This morning the NZ Herald moved its editorial message to the front page. The Herald claimed that “New Zealand’s democracy was under attack”, and that:“…the Electoral Finance Bill imposes limits on spending by the Government’s critics while allowing millions to be spent on Government-backed campaigns promoting its policies.”

The online version of this article finishes with a request for views from the public, and gives people the chance to add their moderated opinion.

By 2.25pm, the lead headline had changed to “Public back call to scrap election law” and notes that:

“…Hundreds of people have joined the debate on nzherald.co.nz’s Your Views forum, with the vast majority agreeing the legislation is an attack on democracy.”

The article then borrows comments from users and provides a summary that backs the Herald’s editorial views.

I think this is a interesting illustration of traditional journalism and web 2.0 techniques converging to raise and discuss an important political decision. I’ll be very interested to see what tomorrow’s headline leads with…