Hard News: Media3: Whistleblower Season
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Rob Hosking, in reply to
It's not sinister to be highly sensitive to the idea that sources don't always come forth out of some disinterested interest in Truth, Justice and the Public Good. That's Journalism 101, and it shouldn't go on hold just because someone calls themselves a 'whistleblower'.
I'd say never. I've believed for a long time the words 'No One Is Innocent' should be blowtorched on the wall of every newsroom.
Everyone who approaches a journalist with a story has an agenda, often a very dodgy one. The test isn't whether the source is as pure as Bo Peep, but whether (a) they're telling the truth and (b) there's a genuine public interest in the matter at hand being made public.
And yeah, that LRB of article on the Beeb...very disturbing. Many years back I worked with an ex-pat Pom who covered that trial in the 1970s mentioned. He mentioned a few names of secret witnesses, only one which I recall because it was so damn famous.
I strongly suspect this scandal has only just started to run.
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I think we should put all this in context with the level of obstruction and obfuscation that we are seeing around OIA and LGOIMA requests. Rather than having a more open and transparent central and local government we are getting the opposite.
When dealing with the supercity formation I was constantly surprised at the steps the ATA took to not divulge information and this was particularly supported by senior managers at Auckland City.
Many of the ATA managers came from Watercare, who was not subject to LGOIMA, and they certainly had no desire to be open with the public of Auckland. Some very senior people had to be told by DIA that, for example, as their expenses at the ATA were discoverable via OIA, things like lunches at the Northern Club on a Friday afternoon were out. (You can't LGOIMA the expenses of the Watercare CEO like you can do the CEOs of other Auckland Council CCO CEOs)
We have been left with an Auckland Council that has kept the closed attitude of the ATA and old Auckland City.
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Sacha, in reply to
The test isn't whether the source is as pure as Bo Peep, but whether (a) they're telling the truth and (b) there's a genuine public interest in the matter at hand being made public.
Nicky Hager agrees with you on this in the show, and talks about building a relationship with a source to establish their integrity as a person.
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Kumara Republic, in reply to
I think we should put all this in context with the level of obstruction and obfuscation that we are seeing around OIA and LGOIMA requests. Rather than having a more open and transparent central and local government we are getting the opposite.
And contrast that with a recent next-day OIA release from Paula Bennett to the Oily One.
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According to John Drinnan...
Slater's right wing Whale Oil Beef Hooked is New Zealand's most popular and arguably the most news focused blog.
It must be true, it was int' Herald.
Yeah right, I'm sure Russell would have the numbers to dispute that.
As to the BBC "Scandal" We are talking about another time, a time where parents said things like "Don't accept sweets from strangers" and everybody knew that actors were "a bit funny". There was no such thing as a Scoutmaster who didn't enjoy the company of young boys and every family had a dodgy uncle.
It wasn't a case of people turning a blind eye it was more that nobody cared that much and it was just a part of life. Nobody considered those fiddled with were victims, nobody considered that such actions could lead to a damaged life, that as soon as somebody touched a younger person that life was ruined.
I know of people who laugh and joke about the time they took the piss out of the old guy in the park who wanted to take them in the bushes for a "Medical exam" so they could be in his football team. We all knew but we didn't take it seriously because we knew it was mostly harmless, if you wanted to see damaged lives you only had to look at the likes of Hindley and Brady.
I would stand by the statement that more harm is done by the "Think of the Children" brigade than dirty old Uncle Norm and that more damage is done by those insisting that if someone touches you you are fucked up for life.
Argue as much as you like but I speak from experience, I grew up with it and I was not in the minority. It would not surprise me if the "List of Offenders" grew so big that we would have to admit it was statistically normal. -
Sacha, in reply to
recent next-day OIA release from Paula Bennett to the Oily One
On the #wtfmsd thread, news Keith is pursuing that matter.
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Hebe, in reply to
Nicky Hager agrees with you on this in the show, and talks about building a relationship with a source to establish their integrity as a person.
That's old-school journalism: knowing who's in your patch, on professional and personal levels, their connections and history. Rarely happens now with the electronic newsroom and the clock-in mentality of most news organisations and the time pressures that mean most reporters are judged on the number of words they crank out, not the quality of the words.
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Excellent Media3 today. But I still reckon that Jose need a show ofhis own...I want to hear the conclusion of the story about the turtle and the ute!
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Ian Dalziel, in reply to
Down wit’ da kidz…
It would not surprise me if the “List of Offenders” grew so big that we would have to admit it was statistically normal.
Which maybe explains why John Key, finds it necessary to impress young christian boarding schoolgirls, by using words like batshit, while endorsing and modelling classic bullying behaviour, by illustrating that it’s ok to denigrate and belittle people who have done you a kindness… (especially if you think you’ll get a cheap laugh out of it – and Key is proving to be the King of Cheap Laughs, to our expense!)
All this before racing off to a 5 charity hour golf match – what a man, what a leader! -
The irony of denigrating a man's intelligence with a malapropism.
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Ian Dalziel, in reply to
I teed off worng…
5 charity hour golf match
er, 5 hour charity golf match…
a salt and battery…
…but to be extra charitable, Key allowed a local
fish & chip shop proprietor to beat him.
Bend me, shape me, shame me….The irony of denigrating a man’s intelligence with a malapropism
Priceless.
It’s not like he just uses the wrong words, but he also seems to use the wrong worlds!
I suspect John Key’s porn star name would be a mere anagram – Honey JK… – and that he’d be comfortable with that.
I heard Paula Bennett the other night, apparently stunned – “It seems incredulous to me that it wasn’t escalated to the right people,’’ she said.
Good to see her self diagnostic programs are running on top.
Kinda like some of the computerised roadside sign boards that proliferate in Chchch, giving latest local route information, I spotted one the other day, on the Bealey & Fitzgerald aves cnr, flashing out: “LOOKING FOR NETWORK”, evocative of the bleak way forward here perhaps, but otherwise not very helpful… -
Joe Wylie, in reply to
I heard Paula Bennett the other night, apparently stunned – “It seems incredulous to me that it wasn’t escalated to the right people,’’ she said.
The same "right people" who maintain the pious fraud that the feeble-minded 'Minister' actually makes the decisions that are attributed to her? They were probably too busy scraping the barrel for the next installment of this kind of hagiographic hogwash.
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Sofie Bribiesca, in reply to
by illustrating that it’s ok to denigrate and belittle people who have done you a kindness…
By this"Batshit" Herald article, it just goes to show , the Beckham camp is alive and well smart and aware of er.. whatsshisname.
But a source close to Beckham claimed he barely remembers meeting Key.
"David isn't sure he spent much time with him at all," the source said. "He remembers the previous leader Helen Clark a lot better."
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BenWilson, in reply to
It’s not like he just uses the wrong words, but he also seems to use the wrong worlds!
Yes, maybe on Planet Key, pigs fly like bats, leaving thick deposits.
I suspect John Key’s porn star name would be a mere anagram – Honey JK… – and that he’d be comfortable with that.
Nah it's John "The Don" Key. He thought it referred to his knob, but actually it was because he was always responsible for the ass.
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Sofie Bribiesca, in reply to
Excelerant! . ;)
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There has been a lot of discussion in U.S. media commentary this week on insider narrative vs. big data narrative. It has been building from mid-October where the insider political narrative of a Romney surge and a neck and neck race stopped matching the results that the poll analysis people were getting. It has grown increasingly heated over the past week, but has also grown into a discussion of the importance of insider perspectives versus large scale analysis of public sources.
While insider sources is not the same thing as whistleblowers, I thought the parallels in discussion have been interesting. -
BenWilson, in reply to
"David isn't sure he spent much time with him at all," the source said. "He remembers the previous leader Helen Clark a lot better."
Yes, Key just melted back into the long line of other Johns, like the 251st guy in Annabel Chong's lineup (or perhaps the 50th, scholars dispute this point).
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Steve Barnes, in reply to
It’s not like he just uses the wrong words, but he also seems to use the wrong worlds!
Guano by lunchtime? we can only hope.
I spotted one the other day, on the Bealey & Fitzgerald aves cnr, flashing out: “LOOKING FOR NETWORK”,
I saw one last week with ALL the lights on at once, gleaming like a rectangular rising sun, I thought "Too much information".
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Steve Barnes, in reply to
insider narrative vs. big data narrative.
Typical of any Right Wing Party, the Big Lie technique employed by these manipulators of public opinion.
John Key's dismissive denigration of his opponents is just another form of the self important bully boy tactics employed by other thuggish tyrants.
Makes Jimmy Saville look positively angelic. -
"Big Data". Love the term. Especially since you always want your big data to be actually small. Is that a thumb drive in your pocket or am I just not your type?
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Ian Dalziel, in reply to
“Too much information”
white noise...
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Steve Barnes, in reply to
white noise…
The Hissing of Summer Lawns.
We don't need no stinkin' information
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So … am I the only person here who had never heard of Jimmy Savile before this all became public?
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Joe Wylie, in reply to
So … am I the only person here who had never heard of Jimmy Savile before this all became public?
That's got to be good for a 'knock knock' joke.
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Steve Barnes, in reply to
That’s got to be good for a ‘knock knock’ joke.
How do you Knock on a Bouncy Castle?.
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