The curious case of NZ News Essentials: the buyout baron, the rapper, and the anti-mandate influencer

(Image: Getty)

Fri, 01 Sep 2023

Fri, 01 Sep 2023

On the streets of Auckland’s central business district, a Canadian-accented presenter approached members of the public armed with a loaded question about “the state of New Zealand’s media”. The vox pop interviews, hosted on the Instagram page of Operation People, the media venture of anti-vaccine mandate influencer Chantelle Baker, supported the launch of NZ News Essentials (NZNE), a secretive digital news site that has taken careful steps to hide its founders, backers, and writers. The interview vide...

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