Legacy Media Weeps Over Authoritarian Jacinda Ardern’s Departure

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern — noted authoritarian and overall busybody — announced her pending resignation Thursday, and it seems that those who will miss her most are “reporters” from legacy media.

Ardern, known for telling her constituents that they should consider the New Zealand government their “single source of truth” promptly before locking down the country, will officially step down in February because she is simply exhausted from the job. In turn, lapdog media outlets such as The New York Times, Bloomberg, The Washington Post, and CNN rushed out to mourn the loss of the Kiwi girl boss.

In Bloomberg, Andreea Papuc wrote, “Ardern achieved rock-star status after she became the world’s youngest female leader at 37.” Papuc also praised Ardern for gun-control efforts while opining, “The pandemic tested her mettle, but she was credited with keeping the virus at bay with one of the world’s strictest lockdowns.”

Of course, Ardern also advised Aucklanders to avoid talking to their neighbors altogether and implemented a nationwide lockdown in August 2021 over a single man being diagnosed with the virus.

Per The Washington Post, however, Ardern should be remembered for her “empathetic leadership style” and for being  “seen by many liberals as a young, center-left antidote to populist politics elsewhere.”

Amongst her accomplishments listed by the Post was the fact that she joined forces with globalists around the world for an international initiative urging “tech giants and other governments to commit to combating the spread of extremism on social media.” In other words, Ardern should be credited with kickstarting an elite effort toward fascism.

Over at The New York Times, one writer named Damien Cave lamented, “In a part of the world where coronavirus restrictions lingered, Jacinda Ardern struggled to get beyond her association with pandemic policy.”

Cave also remarked that Ardern had reached “celebrity status with the speed of a pop star.”

After a COVID vaccine became available, New Zealanders weren’t allowed to get haircuts or work for a living without the jab, Cave noted. Throughout it all, the country experienced on-and-off lockdowns “so severe that even retrieving a lost cricket ball from a neighbor’s yard was banned.”

Then Ardern infamously affirmed that she wanted to create two classes of citizens — vaccinated and unvaccinated.

The vaccine didn’t quite work out as intended and Ardern’s demand that every citizen receive it seems to be what really sullied her shot at any political future — on top of everything else she implemented while in office.

It turns out that pitting your citizens against one another isn’t such a wise move as a leader.

“The disillusionment around the vaccine mandates was important,” Dr. Simon Thornley, an epidemiologist at the University of Auckland, told The Times. “The creation of a two-class society and that predictions didn’t come out as they were meant to be, or as they were forecast to be in terms of elimination — that was a turning point.”

The writing is on the wall, and it seems Ardern would get smoked in her next election.

According to CNN though, the real lesson here isn’t that world leaders should avoid becoming despots under the guise of emergencies. The main takeaway is that it’s okay to quit a job if you’re tired.

“Burnout is real – and it’s nothing to be ashamed of,” CNN’s Hilary Whiteman claimed. “That’s the conclusion trailblazing New Zealand leader Jacinda Ardern seems to have reached after almost six brutal years in office.”

Buried in her analysis is this revealing tidbit:

Ardern may have been feted on the world stage for bringing humanity and empathy to the role, but at home the rising cost of living, housing shortages, and economic anxiety had some wondering if her government could do more to ease their pain.

In other words, Ardern was a total failure in her job. But, she deserves heaps of praise because she was a young woman who advanced the Left’s agenda. Legacy Media will miss her, but assuredly another totalitarian leader will rise up to reclaim the mantle of the most beloved leader by the free press.

The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.