The NZ Media Council has upheld a complaint against a RNZ story on accuracy.
The story titled Florist says Julie Anne Genter exchange was a ‘massive imbalance of power’ was about a Wellington florist’s claim of being bullied by Green MP Julie Anne Genter over a controversial cycleway project in Newtown.
The article incorrectly claimed that car parks were removed from outside the florist’s shop to make way for a cycleway.
Complainant Tom Pearce provided photographic evidence showing there have never been car parks or a cycleway directly outside the shop on Riddiford Street.
We had a bit of a discussion here: https://lemmy.nz/post/9911250
Many people commented how the florist sounded like an “entitled boomer” or similar. It’s seems they aren’t far wrong. Ignoring the whole Genter thing, the florist complaining to the media about car parks being taken away to make way for a cycleway is a bit ridiculous when it turned out there never were carparks and the cycleway stops short of their shop.
I kinda sympathise though - the shops there have always struggled as long as I can remember (which, in fairness, probably isn’t that long). Newtown has been dead for about a decade, easily.
Yes both parties are being dicks and the florist is probably conflating issues and blaming the bike lanes incorrectly.
It seems like one upside is, countdowns expansive parking is, I believe, available for people to use (I vaguely recall signage about it)
I’ve been reading a lot of American news lately and while that’s a dumb mistake for rnz to make it’s refreshing to see a falsehood be corrected.
A bit weird that they fought it, though. With the ruling they were told if they had corrected it as soon as they had been told then they wouldn’t have had a problem.
That’s a pretty big detail to get wrong actually, I’d expect better from RNZ.
