I am feeling slightly daunted, not to say dismayed, at the prospect of the forthcoming election. Already there are signs of the fug of a kind of information war through which we will all have to negotiate a path to the ballot box.
Among the acres of pre- and post-Budget coverage I have read in the past few days is the transcript of a television interview. I read the transcript because I missed the TV broadcast. I missed the TV broadcast because it was on at an hour on Sunday morning when there are better things to be doing - like sleeping, or getting out and about for an early morning jog, or bike ride, or heading off to meet friends for brunch.
The piece to which I refer was Minister of Finance Bill English being interviewed by Guyon Espiner. Mr Espiner is one of the few TV journalists we have in this country capable of holding to account politicians such as the experienced Mr English on, for instance, the complexities of fiscal policy, in the one-to-one arena of the set-piece interview.
On paper, it was not that the contest was unduly combative or bad-tempered or astonishingly revelatory, but it was an intelligent and politely insistent exploration of the National Government's economic policies as underscored by last week's Budget.
It was screened at 9am on TV One's Q+A. Mr Espiner probed; Mr English answered. The result was illuminating.
Having read it - and presumably if one had seen it - National's position on debt, taxes and economic growth had become clearer and likewise some of its potential flaws.
It should have been, in this year in particular, required viewing. In a country that held just one iota of commitment to the idea of a participatory culture of ideas, it would have been. This programme would have been screened at 9.30pm midweek. It would be part of the mandate of a fast-vanishing phenomenon called "public service broadcasting".
Integral to this now quaint notion - were it still to exist - would be the remit to facilitate and promote an understanding of issues critical to the functioning of this system of government we comfortingly refer to as a "democracy".
But Broadcasting Minister Jonathan Coleman has casually dismissed the idea of TV One having any mandate other than as a commercial broadcaster, and has also announced the demise of TVNZ 7, the one channel capable of assuming that role in its place.
Hence programmes such as Q+A will continue to languish in the ratings graveyard hours, consigned there by the patronising notion that most New Zealanders are not interested in politics and ideas and especially not those with the potential to impact upon the future direction of their country, and thus of their lives.
Quite possibly programmes such as this eventually will cease to be made because apparently they cannot and do not sustain a "viable" audience when set against yet another episode of Tropical Island Survivor - in which the puerile make-believe antics of a group of scantily clad telegenic personalities play out a watered-down, vacuous version of Lord of the Flies-meets-Swiss Family Robinson.
In the vein of such cynicism, could it not be construed the powers-that-be simply would prefer the great unwashed among us to remain ignorant of the doings and policies of our political masters; to let us instead gorge ourselves on the fast-food equivalent of reality television, or the endlessly recycled clones of forensic cop thrillers from the United States?
My maudlin mood was not lifted by a report on the media management of the two major parties' political jamborees last weekend by this newspaper's political editor, Dene Mackenzie.
It is clear, suggested Mr Mackenzie, that if the indications of the weekend are anything to go by, both parties are intent on stage-managing their way to the polls on November 26. They are well-armed and resourced to do so, with, in the case of the Government at least, cadres of media managers - among them formerly some of the best and brightest of this country's journalists.
Nothing will be left to chance.
Speeches will be carefully constructed and managed. Only a certain few people will speak to certain issues and most candidates will be anything but candid - lest something emerge that does not square exactly with "the plan".
The word "campaign" will take on new levels of resonance. There will be the campaign to disseminate the message and the campaign to prevent the message from being derailed. All aboard. It promises to be a long and only occasionally scenic journey.
• Simon Cunliffe is deputy editor (news) at the Otago Daily Times.
