Chinese warships in the Tasman Sea promp big calls to bump up the budget for defence ASAP. Also - the super-heated headlines about factory-to-school lunches and we talk to the international outfit defending public broadcasters from de-funding.

Chinese warships appearing in what we like to think of as our ‘benign strategic environment’ sparked something of a media frenzy lately - culminating in commentators claiming our defence spending’s going to have to go up ASAP.

Right now the two main public media networks in the US face bids to de-fund them - even though their federal funding is tiny. They also face MAGA-driven inquiries into bias and how they stay in business.

Public broadcasters elsewhere in the world also face more political pressure on their funding and even their legitimacy these days. This week ask the boss of the outfit that represents them around the world: how do you defend against de-funding?

Also: school lunches have been in the headlines ever since the new cheaper factory-to-classroom ones appeared this year - or not, in some cases. And isolated cases of things going badly wrong have certainly been seized on by the media. Just teething troubles blown out of proportion because of politics? Or are our media rightly demanding more transparency? (more than on the cellophane lids of those boxes of burnt bolognese we’ve all seen in the news . . .)

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Media go forensic on Andrew Bayly's ministerial resignation, the PM's ZB stumble, NZME's revealing annual results - & the real story of Golriz at PaknSave

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Surviving 2025 in the intertwined industries of media and advertising. Should our government follow Australia’s media policy - and beware of billionaires? Also: decoding Destiny and the tricky task of luring Aussie tourists.

Can the intertwined industries of media and advertising survive 2025 - and even thrive? That was the theme of a gathering in Auckland this week. One day later, the hosts of it confirmed 30 of its journalists jobs have gone.

Our government says - again - its waiting to see what Australia’s government does when it comes to media policy. Mediawatch asks an Australian media expert if that makes sense - and if should media in both places beware of the billionaires.

Also - this week our government unveiled a new slogan to tempt Aussie tourists across the Tasman. Everyone Must Go seems to have gone down well over there, if not here at a time when many Kiwis are going there for good. We look back at previous efforts to lure tourists across the Tasman.

But tricky timing here when record-number of Kiwis have decided they must go over there for good.

But some of the past efforts to attract Aussie visitors haven’t dated that well either:

AUDIO: 23 feb 2025 TRAIL 02 champagne

That;s later on in the programme

But first - what happened after Destiny Church supporters disrupted Pride events in Auckland last weekend:

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Big names at the Herald lose their jobs in a major news rejig, a Wellington ginger group getting a helping hand - and attracting Aussies in 1962.

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How plans for wealthy foreign investors hit the headlines this week - and how did paid-for propaganda end up on a major news website? Also: two business journalists want to make the most out of much-needed money for important investigative journalism

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Comedian Guy Williams' Waitangi run-in with David Seymour - and the Act leader's pushback at the Herald; a new video channel proposal by NZME - and new government plans to help local media.

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Trump’s alarmed the world with trade tariffs, turning off aid and proposing to take over Gaza. But New Zealand’s had its own diplomatic dramas in the news - with the media in the middle of them. Also: new news outlets popping up to push back fear of 'news deserts.'

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The 'fake news' from Israel that strained our relationship with the US - and a long-suppressed offender’s name finally comes out. Also: Tributes to Jonah Lomu and Marianne Faithfull which missed the mark - and two reports on transport which didn’t.

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