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Posted at 8:55AM on 8 Sep 08. Permalink.

"Gang-rape" is the new "Criticism"?

Posted at 9:08AM on 8 Sep 08. Permalink.

In her Herald on Sunday column, Deborah Coddington essentially apologises for the hurt her notorious Asian Angst story caused

I'm not even willing to give her that much credit. Essentially, even without the "gang rape" fuckwittery, it was the same old passive-agressive voice "I'm so sorry you're offended" drivel that's become a staple of PR spin.

She appears to be exactly the kind of person the world doesn't need in the White House: a religious zealot prone to abuse of executive power, and in the pocket of extraction industries. We should dread to think how that "doctrine" might read.

Well, the point is you don't really know what the hell Palin thinks about any substantive policy area -- and I'm pretty sure that's exactly how the McCain campaign wants it:

Rick Davis, campaign manager for John McCain's presidential bid, insisted that the presidential race will be decided more over personalities than issues during an interview with Post editors this morning.

"This election is not about issues," said Davis. "This election is about a composite view of what people take away from these candidates."

That's the real Palin Doctrine. And I find it amusing that the same O'Sullivan who blasted John Key as "Helen Clark in drag" a few weeks ago is holding up this empty pant suit as any kind of role model.

Posted at 9:09AM on 8 Sep 08. Permalink.

Oh, I was totally just ready to pop in with a short guest post out of retirement, because I was just so goddam provoked like the weakling I am. I'll just keep my comments here...

Firstly, politicians and journalists who feel a bit persecuted as a result of their own stupid actions should really just STFU with the "media rape" talk. It insults real survivors of rape and it makes them look deluded.

You may notice the ironic online sidebar to the Coddington article, actually referring to Winston Peters: 'related nzherald links: John Armstrong: When all else fails, play the victim card.'

I can't tell from Coddington's 'apology' article which category I fall under - the offended community members to whom she is apologising? Or the sadistic media bandwagon gang-rapists who will never be happy, because you offended them again by calling them gang-rapists? Keith and Charles Mabbett, who were at the panel session Coddington writes of, are in the same boat. We all had a hand in the media responses *and* the actual complaints. Keith is now working for his very own [Redacted Place] so perhaps cannot inform us whether Coddington greeted him at the panel discussion with a cheery "Sorry, ya Chinky rapist." It would be interesting to hear about the context.

It'd also be nice to be gracious at this point, as Coddington clearly thinks she is being gracious (rather than deluded and self-serving). "I wish I'd never written that article..." she writes plaintively. The reason? "...because I unwittingly pressed a button which unleashed the toxic nature of this country." Okay then. Good.

Wait a minute.

New Zealanders prefer to abuse, either anonymously on selected blogsites, talkback radio or via email those they may never have met, but harbour a visceral hatred of. It is, indeed, their right and I have to take it on the chin...

Oh. I see. She's sorry that she unleashed an orgy of hatred... directed against her! Not against Asians! No wonder she's sorry. She should have just said: "I wish I'd never written that article...Because I didn't get away with it."

It's hard to get all the way through a Coddington column, but the last line is worth quoting:

"...do haters have no soul?"

Dude, emo.

Coddington's plaintive, rained-on-kitten call for media sanity and kumbayahs all round is part of a broader murmur I'm hearing from abroad - that this election is shaping up 'dirty'. Secret taping, leaks, media 'pack-rapes', sabotage of billboard grammar... You know what? This is fine by me.

Last election was dirty because politicians were targeting vulnerable sections of the population. Maori. Immigrants. Solo mothers. Somehow, amazingly, it didn't work. So this time around, they're beating up each other instead. Well and good; just leave the people be.

Posted at 9:14AM on 8 Sep 08. Permalink.

Leopold, indeed ...

Richard Boock points out in another very thoughtful contribution article a 'deep irony' in the fact that many of those who whinge loudest about alleged political correctness are also the most likely to take exaggerated offence to criticism, even when it is reasonably polite and professionally-argued.

[aside]fucking cry-babies[/aside]

[Fran] offers an idiom previously unknown to the english language

A lovely mixed metaphor? I presume she was searching for "high-tailing it back" but got distracted by "tail wagging the dog" (tired cliche to be used in next week's froth against MMP, no doubt).

Posted at 9:23AM on 8 Sep 08. Permalink.

Last election was dirty because politicians were targeting vulnerable sections of the population. Maori. Immigrants. Solo mothers. Somehow, amazingly, it didn't work.

You meant to write that it did work, but wasn't enough to put National over the top, didn't you? Because I can't quite think of a more successful and game-changing piece of bashing as Orewa the first.

Posted at 9:30AM on 8 Sep 08. Permalink.

it did work, but wasn't enough to put National over the top

Indeed. It did work, but didn't work enough. And so, the game has changed back - I hope. I guess we'll see...

Posted at 9:32AM on 8 Sep 08. Permalink.

You meant to write that it did work, but wasn't enough to put National over the top, didn't you? Because I can't quite think of a more successful and game-changing piece of bashing as Orewa the first.

Meh... I don't really want to relitigate the '05 election, but let's not pretend Labour was exactly a bullshit-free zone. After Shane Jones' performance on Agenda this week, it sure looks like the 'wreckers and haters" cudgel never got put away.

Posted at 9:36AM on 8 Sep 08. Permalink.

I understood the press council complaint was about breaches of professional standards.

Rather than, like, being offended.

Posted at 9:37AM on 8 Sep 08. Permalink.

"New Zealanders prefer to abuse, either anonymously on selected blogsites, talkback radio or via email those they may never have met.."
whilst i prefer the to do it from the comforts of my paid columns

Does Deborah ever read her own work.?An incredible plea for victim status from someone who quite honestly just shouldn't be encouraged to write.

..as for Fran she is obviously privy to some interesting high level business dialogue and when she reflects on this she is quite readable
but Sarah Palin is an appalling choice for vp and anyone who can't do the basic vetting of her and realise the 'karl roveist' placing of her in this us election just shouldn't be writing about politics.

Posted at 9:41AM on 8 Sep 08. Permalink.

Meh... I don't really want to relitigate the '05 election, but let's not pretend Labour was exactly a bullshit-free zone.

I didn't mean to suggest otherwise, to the contrary, Orewa led (and it should be no excuse) to Labour doing some spectacular bashing of its own. Bipartisan whack-a-maori, it was truly something to behold there for a while. I thought I might seize some land myself, it was so popular.

Posted at 9:48AM on 8 Sep 08. Permalink.

..as for Fran she is obviously privy to some interesting high level business dialogue and when she reflects on this she is quite readable

She can be great when she's doing that -- she gets the inside word.

But this week's effort was so far off.

Posted at 9:48AM on 8 Sep 08. Permalink.

I though Walsh's metaphor had a touch of the 'tail between its legs' to it myself. Not to mention some consonance with 'to dove tail'. A neat little eggcorn, if ever there was one.

Posted at 9:55AM on 8 Sep 08. Permalink.

Given the title of this post, RB, a brief nod in the direction of the Warriors, and their achievement this last weekend, might have been in order!? ;-)

Posted at 10:15AM on 8 Sep 08. Permalink.

but Sarah Palin is an appalling choice for vp and anyone who can't do the basic vetting of her and realise the 'karl roveist' placing of her in this us election just shouldn't be writing about politics.

Indeed, and if McCain really wanted (to be crude about it) a twat to trump the nigger on the other side, Palin was the best he could do? Apart from being insufficiently ideologically rigid on on abortion (and even there more in form than substance), Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinston -- who was reported on the longlist for a while -- ticks all the conservative boxes. I don't expect her politics to be applauded around these parts, but she's at least got some form.

Posted at 10:27AM on 8 Sep 08. Permalink.

but if the public service is going to stage a talking shop about journalists' work, it should bloody well invite some journalists along.

I wasn't there, but Simon Pound was, and he'll be preparing a report for Media7.

Is that tacit acknowledgement that Simon isn't really a journalist ? :^)

Posted at 10:32AM on 8 Sep 08. Permalink.

Given the title of this post, RB, a brief nod in the direction of the Warriors, and their achievement this last weekend, might have been in order!? ;-)

Lol; so that would be finishing bang middle of a 15-team competition then?

And staring at a thrashing next week…

Posted at 10:38AM on 8 Sep 08. Permalink.

Is that tacit acknowledgement that Simon isn't really a journalist ? :^)

Snark! No, it means he's reporting on the encounter between the journalists and the public servants.

Posted at 10:40AM on 8 Sep 08. Permalink.

That passage labours under a syntax that would stop the heart of a horse, it offers an idiom previously unknown to the english language

It's interesting that you reference is now the sole one before the:

In order to show you the most relevant results, we have omitted some entries very similar to the 1 already displayed.
If you like, you can repeat the search with the omitted results included.

message.

this empty pant suit

Mostly, I thought she'd been wearing skirts - though I haven't been giving it my absolute attention...

Posted at 10:41AM on 8 Sep 08. Permalink.

That'd be 16 teams, Leggie ... unless you're deliberated omitting the Bulldogs?

Posted at 10:49AM on 8 Sep 08. Permalink.

describing herself as having been subject to "the media equivalent of gang rape" by "sadists"

It's morning, so I'm not very articulate, but Emma Angry!

I was going to be all sarcastically supportive, but she doesn't even rank that. This is like assaulting someone and then complaining that your trial and conviction was horribly traumatic.

Does she wake up screaming in the night reliving her gang rape? Is she scared to go out in case she meets her victimisers? Does she get sweaty palms every time she walks past a shrubbery in case a regulatory body leaps out and attacks her? Perhaps she should pop down to her nearest Women's Refuge and tell everybody about the terrible trauma she's suffered.

Meanwhile I'm ordering her a Get Some Fucking Perspective sandwich.