JOHN KEY IS ON 'LETTERMAN'. SO?

The New Zealand media is so dire and facile that it regards John Key's New York appearance on the David Letterman Show as a major news story.

Key is going to walk on and read from the autocue a 'Top 10' list. Letterman will then shake his hand and Key will walk off. Then there will be a commercial break. That's it, folks. Was it good for you?

Maybe they'll be a few sniggers, perhaps the odd laugh. Whatever. It'll be of the same significance as the time Letterman introduced a model as 'Helen Clark, the Prime Minister of New Zealand.'

But at least Key will be able to promote himself as 'one of the boys' again and not the mega-wealthy neoliberal polician that he really is. I'm sure Paul Henry will be cheering him on.

Some 400 miles away from New York, in Pittsburgh, protest action is gearing up for the G20 economic summit which begins on Thursday.

The protests are about, among other things, the G20s agenda of corporate globalisation. Just yesterday the noted economist Joseph Stiglitz gave a talk a In Pittsburgh on '"How will real people be affected by the policies promoted by the G20?"'. This talk was one of a number of talks organised by The People's Voice project, a group campaigning for progressive change that will benefit ordinary people rather than big business.

There are a wide range of seminars and workshops, rock concerts underway in Pittsburgh but we have had no coverage at all in our local media.

Our media has not even attempted to outline what the protests are about. It would rather waste time following John Key's adventures in New York.

But if violence breaks out during the two day G20 summit the pictures will be splashed across our newspapers and on our television screens.

Already the protest movement is reporting police harassment but what's the bet any violence will be presented as the work of protesters?

Is it too much to ask that our media report on what is happening in Pittsburgh and the important issues that the protest movement are highlighting?

Or are celebrity capers more important than the crisis of global capitalism?