Posts by Craig Ranapia

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  • Hard News: The Soap Opera,

    I am also with Joanna about the multi-tasking. My flatmates often drag the ol laptop into the living room to do something productive during all of the downtime during the news. I hardly ever watch the news at all.

    OK, am I the only person who does this: Channel surfs between One and Three for the first ten minutes or so, then turns the television off? I don't the platform really matters - like it or not, the days when one television station, one radio station, and one (perhaps two) newspapers were the 'gatekeepers' that defined what all the news that's fit to print for everone are gone. Don't really miss them either. As I said on another thread, recently, I don't actually bother wringing my hands too much over the idea that (if this makes any sense) the balance of media power is shifting. And that includes people just turning off.

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report

  • Hard News: The Soap Opera,

    However, I still say give you, Keith Ng, RB (who should be head of the new digi TV unit) and Craig and whoever else who isn't evil, a handicam, a credit card and a licence to shoot.

    No no no,... If I was providing content on expenses, I'd be holed up in a suite at the Adlon and stalking Lloud Jones right about now. Sod APEC and the RWC - annoying Booker shortlisted authors is my idea of public service television. :)

    I do think that a stronger minister in a more popular government would probably have shrugged off this story though.

    You're probably right; though, not for the first time, I find myself wondering what the hell has happened to Clark's once-formidable political radar. Putting partisan schadenfreude aside for a nanosecond, I can't understand why the PM bothered giving a one day wonder legs.

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report

  • Hard News: The Soap Opera,

    Morning Report chose instead to give John Key a chance to create a new mini (sterial) scandal.

    FFS, James, do you also blame John Key when it rains? I'm sorry (and I'm sure many will argue the toss), but O'Connor's rather poor judgement that touches on a pportfo racked by(far from trivial)scandals was a perfectly legitimate story - not least because Helen Clark has been quite happy to comment on it, and not only on Morning Report today either.

    I know Key is the anti-Christ and the media are all his tame bitches, but really...

    As for APEC, I'm mildly surprised that anyone bothers sending reporters to an event more tightly stage managed and pre-spun than your average All Blacks presser.

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report

  • Hard News: The Soap Opera,

    Under Ralston's watch TVNZ threw away their priceless advantage of "mini-BBC" gravitas and authority and deliberately decided their news was just another vehicle for delivering viewers to advertisers and to market their "reality" shows.

    Well, I guess Ralston's as good a scapegoat as anyone... what a shame it just isn't true. While a TVNZ Trust is interesting, I don't think it really addresses the central reality that folks who wax nostalgic about the BBC forget to mention that their news service and high end drama (and the latter doesn't seem to happen without a co-production deal in place first, nowadays) costs a SHITLOAD OF MONEY, and it's got to come from somwhere.

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report

  • Speaker: It's On,

    I will say to Craig though, we are fully allowed to complain about the refs if they don't do their job correctly.

    Sure - far be it from me to crush anyone's dissent. (Though the prospect of sports talkback being reduced to dead air is a most attractive one.) :) But I don't really want to hear it from the ABs or management; if they want to really be role models, instead of Powerade-shilling underwear models, they should act like it - including grace under pressure, and basic good sportsmanship.

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report

  • Hard News: Friday funnies, mostly,

    I think for Oz and the US they're really driving at the no nuke weapons policy and see nuclear power as a wedge they could drive in here. But as you say, I bet they don't really give it much thought most of the time, and plugging nuclear is really about justifying why they have so much of it.

    Meh... I'm not convinced Australia and the US even really give that much of a shit about our 'iconic' nuclear weapons policy. I just have to wonder if among all the hot air around 'climate change', anyone is going to be raising the subject with Hu Jintao? Or is China's frankly appalling environmental record another one of those pesky 'sensitivities' we avoid at all cost?

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report

  • Speaker: It's On,

    He fails to understand that most All Black fans (and most Kiwis for that matter) don't warm to people who talk themselves up or whinge when the tide turns.

    Well, I certainly hope the AB's - and the press pack - are going to avoid whinging about the refs. Perhaps I'm a bit of a reactionary on that score, but I think there's a time and a place to raise any issues you have with the call. Squealing like a stick pig in a presser isn't it. Here's a nutty notion: You lose because the other team scored more points, and not because the ref is a spiteful loon on day release from the Blind Institute.

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report

  • Speaker: It's On,

    (Holy shit. I just wrote a comment about rugby.)

    Signed off with a Smiths song title, no less. Snap-ity, snap, snap, snap!

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report

  • Speaker: It's On,

    what the hell does he want, a life-time supply of glory?

    Of course he does, you silly pudding. And I want to shag Daniel Carter until his eyes pop out, but that's not going to happen either.

    As for the Brits being "very receptive of their players", WTF planet is he on? Like politicians, I think Kiwi sportspeople who bitch and whinge about the media would have their heads explode if they had to deal with the Brits or Oz media in full lynch-mode.

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report

  • Hard News: Geeky Thursday again,

    Any way, completely random occasion for happy happy joy joy:

    Lloyd Jones' Mister Pip comes from behind and makes the Booker shortlist!

    The judges of the Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2007 have announced this year’s six shortlisted novels.

    The six titles shortlisted are:

    * Darkmans by Nicola Barker (Fourth Estate)
    * The Gathering by Anne Enright (Jonathan Cape)
    * The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid (Hamish Hamilton)
    * Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones (John Murray)
    * On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan (Jonathan Cape)
    * Animal’s People by Indra Sinha (Simon & Schuster)

    The shortlist of six was announced today at a press conference at Man Group plc in London. Following the meeting, Howard Davies, Chair of Judges commented:

    “Selecting a shortlist this year from what was widely seen as an exciting longlist was a tough challenge. We hope the choices we have made after passionate and careful consideration, will attract wide interest.”

    Ian McEwan’s name on the shortlist will not surprise many with On Chesil Beach being the bookies’ favourite since the longlist was announced last month.

    William Hill only just slashed its odds yesterday on New Zealander Lloyd Jones’ Mister Pip from 20/1 to 5/1 following a surge on betting and online sales through Amazon.

    Think it's the first time in years I've actually read and enjoyed anything on the Booker shortlist... Huzzah!

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report

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