Politics, propaganda, ethics and journalism

Local pro-Palestinian propaganda in Newtown, Wellington. Source: the street and my camera.

Some journalists, maybe even most of them, regard reporting on politics as the apogee of our trade, but it's something I've always tried to avoid, professionally speaking.

I've always found reporting on business and finance to be much more satisfying – instead of a morass of conflicting opinions in which the loudest voices often win, evidence be damned, businesses make real widgets or provide real services that real people need or want and are prepared to pay for; or not, in the case of a failing business.

And we have hard numbers with which to measure their progress.

Of course, it is unavoidable that politics will intrude into business matters because governments are in charge of setting the rules and appointing and directing the regulators.

And businesses have to understand what their customers care about and try to avoid doing things that might upset those customers.