THE PUBLIC INTEREST

The vested interests of the Nelson City council and its talking parrot the Nelson Mail, give rise to a stark ethical irony.
The huge irony involved in the interaction between this dangerous coupling, is that the ethics and morals of the concept of "the public interest" and "the public good", get flushed down the gurgler.
The Mail's constant carping at, and putting down of council critics, is problematic to say the least.
If the Mail was properly tending to its own fundamental fourth estate duty and reason for being, of looking after the the public interest and the public good, then the critics would all be out of a job tomorrow.
Instead of running interference for the council and its incompetent economics, the Mail should be taking the lead and denouncing any council profligacy and imprudence, itself. Again, the silence is deafening.
However I suppose it is expecting to much to ask a rabidly left wing media to criticise a rabidly left wing council.
I also expect that it is asking to much of the Mail to criticise one of its own largest customers and paymaster.
And none of this says anything about the councils own ethical duties to the public, to tend to the public good and the public purse with care and prudence.