After the shocking exposé about puberty blocker usage in New Zealand, the mainstream media is silent.

Our mainstream media in New Zealand ain’t what it used to be. Once, crusty ol’ journos were the foundation of mainstream news media, as they fearlessly ferreted out the facts of a matter, and didn’t mind fighting a round or two with editors to get them published. It was no place for the thin-skinned, and junior journos learned the news trade at the sides of their trade-toughened elders.

Unlike now, where junior staff raise a personal grievance complaint at the slightest harsh word from colleagues, editors quail at the thought of a fight, and crusty ol’ journos with experience and a bit of derring-do are considered dangerous. Toothless, ‘progressively correct’ stories are now the mainstay of the mainstream media, with the odd gritty piece raising gasps of surprise at the audacity of the editor to pass it for publication.  

Welcome to what the world of woke has wrought upon the mainstream news industry, where safeness is sought after like the (illusory) gold at the end of the rainbow, and ‘danger’ is mostly a dirty word.

Some crusty ol’ journos and writers won’t lie down, though. They still go where the woke fear to tread (NB: in the interests of clarification, a crusty ol’ journo is just a term I use for a journo and writer who has some life and work experience gained by doing the hard yards). Graham Adams is amongst these.

Here he writes a follow-up article on Professor Charlotte Paul’s article¹ in the December edition of the reputable ‘North and South’ magazine about New Zealand’s scandalously high use of puberty blockers. He puzzles over where the mainstream media went to when the scandal was revealed – “none of the information in Professor Paul’s careful analysis was picked up by any other mainstream journalists – despite its alarming revelations”, he says. “Just one paragraph in her article should have sent journalists hurrying to her door to find out more.”

Indeed, it should have, but the silence was deafening.

The Ministry of Health’s evidence brief on the use of puberty blockers, as mentioned in both Professor Paul’s and Graham Adams’ articles, which was meant to be delivered by the end of 2023 has now been delayed for publication until early 2024.

I wonder if any mainstream media journalists will pick up on that when it’s published, or if they’ll be too busy taking offence at the possibility of our new coalition government no longer pressuring public servants to include pronouns in their bios and email signatures? Luckily, we still have a few rogue - i.e. real - journos who won’t be seeking a safe space away from it. They run towards the ‘dangerous’ stories, not away from them.

¹New Zealand’s shamefully high use of puberty blockers for kids gets exposed. (substack.com)