Public Address - Hard News (Home)

Usual suspects | Nov 24, 2003 10:47

I am normally allergic to political arguments that hinge on a definition of "class", but as the outrageous detail of exactly what went on in media baron Conrad Black's Hollinger group seeps out, Dick Meyer's angry editorial, The Predator Class, seems right on the money.

Meyer is editorial director of CBSNews.com, and the recipient of several major awards for investigative journalism. He is not some conspiracy kook. And yet last week, he felt moved to say this:

The emerging accounts of thievery in the world of mutual funds confirm, for me at least, something I have suspected since the go-go 1980s - the existence of an economic predator class.

I believe there is now a professional, well-trained elite, supported by large institutions, that is adept and willing to use corrupt practices to accumulate wealth.

Meyer was not directly referring to Black's business but it appears to be shaping up as an admirable proof of his theory, and - surprise! - it involves Washington insiders - Richard Perle, Henry Kissinger et al - with whom we are already all too familiar.

Until last Monday Black was chief executive of Hollinger, which owns, among other things, The Daily Telegraph, the Chicago Sun-Times and the hardline Israeli newspaper The Jerusalem Post. He "resigned" amid revelations that he and his closest affiliates had taken more than $US32 million in payments not authorised by the Hollinger board. Major investors will now begin action to retrieve more than a quarter of a billion dollars in "management fees" and other payments that have gone to Black and his colleagues in recent years. At the same time, the US Securities Exchange Commission has launched a probe, and Hollinger appears to certain to default on a $US120 million bond issue.

So what where the Hollinger board members doing? Why, taking money, of course. Black stacked his board with compliant neocon luminaries such as Richard Perle, the former chair of the Defence Policy Board, advisor to Rumsfeld and a key figure in the rush to war in Iraq. You may recall that Perle quietly resigned this year after the New Yorker's Seymour Hersch showed that he had failed to disclose some fairly startling conflicts of interest.

Rumsfeld has his own ethical problems, of course. As Fortune magazine reported this year, he failed to disclose that he was an active director of the Swiss company that supplied North Korea with two light-water nuclear reactors. Even when he chaired a 1998 congressional panel examining classified data on the potential nuclear threat from North Korea, he told no one of his direct commercial involvement. And he later helped scotch a Clinton plan that would have seen North Korea abandon its nuclear activities in exchange for aid and normalized relationships.

So anyway, a Hollinger company, Hollinger Digital, appears to have been in the business of bunging money to Hollinger board members' companies. Perle's war-and-security business Trireme Partners got $2.5 million. Another Hollinger director, Gerald Hillman, secured a $14 million investment from Hollinger for his own company, Hillman Capital, which is also a partner in Trireme. And Kissinger, a Hollinger board member? A member of Trireme's "strategic advisory committee" - as is Black himself.

I assembled more background on this in the Wide Area News section on the Mediawatch website, which you may wish to check out. Since I did that, this story has emerged, claiming that Hollinger may be rescued from an apparently inevitable break-up and sale - and the very close and potentially embarrassing due diligence that would entail - by The Carlyle Group, a banking operation with close links to both the Pentagon and the Bin Laden family.

Former British Prime Minister John major is a Carlyle director, and its advisors include George Bush Snr and James Baker. Its chief is former Reagan defence secretary Frank Carlucci. Wow. If these people don't want to be the subject of conspiracy theories, they really shouldn't be doing this sort of thing.

The Observer also has a background story that looks at the whole mess.

It all makes the Ahmed Zaoui story back home look like a bit of colonial bumbling - which I suspect it is. The Greens' Keith Locke has called for the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security, Justice Laurie Greig, to be taken off the Zaoui case on account of comments he made in Gordon Campbell's interview with him in this week's Listener. He won't be, of course, but for any number of reasons - including what appears to be a fundamental failure to understand refugee issues, and an appearance that he has prejudged the case - he does not now seem capable of delivering a decision on Zaoui's case that is seen to be safe. Indeed, talking to Hugh on 95bFM this morning, Helen Clark seemed to be quietly welcoming the chance to have this kicked up to the High Court and out of the Kafkaesque world created by National's 1996 legislation. Frankly, I don't think even Winston Peters believes that Zaoui is truly a terrorist.

But, just to show that dissent can make a difference and that sometimes the right thing does happen, huge congratulations are due to Scoop with the news that the state of California will now require electronic voting systems to be backed up by paper ballots. When Alastair Thompson broke the story of the manifold problems with the Diebold voting machines earlier this year, it was ignored by the major media in the US. But because it had merit, and because Alastair and Bev Harris wouldn't let go, it began to stick. It seems likely that other states will follow California's lead - perhaps in time for next year's presidential vote. The American people might not know it, but they really do owe Alastair.

So congratulations to England, then: it was a thrilling World Cup final, if only sporadically one of high-quality rugby. For all the talk about Jonny Wilkinson, I wonder what England will do without the colossal leadership of Martin Johnson. Does anybody know when we get another crack at them so we can shut up the loathsome likes of Stephen Jones?

It's looking like we'll do so without John Mitchell as coach. Even though his team has had a better than 80% success rate and now holds all but one of the trophies for which it is eligible, it may not be good enough. The NZRU has announced a contestable process for the appointment of the next coach. I would be surprised if that wasn't Graham Henry, perhaps with Steve Hansen as his offsider.

And, finally. I dragged my sorry old ass out the door on Friday night to see Scribe play the St James. And I'm glad I did: he's special. It's a long time since I've seen a lead rapper with the clarity and command of the stage that he has - maybe all the way back to KRS-1 at the Brixton Academy. Festival Mushroom's Australian-based chief, Roger Grierson, was at the gig - already frothing about PanAm's set at the Control Room earlier in the evening - and seemed to be having a hell of a time. Scribe's on every leg of the Big Day Out next January, and his album's released in Australia to tie in, on January 16. Watch him go.

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Same again | Nov 21, 2003 12:06

There was a palpable air of unreality about the Bush-Blair press conference in London overnight. Even though events were raging as the two men spoke, the talk was such that it might have been scripted any time in the past few months.

Or, rather, although both Bush and Blair led with comments on the ghastly bombings in Turkey, what they said was the same old thing. In the transcript, Bush uses the word "freedom" 13 times, "free" 25 times, "terror" eight times, "war" three times, "liberty" once and "God" once.

When a reporter asked whether the attacks on the British Consulate and the HSBC building in Istanbul were targeted at their alliance - which, to any sensible observer, they were - Bush effectively ignored the question and Blair eventually insisted the attacks where "directed at anybody who stands in the way of this fanaticism. And that is why our response has got to be to say to them as clearly as we possibly can, you are not going to defeat us because our will to defend what we believe in is actually in the end stronger, better, more determined than your will to inflict damage on an innocent people. Now that is what this whole thing is about."

Yadda-yadda-yadda. They've been making these speeches for two years now, and yet, this week, Turkey suffered its first al-Qaeda-backed terrorist attacks. There have been suspicions that some Qaeda people have passed through Turkey in the past, but hitherto Turkey's terrorism problems have been domestic, and the motivations either ethnic or political. In Turkey, a secular state reshaping itself for entry to the European Union, Islamist terror could find little purchase. But now it does.

This is not a good result, and it ought to raise questions about just who is winning the war of ideas. The proportion of the Turkish public with a favourable view of the US has plummeted from 52% in 2000, to 30% last year to just 12% earlier this year. Somebody's going to fill the gap, aren't they?

Also missing from the cant, as usual, was any mention of Iraqi casualties. There were tributes to British victims of terrorism, and the Americans who died on September 11, and to US soldiers, but, as ever, it's like nobody really died in Iraq. Well, according to a report this week, they did: as many as 55,000 of them by one means or another. Hell, maybe it was worth it: maybe the promise of freedom and a democratic is worth the price in blood. But that's not the argument they make, ever. And that is fundamentally dishonest.

The US tradition of saying one thing and doing another was carried on into trade, with Bush, even as his government picks trade wars with both the EU and China, insisting that his government believes in free trade.

The Washington Post described Bush's new set of quotas on Chinese textiles as a matter of opening a new line of attack against Beijing's trade policies and moving to protect American jobs centred in politically important southern US states." The Chinese were furious. And Rod Donald, speaking to the Otago Daily Times, seemed kind of impressed, and suggested our government should take the same lead and increase tariffs on imported clothing.

A few responses to yesterday's RDS issue. From Adam:

WRT RDS - I am astonished with the negative reaction (your blog, National Radio Morning Report) to the introduction of RDS by ZM in Auckland. I have lived in the UK & France for 9 years until April this year and loved RDS. I found both the station info and traffic announcement features to be highly useful. I didn't own a car, but rented regularly over this period (20- 30 different car/stereo models) - it never took more than a minute to work out how to turn the TA feature on/off and never had a manual to refer to.

I would hate to think this useful feature which I have missed) is taken off air because a few people can't be bothered to work out which button to press to turn it off!

Incidentally I think the comparison with spam is misleading - opt-in email or sms notifications would be a better example (possibly opt-out depending on the stereo's default).

From Zooey:

In Germany it is quite usual for your radio to automatically tune into the closest station for each traffic report (and with the huge problem of congestion there this means you can listen to traffic info for about 10 minutes at a time!).

The reports are introduced and ended with a beep, which is recognised by the radio. You can of course somehow turn this off, but as you say, you need the patience to figure out how.

It is supposed to be a positive service, especially when they inform you of real imminent danger (someone driving on the wrong side of the road on the motorway, or traffic stopped behind a bend). But it is really annoying.

I suppose ZM are just "going with the time"! The next thing should then be for radio stations to send little messages which are displayed on the little digital screen - this is quite a traffic hazard because it's distracting and you have to keep looking at it to see the whole message run past you. Often they just send the name of the song that's playing and artist, but it could of course also be used for advertising purposes.

And from Marie:

I read your hard news and I would like to let you know I enjoy my modern RDS radio. I can ignore the radio as long as I like and just listen to my CDs, but I still catch the traffic reports, which I want.

I like it and if I don't want the traffic stuff, I only have to press one button to turn it off. ZM doesn't control my radio, I do. I decide if I want the reports, not them.

I think you're over-reacting.

So, as Microsoft likes to say, it's a user problem? Maybe. It still seems a poorly conceived system. If everyone in Auckland's geographically-concentrated, overcrowded radio market got RDS-enabled and started beeping, what then? Even if you chose RDS still seems kind of clunky to me. And I agree with Dubber: it's not interactive.

So anyway, the All Blacks did win that no-account play-off, which, if nowt else, will improve their draw at the next World Cup. They showed both some dash - scoring six tries to one - and some worrying frailties: with both qualities expressed in the greatest degree by Carlos Spencer. Let's put the rugby away for the summer, then.

Do we really have to watch England and Australia play the final though? Mark Anderson of Hort Research contacted me about a dream he claims to have had:

It's nil-all after a dull and error-ridden 80 minutes.

The only scoring opportunity occurs 10 minutes into extra time when England are awarded a penalty in front 40 metres out. Unfortunately Jonny Wilkinson has been sent to the blood bin suffering from a heat-induced blood nose. The substitute kicker slips on the dewy surface and sends the ball skidding underneath the crossbar. Nil-all after extra-time it goes to drop kicks. After an hour of droppies the game is still locked up at 3 kicks-a-piece, and the match officials are informed that due to local bye-laws the lights will have to be turned off, and the game will have to be decided by the toss of a coin.

Gregan calls heads and Johnstone tosses. The coin turns over and over and finally lands on the lush Telstra Stadium turf. Wedged in a divet 2/3 of the head side facing upwards, Australia is declared the winner. The English appeal the decision on the basis that the coin wasn't flat, and it should have been thrown again. Lawyers get involved, and the decision goes to court. Eventually, 10 years later, after numerous appeals, the Privy Council decides that neither side deserved to win, and awards the World Cup to the team that came 3rd.

Ah well. At least we know that's us...

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And now ... radio spam! | Nov 20, 2003 12:28

Unacceptable uses of technology department: if you have a modern, RDS-enabled car radio, the ZM Network can - and does - force it to retune to ZM whenever the station broadcasts a traffic update. Yes, they have ways of making you listen.

AUT's Andrew Dubber deals with RDS abuse in his weblog this week, in response to a reader query. "Is it my stereo or is ZM actually Satan?" asks a puzzled punter. "ZM is not Satan," advises Dubber. "They are merely carrying out his work."

The "feature" can be turned off if you have the patience to RTFM. If you don't, write angry letters to the programme director and sales manager, or get used to radio-spam.

Staying with the media - and this week's bout of TV politics - John Drinnan felt I ought to have got in touch with him after relaying Tony Holden's description of his column about the ructions at TVNZ as "flawed and inaccurate". Fair enough, although I did think it was clear enough that the opinion was Holden's own. Anyway, for the record: Drinnan stands by his story.

So who's more desperate? Winston Peters? Or Tony Ryall? Those foreigners make such great political footballs, don't they?

The ruling this week by the highest court in the US state of Massachusetts that same-sex couples have the right to marry under the state constitution has American conservatives up in arms and is apparently likely to become an election issue next year, perhaps even overtaking the familiar bickering about abortion.

Although gay-rights groups are celebrating, the decision hands a big electoral stick to the Republicans: from London, Bush has already pledged to work "to do what is legally necessary to defend the sanctity of marriage." Expect to hear a lot about this from Bush next year, especially if Iraq and the economy go poorly.

The US dollar slumped again this week, leaving our dollar much more highly valued against the greenback than exporters want it. But apparently they're still running a "strong dollar policy". Huh?

The White House wants a new UN resolution to back its new Iraq exit strategy. This might not actually be too hard, given that the great new plan is very similar to the European proposal that US officials dismissed out of hand earlier this year …

And so to tonight's play off for third and fourth place in the World Cup: a dazzling performance against an under-strength French side might ease the pain a little, but the weather does not look promising. I'm not sure if I'll watch the final at all this weekend, but I have decided that I want Australia to win. Two reasons: if England wins, Murdoch will use that to screw down the Sanzar nations in the forthcoming sports-rights haggling. And the horrible English press will be insufferable if their side wins.

It has been interesting - and pleasing - to see a general determination her to take the World Cup loss in stride, rather than collapse into a national funk, the way people did when our athletes failed to win an unspecified number of medals at the Sydney Olympics in 2000. Perhaps we have moved on from that sort of thing, and we have other things to feel good about.

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Thunder Out West | Nov 19, 2003 11:27

That's not an earthquake you felt in Henderson. Rather, management at South Pacific Pictures was jumping up and down about yesterday's observation here that TVNZ's relationship problems with independent producers were such that SPP "appeared to be having second thoughts about a continuing emphasis on TV production".

Looks like I'm in the cactus with Barney again. I'm not removing what I said - that would be a bit silly now - so I suggested that they could send me something I could use. Which they did:

We would very much like to see your comment online removed. If you are not willing to do this, we would like to see this statement published in the same column.

"To say that is absolutely untrue. South Pacific Pictures has never had second thoughts about continuing the emphasis on television production. It's just not true," says South Pacific Pictures Chief Operating Officer, Andrew Shaw.

South Pacific Pictures is New Zealand's most prolific television and film drama production company, and the maker of New Zealand's longest-running television drama, Shortland Street.

The company has never considered changing its emphasis away from television production, as stated online by Russell Brown. South Pacific Pictures continues to produce television, including the new production NZ Idol, and continues to develop new ideas and projects for both television networks in New Zealand and for overseas partners.

Well, I didn't say they were bailing out. But if you look at the in-development section of SPP's website, you won't find any new TV dramas. There's Sione's Wedding, a feature film (to screen later on TV3); a four-part doco on Captain Cook; a feature film called Rosalind Franklin: The Dark Lady of DNA; and Jonah, an animated cartoon featuring Jonah Lomu as a superhero. Mataku will be coming back, but with a different production company, and the last series of the excellent Mercy Peak has already been produced, with 10 episodes left to screen (TVNZ churlishly declined to promote the last season in any other media). Another SPP drama in development with TVNZ (possibly the Tom Scott thing) was scratched earlier this year when the new team moved in.

So the observation that a continuing emphasis on TV production - for those who have a choice - wasn't a given seems reasonable enough, given the widespread gloom in the screen production sector about TVNZ's recent direction, and the fact that TVNZ has been encouraging writers to pitch to it directly. God, I'm glad I don't have to dwell in TV politics all the time …

Speaking of which, the actual wording of yesterday's announcement about Marty Behrens' departure from TVNZ was: "Ian has accepted Marty's resignation with regret, having agreed that their respective visions for TVNZ are different." Some people think events were probably hastened along by Fraser's intervention last week with a press release which read:

Ian Fraser says TVNZ has taken on board the constructive suggestions from today's Screen Production Industry Taskforce report. He says he is well aware that the Company needs to do more to cement its relationship with the independent screen production industry and is very focused on that objective.

"In fact this year we have been putting considerable effort into improving our engagement with the creative community. We are proactively communicating our plans for future television content and working on greater transparency and rigor in our commissioning process".

Ian Fraser says TVNZ is absolutely committed to the Company's Statement of Intent to work cooperatively and cohesively with the independent production sector and "that is exactly what we mean to do".

It was probably the "needs to do more" that did the trick. Expect to hear more on this one.

Tze Ming Mok got in touch to point out that while Salam Pax is busy playing around with digicams, Riverbend's Iraq blog Baghdad Burning, was recommended for regularity, consistency of presence in Baghdad, and quality of writing - not as many jokes, but perfect spelling & grammar, and a seriously squinty-eyed analysis. That's what we like from 24 year-old nerd girls." Quite right - I haven't looked at Riverbend for a while, and she's really come on. She also points to Continuing Collateral Damage: The health and environmental costs of war on Iraq. From the executive summary:

The war on Iraq and its aftermath exacted a heavy toll on combatants and civilians, who paid and continue to pay the price in death, injury and mental and physical ill health. Between 21,700 and 55,000 people died between March 20 and October 20, 2003 (the date on which this report went to press), while the health and environmental consequences of the conflict will be felt for many years to come.

It had to happen: Microsoft is moving into the online music retail market. The Slashdot discussion is as full of fear and loathing as you'd expect. Meanwhile, the most popular digital download in America last week, Outkast's 'Hey Ya', sold 8000 copies, while the top-selling CD single, MercyMe's 'I Can Only Imagine' sold only 7000. The numbers say more about the state of the singles market than anything else, but it's an interesting milestone.

And, finally, in the surely-some-mistake department, a panel of experts assembled by Q magazine has named the greatest song ever recorded: U2's 'One'. Say what?

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Roiled Families | Nov 18, 2003 10:54

Breaking! I guess something had to give at TVNZ - and it's the not-so-quiet American, Marty Behrens. Behrens has just announced his resignation as head of business development on account of "differences of opinion and approach" with the CEO, Ian Fraser.

Behrens has been the driving force behind a new, more hard-nosed approach to intellectual property at TVNZ, much to the consternation of independent producers. My reading is that the new commissioning protocols aren't as bad as some of the producers maintain (my sympathy for Julie Christie is limited at the best of times), but the breakdown in relationships - to the point where South Pacific Pictures appeared to be having second thoughts about a continuing emphasis on TV production - has been fairly serious. John Drinnan's column in the NBR - even though Tony Holden maintains it is flawed and inaccurate - may have finally tipped the balance.

Back in September, Mediawatch looked at TVNZ vs The Independent Producers, and interviewed Behrens and Holden.

Britain has its royal family and its hangers-on to deliver the media a steady flow of power games, curious behaviour and damaged relationships. New Zealand, it appears, has the National Party.

So Nick Smith returned from his stress leave yesterday to confirm that he no longer had the confidence of his party leader - or the caucus - and resigned, after 21 days, as deputy leader.

Judging by Smith's curious appearance on the Holmes show last night they didn't have much choice. Frankly, he didn't look well. His head was tilted, his face looked flushed and puffy, and his eyes didn't always appear to be pointing in the same direction. God knows what his legs were doing under the desk. He blathered on about loyalty even as he appeared to cast doubt on his party's new leadership. I felt a bit sorry for him.

Smith's colleagues certainly don't appear to have been shy about dishing it while he was off having a lie-down. There was talk about his behaviour around the leadership vote that delivered Don Brash to the senior position. On the V, apparently:

Sources say he clashed with whip John Carter, began referring to himself as "the general" and was hugging and kissing staff for no reason.

MP Shane Ardern said yesterday: "He had gone four or five days without sleep. Somebody said to me he was knocking back that V drink at about four cans an hour to try and go without sleep."

Yet it appears that Smith, having been sent away to calm down by Brash, might have a genuine grievance as regards being undermined in his absence. Murray McCully, unsurprisingly, seems to have been in it up too his elbows. The thing is, what was Brash thinking when he appointed Smith as his deputy after only four hours as leader?

As I write, Gerry Brownlee is being sworn in as National's all-new deputy leader, making one old chap very unhappy. Brownlee, apparently, "loves sport and the Doobie brothers." It's be interesting to see how long it takes the party to reshuffle the pecking order on its website.

But activity in one limb of the body politic demands action in another. And New Zealand First - doubtless alarmed by the flight of its support to National according to post-Brash polls - is responding in its time-honoured fashion: with cynical appeals to public fear and bigotry. A risible full-page ad in the Sunday News this week played the usual cards - crime, immigration, race, the Treaty - and a few new ones: prostitution law reform, the Privy Council and, you guessed it, genetic modification.

It's the same on their website, where there is a "poll" on GE. Having contributed nothing at all to the GM debate - apart from bagging the Greens for having "no understanding of our how our democracy works" (the new line, of course is that "our democracy" is in fact a "dictatorship" but Winston has never let inconsistency bother him) and releasing non-statements like this one calling for "calm and reasoned debate … to see if there is any logical reason to extend the moratorium on the commercial release of GE organisms" - the party has smelled the fear and piled in on GE. Give me the Greens any day - at least they know what they believe in.

Actually it can be hard to know what New Zealand First does believe in - at least until Winston has had a chance to see which way public opinion is breaking so he can chase it. Its MPs (challenge: name more than three of them) release utterly meaningless press statements like this little classic from Craig McNair: "… this Government is continually missing the point when it comes to New Zealand's horrendous youth drug and crime statistics … The question must be asked – Where are we going wrong with these kids? There is certainly no clear answer …"

Uh, yeah, whatever. We're paying him for this?

Anyway, the embarrassment builds in advance of Bush's visit to London, with the Daily Mirror branding him a chicken for cancelling his speech to the British Parliament (check the comments at the bottom) and eyebrows raised at home at his decision to grant an interview with The Sun, "a British tabloid that features daily photographs of nude women."

Anyway: it appears that Salam Pax hasn't been blogging because he's back in London again. Just a brief new post looking forward to the Bush visit:

Bush will be in London on tuesday and there will be a huge demo. the anti-war gang changed their signs from stop war to stop bush which i find funny. really need suggestions for my banner, at the moment i am considering dressing up as one of the spice girls and singing "who do you think you are?" while waving a pink feather boa, that would attract some attention i guess.

Salon has a really good interview with the head of Amnesty International USA: what does the liberal left do about terrorism?

Tracey Nelson gets it right on the World Cup semi-final, I think: there's no real evidence of choking as such, just a failure by the All Blacks to impose their pattern on the game as a result of too many errors, too static an approach on attack, and a lack of a Plan B when, for the first time this season, Plan A didn't work. It's hard to escape the conclusion that Australia just got up and played really, really well. Although Tracey's game stats do show that Thorne missed four tackles in the course of the game and made only eight. What was that about?

Oh, and I got a prompt reply from Rob Malda, after I emailed him to say thanks for choosing Public Address for the NetGuide Award:

"No problem, dug your site!"

Dude!

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Whatever | Nov 17, 2003 10:45

If a car can be driven glumly, then glumly were piloted the vehicles on Auckland's slick streets around midnight on Saturday night. I found myself imagining the moods of my countrymen as they wandered home from where they'd been: how did that happen?

Indeed, no fewer than three times on the trip home, I was seized with the thought that it hadn't. That it had all been a horrible dream, and the Rugby World Cup semi-final was yet to be played. But no. It had happened. And the All Blacks had lost.

Australia were magnificent. By a combination of a superior will to win and some fairly basic assumptions about the pattern of All Black play they shut the New Zealanders out of the game. By the same token, the All Blacks - and particularly the forward pack that went so well last week - failed to meet the challenge.

It's not at all to deny the result to wonder how things might have been different had Muliaina's try been given in the first few minutes, and, consequently, Stirling Mortlock not had the chance to intercept Spencer's pass and run 85 metres to score. The Wallabies weren't able to design a try of their own, but having been gifted one, they had the lead and the belief to hold it.

Taken over a whole season's form, there are still relatively few individual All Black players you'd swap for their Wallaby opposites. The Australians have been bullied all year, in the Super 12 and then the Tri-Nations. Yet on Saturday night, Justin Harrison outplayed Chris Jack and Elton Flatley - a backline plodder if ever there was - made Aaron Mauger look like a schoolboy. Phil Waugh was the best loose forward on the park, and the All Blacks, needing a blood-curdling Buck Shelford, had a Reuben Thorne.

Should the All Black coaching staff be dismissed? I'm undecided, but I can't help but feel that Mitchell and Deans placed so much emphasis on a strategy of shovelling the ball wide, whatever, and didn't have a Plan B. Compare it to the way the Blues won this year: not just through thrilling counter-attack, but through Spencer pinning back opposition teams with his kicking. Was that not an option on Saturday night?

Whoever is coaching them - and the next coach really has to be Graham Henry - the All Blacks will quite likely hold both the Tri-Nations and the Bledisloe Cup next year, and look sharp doing it. But - again - they'll have choked in the late stages of a World Cup. I'm a little over the great New Zealand tradition of heroic failure in this instance.

The loss is all the more bad because it will now be decried by a chorus of whingers as evidence of … well, something. "Take your pick of modern "isms" - populism, socialism, me too-ism, not fair-ism, free ride-ism - they all add up to mediocrity," bitched David Kirk. I'm sorry, but this is garbage: it's a sports team, they lost. The idea that creeping socialism has somehow undermined a team that is sponsored to the tune of $20 million annually by a global sports brand is bogus.

The Sunday Star Times' World Chumps lead story quoted Macquarie Equities investment director Arthur Lim as saying that the defeat was likely to dent the economy this, week as people would be spending less: "It's bound to have an impact because if people are feeling depressed about the result and down in the dumps they don't tend to do anything and just mope around."

Speak for yourself, chum. I got out yesterday and spent money on things that made me feel good: we took the kids up the Sky Tower for the hell of it, then to McDonald's. I popped into Seamart, and had a glass of wine - well, more than one - on the deck in the afternoon. It wasn't a bad day. And it is only a game.

The shame of it is that the 95bFM alternative commentary went really well on Saturday night. Thanks for all the emails and texts from everywhere: shame we won't get a chance to do even better. (And no, we won't be covering the third-fourth play-off. That game gives me the creeps.)

Anyway, the National Party might have had a chance of exploiting some public disillusionment this week had not been tying itself in knots again, fixing to fire the deputy leader it picked only three weeks ago. Sadly, Nick Smith is being challenged by his former ally Gerry Brownlee. Wadda party.

Still, the weekend wasn't a dead loss. On Friday night, Public Address won a NetGuide Web Award - Best Personal Blog. Almost better than winning was fact that the judge was Rob Malda - aka Cmdr Taco, the co-founder of Slashdot, and he had nice things to say about us. I was truly thrilled.

The bloggers named as finalists in the category seemed pretty happy too: Michelle at The JamJar was flabbergasted, Idiot/Savant at NoRightTurn was pleased and surprised and Lukas Svoboda (a very interesting geek, even if he is aligned to the Dark Side) thought it was pretty cool.

Anyway, thanks and cheers to NetGuide and to all the people who make Public Address what it is, especially our developers, CactusLab, who also had The Listener as a finalist in the Best New Site category. Appropriately enough, the award comes in the same week as we turn one year old. Onwards and upwards …

Key entertainment of the week is likely to be Bush's visit to London - the first full state visit by an American president. There are all kinds of theories as to why it was organised in the first place - from the Bush campaign team wanting pictures of their boy with The Queen to a set-up by antagonistic State Department officials - but almost everyone is predicting a media debacle.

The trick for the Bush spin team will be to keep the full horror of British perceptions of Bush from their domestic audience. The Sunday Times YouGov poll this weekend asked respondents which characteristics they most associated with him,: 60% said he was a danger to world peace, 37% said "stupid" and 33% said "incoherent". Ouch.

A less prominent poll of South Americans released over the weekend was even worse. In Brazil, Latin America's largest country, 98% gave Bush a negative mark. In Mexico - a neighbour and key trading partner - only 5% of people had a positive view of him.

A new report from the Pew Surveys indicates that under Bush the US is becoming a more sharply divided country than it has ever been. The national unity of 2001 has been burned up by the same factors that sent America's image plummeting in the rest of the world.

And finally, thanks for the feedback on the spamming - just once - of our feedback form. Two items of interest: Jamil, who was a bFM news volunteer last year, is working in Shanghai as the editor of a magazine called China Economic Review. He reckons "there is a very high likelihood that they have hired someone to manually post spam to people. Apparently it is quite common here. Labour costs are not a concern in China." And this story about the rise of comment spam and how the blog world is trying to combat it.

Anyway, be happy, spend a little money to treat yourself, and look forward to summer. It's alright …

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