| Thursday, April 26, 2012 7:49 AM

Well I hope the hikoi I watched on the news Tuesday night has swollen in numbers by about a thousand fold because if it hasn’t, I don’t want to hear about it or see it again.

Something has happened in this country. There were maybe 20 people, a handful, a tiny collective, a bunch of mates with not a lot to do. They’re going to march from the top of the country to Wellington to show their outrage over asset sales. Good luck to them. But why is it news? Why are we paying them any attention? How is it a couple of dozen people who don't like something can draw any attention at all?

20,000 people, that’s a story. But a couple of dozen? I can find you a couple of dozen who are aggrieved or want change on any number of things, a republic, becoming Goths, becoming communist, becoming part of Australia, civil war, but we largely dismiss them as fringe or nutters. We don't give them a platform, don't interview them.

The old favourites were there among the 20 - Mike Smith (tree chopper and professional protestor), Hone Harawira (professional agitator). They’re the same people, that’s all they know how to do, be against stuff. That’s fine. Let them have any opinion they want, let them march and stamp their feet and collect their signatures and make their noise.

But the noise and its coverage and exposure has to be in perspective, and the coverage we see of many of these things is hopelessly out of kilter. It seems to have got to the stage that no matter how small and insignificant your group is, no matter how many of them are the same old rent-a-crowd faces, all you have to do is pick something to be against and the media can’t grab a camera, a microphone or a notepad fast enough.

News should not be made up automatically of bored, aggrieved people. This is a big, complex and fascinating world. A myriad of genuinely interesting things happen in any given day and I can tell you that a handful of the same old same olds yet again marching doesn't deserve the attention they’re being given.