NZ Herald shaping public opinion through use of language

I have an interest in how NZ media - almost completely owned by large foreign private corporations - uses language to shape public opinion. Examples appear almost daily (if not hourly). I thought yesterday I might start recording some of these. They are from my own perspective, of course, which has its own views and values and I will make these as clear as possible.

Today (23/03/2011) the NZ Herald presents us with a story headlined: "Pet projects face cuts, Key warns". As these links have a way of dying, I'll record the first paragraph here:

The Government's coalition partners have been warned their pet projects will not be exempt from the drive for savings in this year's Budget, with funding for the Act Party's taskforce and Maori Party's Whanau Ora scheme under review.

The headline uses the term "pet projects" and the first paragraph emphasises this term through repetition.

To me, the term is deprecating, trivialising the projects referred to. I'm not saying they are trivial or not....but the NZ Herald's use of language and construction of the story unambiguously implies they are. The story does refer to specific projects including a quote from the leader of ACT, Rodney Hide, bagging the Families Commission, a project of Peter Dunne's United Party.

Certainly none of the projects referred to gets any recognition for merit from the Herald story. On the contrary, they are all bundled together in a deprecatory context as "pet projects" ripe for cutting in the next National-lead government budget.  As it stands, the Herald could be charged with publishing propaganda if Mr. Key did not, himself, use the term "pet projects". Mr Key also did not construct the story the way it was constructed. The Herald did that all by itself for reasons best known to itself.

The NZ Herald, in my view, has shown in the past it is comfortable shaping news stories to support the agenda of the National Party in government. This would appear to be yet another example, in my humble opinion. It's the first one I have documented in this way, but won't be the last.

My interest engaged, I sent Claire Trevett the following email.

Hi Ms Trevett
Did John Key use the deprecating term "pet projects" or was this something the NZ Herald came up with?
I'd like to know as I have an interest in how media shapes public opinion through use of language that reaches beyond the event being reported.

Thanks. 

 If I get any response, I'll update this post.

[Update 2011-04-04: Claire Trevett did not respond to my email.]