Hard News: Media3: Whistleblower Season
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So I wonder how many axe-grinders in the guise of whistleblowers will be running off to Cameron Whaleoil now that he has been appointed editor of "Truth".
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Islander, in reply to
"Truth" - in it's earlier incarnations, was the only truly sleazy newsorgan in ANZ.
I am sure Whaleoil is going to do its traditions proud.... -
Truth: an oxymoron, with a moron in charge,
Good you have James H on board. I am involved with him and Grant Hannis on the NZ leg of the World Study of Journalists,
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I wonder how many BBCers Saville had by the short and curlies that meant nothing would be done about him?? Just sayin.
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Paul Williams, in reply to
Truth: an oxymoron, with a moron in charge,
ROLFnui!
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Russell Brown, in reply to
I wonder how many BBCers Saville had by the short and curlies that meant nothing would be done about him?? Just sayin.
It was more subtle, and more pervasive, than that. He was a lot of people's meal ticket, for sure. But it's actually quite shocking the way the culture just let it go. So many people knew, but Britain's much-vaunted tabloids never went for him while he was alive.
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The Have I Got News For You discussion of Savile is worth watching:
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Hebe, in reply to
Cameron Whaleoil now that he has been appointed editor of “Truth”.
An inspired choice for the editorship of the esteemed organ; they deserve each other. It could lead to some entertaining and vile scraps in print.
Truth once was the best-paid and laziest gig in New Zealand journalism. It used to pay “dirt money” – a weekly margin – to its journos for the “odium and contempt” of working on the foul rag. Wonder if Slater qualifies.
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If I was a vice girl I'd be getting worried about loose lips Slater running my main advertising source. Is this for real?
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Unfortunately, yes that is correct. Ben
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Truth: an oxymoron, with a moron in charge,
Give a new meaning to the phrase "I promise to tell the Truth "
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Back when I used to work the evening shift in the Newspaper Room in the Auckland Central Library, the Truth was much sought after by the Library's scarier customers. They'd always approach the desk and ask juicily ambiguous questions like, "do you have the Truth?", "where can I find the Truth?", "just give me the Truth," etc. Good times.
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that there may be serious problems with some public-sector processes.
There are serious problems that stem from the public sector not having regard to the objects of the governing legislation - the failure to read or wilful ignorance of instructions, and when it all turns to shit rather than consult the manual a spin doctor and cover up are employed.
It is accepted as the new "normal".
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Craig Ranapia, in reply to
It was more subtle, and more pervasive, than that. He was a lot of people’s meal ticket, for sure. But it’s actually quite shocking the way the culture just let it go.
Um, yeah – Andrew O’Hagan has a truly disturbing LRB essay about the culture of the BBC. I don’t like the way he rather carelessly lumps together as “perverts” gay men like Kenneth Williams – who may have been a shrieking queen but was publicly closeted for a reason – and sexual predators like Lionel Gamlin who liked their trade rough, inexpensive and very young. But it is worth taking the time to read.
I wonder how many BBCers Saville had by the short and curlies that meant nothing would be done about him?? Just sayin.
As Russell said, it’s more subtle, and more pervasive than that. It’s not as if you you had to be in a gym-slip (or a dolly young schoolboy) to be on the receiving end of sexual harassment and abuse back in the day. O’Hagan observes in passing:
One presenter told me of being ‘grabbed’ in Broadcasting House by Malcolm Muggeridge, who spent most of his time in the 1960s railing against the permissive society, ‘pot and pills’. The Muggeridge grope wasn’t welcomed but it didn’t seem totally irregular to the person on the receiving end. She could name at least one other person, a politician, who thought it was OK to put his hand up the skirts of young women at the BBC. It wasn’t irregular. What was irregular was the idea of talking about it, even now.
I think it speaks eloquently that in a seven thousand word essay, O'Hagan has (by my count) precisely two direct quotes from interviews with named sources. And some of these people are talking about events decades back, involving people long dead - and therefore incapable of being libeled. But...
The BBC isn’t the Catholic Church, but it has its own ideals and traditions, which cause people to pause before naming the unwise acts that have been performed on its premises. Perhaps more than any church, the BBC continues to be a powerhouse of virtue, of intelligence and tolerance, but it is now suffering a kind of ecclesiastical terror at its own fallibility. One has to look further into the institution to see another, more obscure tradition, the one that leads to Savile and his liberty-taking. There was always an element of it waiting to be picked up. Many people I spoke to wished to make that clear, but – feeling the Chorus watching from above – they asked for anonymity.
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Kumara Republic, in reply to
An inspired choice for the editorship of the esteemed organ; they deserve each other. It could lead to some entertaining and vile scraps in print.
Would it become even more like The Sun or the late-unlamented NOTW? As they used to say in Russia, "v Pravde net izvestiy, v Izvestiyakh net pravdy." ("In the Truth there is no news, and in the News there is no truth.")
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Ian Dalziel, in reply to
You say to martyr, I say to motto...
As they used to say in Russia, “v Pravde net izvestiy,
v Izvestiyakh net pravdy.”Meanwhile in that renowned centre of Latin learning,
Chchch, The Press's credo is "Nihil utile quod non honestum"
( "Nothing is useful that is not honest.") - Aim High!Saville row...
(Well there's another brand ruined... Suits you, sir...)
Thinking about the predatory entertainment industry, there may be a few in the radio deejay and music promotion sector in NZ, who will be hoping that this current (and belated) surge in interest in outing historic bad behaviour (from last century) doesn't gain any legs here... -
To get back to the motives of whistleblowers, that should never be the issue.Rejected love, nimbyism and unappreciated staffers are often the source of very valid inside information.
It always seems unreasonable to me that a critic is expected themselves to be above criticism, and to only be valid if supplied from those with impeccable motives and record. -
Craig Ranapia, in reply to
It always seems unreasonable to me that a critic is expected themselves to be above criticism, and to only be valid if supplied from those with impeccable motives and record.
Bruce: That’s not what Jane Clifton or Russell are saying. The most famous whistleblower in history is Mark Felt (A.K.A. ‘Deep Throat’) – who felt he should have been appointed director of the FBI after J. Edgar Hoover’s death, and was not pleased at all when he was passed over for the position. Twice.
Does that invalidate Woodward and Bernstein’s reporting on the Watergate scandal? Of course not, but I’m pretty confident that that was a non-trivial consideration for Woodward when he sought independent corroboration of every bit of information that came from Deep Throat.
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'. Especially when, if you do run a story based entirely on anonymous sources, you're asking me to take a pretty fucking big leap of faith. Because you've denied me ANY means of assessing that source's credibility.
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It could make an interesting story if Slater libels the main subject in the Truth, gangs, and forgets to attribute the story to their longest running source, unnamed vice-girls who were formally P-slaves. The outcome could even make the MSM.
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Ian Dalziel, in reply to
Slater - he's no winsome roofer...
The outcome could even make the MSM.
Que?
Oh no!
You mean MSM doesn't mean
Mostly SadoMasochism ?!
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Matthew Poole, in reply to
As they used to say in Russia, "v Pravde net izvestiy, v Izvestiyakh net pravdy." ("In the Truth there is no news, and in the News there is no truth.")
Which was, as I understood it, reference to the chief mouthpiece of the Party being Pravda while the primary media outlet of the prolles - surviving only by being unworthy of being wrapped around good, honest fish and chips - was Ivestiy.
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Ian Dalziel, in reply to
street talking eds...
Samizdat ever was...
welcome to the new state of Blogistan......a key form of dissident activity across the Soviet bloc in which individuals reproduced censored publications by hand and passed the documents from reader to reader. This grassroots practice to evade officially imposed censorship was fraught with danger as harsh punishments were meted out to people caught possessing or copying censored materials.
Vladimir Bukovsky defined it as follows:
"I myself create it,
edit it,
censor it,
publish it,
distribute it, and ...
get imprisoned for it."Shame those tobacco company
"I created it..." ads don't go quite so far... -
Matthew Poole, in reply to
while the primary media outlet of the prolles – surviving only by being unworthy of being wrapped around good, honest fish and chips – was Ivestiy.
Ah, and it seems that my recollection was faulty since Ivestia was also a government paper. Making the Russian joke even more bleak.
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A friend of mine works for Australian Customs, and by far their greatest information source for wrong-doing is disgruntled ex-partners or ex business associates.
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Matthew Poole, in reply to
Likewise the IRD, based on what one of my lecturers (who also consults to IRD) said. If you're fiddling your taxes, you'd best keep sweet with everyone who knows.
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