be careful what you wish for. It's an old saying but not without an element of truth. In this case, the New Zealand media has had a windfall of documents from the Ministerial credit card "scandal" they could hardly have wished for.

Indeed, this wish has come true to such affect that not only have three senior Labour Party MPs have been demoted but the media are struggling with the minute detail contained in the eight boxes of documents.

Pictures abounded of newsrooms awash with documents. It was interesting to note how some carefully compartmentalised the papers.

Now, the Fairfax-owned web site, stuff.co.nz , has gone a step further and started placing the documents online and asking for the public's help to decipher the details.

Very good in theory but it does point up at least one concern: will the details be unearthed by a "disinterested" public? Or will this be another opportunities for political party and other interested parties to explore potential scandals? So, once again, will we see a race to the bottom, so to speak?

So, the bottomline here is that while the media might wish for such a massive info windfall, the reality is that the resources are not necessarily available to provide the public what it needs: a disintereste, in-depth review of the material involved.