Posts by Lew Stoddart
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Hard News: A week being a long time in politics, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
And, yes, I make no apologies for being *cough* disturbed that I listened to three hours of Morning Report nine days before the general election and there was no policy-related campaign stories. Why aren’t you, Lew?
I don’t lament the lack of policy-focused coverage in the media too loudly because (a) I think there’s a reasonably substantive policy discourse, especially on Radio NZ, and (b) things other than policy matter, and in some cases other things matter a great deal more than policy. The political character of our leadership is an example of that, and a matter that the public has an interest in. As I get sick of arguing, and as people probably get sick of reading, if you’re not a wonkish subject-matter expert you’re probably better making your political decisions on the basis of broad brushstrokes signalling general policy direction and signals related to personality, character and political/institutional competence than on the nitty-gritty technical details. This is not a very fashionable view, but it is what the National party has been campaigning on, and I’ve been telling Labour they should shift their strategy in this direction.
So at the very least I’m consistent. Which is more than can be said for most Tories when it comes to this case (yourself notably excluded).
L
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Hard News: A week being a long time in politics, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
Craig, don't take it personal -- I know more Tories than you, and you're nowhere close to the worst offender.
Perhaps a lot of people don't give a shit. Maybe it's turning into a "pox on both your houses" issue which will simply depress voter engagement with politics. I'm not so sure, and even if they claim to not give a shit, there's still an awful lot of McCombsian agenda domination going on here, and ultimately, the pageviews don't lie.
L
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Hard News: A week being a long time in politics, in reply to Danyl Mclauchlan,
There’s a gap between what people think they’re supposed to think, and report back to pollsters and what they actually think and base their private voting behaviour on.
This is really crucial. It’s especially interesting in the context of the “Spiral of Silence” phenomenon Chris Trotter made reference to the other week in his (flawed) critique of opinion polls. Flawed in the general case, but I think his analysis is stronger on this point: the release of internal polling data (which is very unusual) in this way can be viewed as a form of moral suasion, a signal that if you care about this topic then you’re in the minority, out of touch, obsessed with trivia and so on.
Precisely what every single Tory I know has been saying all week, with a substantial side-helping of “you should be ashamed of yourselves”. Bless.
L
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Hard News: Criminalising Journalism, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
Craig, obviously one bogus comparison justifies the tac-nuke of bogus comparisons.
L
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This thread’s spirited defence of the distinction between a randy, manipulative septuagenarian who, for all his faults, has stepped down from his role as head of government willingly and peacefully – and three of the four most brutal dictators of recent human history, plus another one who’s still in power, has given me unexpected hope this morning. Thanks Keir, Chris and Matthew.
L
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Oh, and the other thing about stadium atmosphere – even crowd noise is cued in. They ‘seed’ cheering, applause and so forth through the PA system so you know how to respond. I don't know if they do it here, but it’s apparently common overseas.
It’s all mass arousal/quiescence and crowd dynamics. (And you know who else was good at mass arousal and crowd dynamics? Yeah.)
L
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Hard News: The Sound of Music, in reply to Paul Webber,
I get it that the IRB (and also the bozos running Super XV and Tri Nations games) think that there is a need to entertain the crowd and produce the best possible atmosphere
There is some merit to this. While the Black Eyed fucking Peas have been pissing me off as much as the next reasonable person, I vividly recall a moment of realisation late on the second day of the Wellington Sevens, just on dusk, right at peak euphoria time, when the DJ miscued and played more than a few opening bars of some bit of offensive rock I didn't recognise -- and the crowd started to turn from boisterous to nasty. Atmosphere in a situation of such mass arousal, where everyone is hooked into a common mood, can be a powerful thing, and the wrong atmosphere can be dangerous.
I think he faded out to 'No Woman No Cry' or something, and everyone got on with ignoring the games.
L
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Hard News: The Politics of Absence, in reply to Lew Stoddart,
Then again, I just called Labour's attacks on Leitch this cycle's 'The Gambler' moment, so maybe the musical path is best left untraversed for now.
L
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The Sex Pistols wrote a song about this sort of thing, which has some potential as the basis of a countercampaign:
L
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OnPoint: Set it on fire, then, in reply to Kyle Matthews,
Kyle, what is done in other sectors is irrelevant. If you want to save them, you do what will save them. I'm arguing a lesser reform imposed by a Labour government could have obviated the oblivion SAs now face. It's not a very contentious argument.
Perhaps it would have failed, but then at least Labour would have made a positive attempt to fix the well-documented problems within student associations. But they preferred to pretend the rot wasn't happening, bet against the Douglas bill being drawn from the ballot, and then make a great show of dying in a ditch with months of idiotic procedural games which were never going to prevent the bill's passage, because we have a parliamentary system that is pretty filibuster-proof.
L