Jb As I noted in passing in the article the Green Party here floated the idea of a Christchurch quake tax and was ignored by the Government.At the time soon after the worst of our quake cycle when public support was intense it would have been very easy to implement.Now it is just one of many sorrows and might have beens for the Christchurch story.

I kinda thought earlier that the thread was about trying to stay human in an environment where tragedy, sorrow, grief and rage are staples of the news diet. I have seen over the years that many reporters do not seem to make old bones and believe that is in part because of the toxicity of years of news gathering.
I'm fairly hard but I used to dread getting the short straw to do the door knock/ call to the surviving family of a tragic death to ask them variants on "How do you feel.?" Court reporting also is cheap, captive copy but it hardens you up to the point where I can't quite shake a lingering fondness for the death penalty.Does parenting erode this? Well yeah, I stayed in the game for much of my first son's childhood but by the time the twins were born bailed in favour of spin doctoring, which as Hebe pointed out is almost genteel in comparison.

Naomi, do you think you could expand on the "New Zealand media is the most brutal" angle? I'm genuinely interested in that take on things tho my forays into working with the Gallery folk at times led me to think they were incredibly pack like and somewhat akin to hairdressers at their worst with the insanely shallow take on things.
In the broader debate I've been appalled as an antique hack long gone to the dark side at how vicious and nasty public discourse has got in recent years.
But, and this is a huge but, when you see what passes for "news" on social media sites the role of accurate news providers has never been more vital and needed.Solutions anyone?