This story was originally published on The Spinoff.
It was the beginning of July, 2024, and the National Party’s Paul Goldsmith (of Ngāti Epsom fame) was staring down the barrel of a smoking gun. It had just taken the lives of TVNZ stalwarts Fair Go and Sunday, had already planned a fatal hit on Newshub and in the crossfire, managed to take out Goldsmith’s colleague and former broadcasting minister Melissa Lee. In the face of this extinction-level event, there was only one thing Goldsmith could do: take “immediate action to support New Zealand’s media and content production sectors”.
