Dave Stewart

I had to laugh at Keith Melville’s latest epistle of entitlement on behalf of his fellow landlords in his fear mongering letter, Labour’s capital gains tax: A deceptive Trojan horse (Beacon, February 4) as he argued in favour of them not paying taxes like everyone else must.

While he went on with the various “Seymour says” Act arguments that have been have pedalled unsuccessfully in the capital gains tax discussion, we got the full bucket from people who want everyone else to pay tax.  

Nothing new here, just repeat after repeat of the same tired Act arguments that we see and hear and read again and again in the same way, forever, every time we turn on the TV, listen to talkback radio, pick up the paper, or go on social media.

But, the bit that made me laugh out loud was his reference to the fabled “left-aligned media”.

The idea that we live in a left wing media nirvana I find hilarious, and I say that as someone who Mr Melville often refers to as a “lefty”, so I assume he’s okay with me pointing out the hilarity of his position.

It’s an often repeated “big lie” that I’ve noticed so over the past few months I’ve jotted down a list of current and recent people in the media who I can verify are certainly not left aligned and wonder if Mr Melville would like to post his list of media lefties.

Here’s my effort of non-lefties, and I’m sure I’ve missed more than a few.

Luke Malpass, Benedict Collins, Cameron Slater, Tim Murphy, Audrey Young, Mike Hosking, Clare Travett, Phillip Matthews, Heather du Plessis Allen, Peter Williams, Leighton Smith, Tova O’Brien, Melissa Chan-Green, Thomas Coughlan, Kerre Woodham, Andrea Vance, Henry Cooke, Ryan Bridge, Ingrid Hipkiss, Rachel Morton, Jo Moir, Tracey Watkins, Duncan Garner, Jenna Lynch, Amelia Wade, Barry Soper, Jessica Mutch-Mackay, Corin Dann, Jenny May-Clarkson, Sean Plunkett, Craig McCulloch, Kate Hawkesby, Chris Lynch, Martin Devlin, Rachel Smalley, Jason Walls, Paddy Gower, Damien Grant, Bridget Moreton, Matthew Hooten, Jane Patterson, Bridie Witton, Tim Dower, Tim Beverridge, Liz Gunn, Ben Mckay, Vernon Small, Ben Leahy, Katie Bradford, Fran O’Sullivan and Richard Prebble.

It’s pretty clear to me that the invisibility of media types who lean to the left make the term “left-aligned media” sound like the kind of thing one would use to strengthen an otherwise pitifully weak argument.