Hard News: Something odd and unresolved
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Compared to national dailies that hit the streets in most cities of the world, the Herald is a parochial, small-town rag. It's psychotic, biased rantings against the EFA lost it all credibility as a respected national newspaper, in my opinion.
And talking of Key, the big worry with a man who seems to be struggling to find worthwhile policies, let alone articulate a vision for NZ in the 21st century, is that there are always the grey eminences standing in the shadows eager to guide and mentor him -- Richardson, Kerr, Douglas, et al, spring to mind.
Nice guy tho' he may be.
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It's psychotic, biased rantings against the EFA lost it all credibility as a respected national newspaper, in my opinion.
Two poo words there, by my count. :)
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3410,
And if anyone actually comes up with any evidence -- as opposed to assuming -- that there's any collusion between the Herald and Key and his staff, I'm concede the point.
Here's your evidence.
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a man who seems to be struggling to find worthwhile policies, let alone articulate a vision for NZ in the 21st century
Oh come now. The man has articulated his visions, he is ambitious for new Zealand. His ambition is to sell it off as soon as he can, strip it of its worthwhile assets and whoop it up with his mates when they can roll about in all that sexy money.
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Here's your evidence.
Hard hitting.
And I mean my head, against the wall. -
Here's your evidence.
3410: Cute, but so lame I've taken it out behind the barn and given it a quick exit. It's a kindness, really. I believe even Clark's done one or two (admittedly highly dopey) vox pops. But I can go you one better, I've got the raw transcripts before they were sanitised by the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy (Media Coven):
How do you relax?
Cooking babies, and I like drinking the blood. Or I throw the kids in an acid bath.Favourite food?
Babies, stupid deaf minion -- especially the worthless ethnic ones - Indian, Chinese.Last book you read?
The Necronomicon -- which my close friends Crosby and Textor gave me, so I can properly understand the Dark Gods which I serve.Last CD you bought?
Antichrist Superstar by that pussy Marilyn Manson.Do you go to movies?
No, though we've got a home theatre so we can watch all the animal porn we like while the kids are trying to crawl out of the acid bath.Last film?
Planet Terror - gave me lots of ideas.Henry or Deans?
They're both going to be privatised ASAP.Blues or Crusaders?
Nobody would buy them. Damn.Shortland St or Outrageous Fortune?
Don't watch either. Anyway, they're getting privatised too.Last suit you bought and how much was it?
We're frugal people. Bronnie runs me up little numbers from the goat skins left over after the ritual sacrifices.What do you do for a treat?
Play golf, and conspire in the 19th hole afterwards with the rest of my white racist misogynsitc rich prick buddies. Damn, that Cuthulu is high maintenance.To treat Bronagh?
Well, I like buying her jewellery -- blood diamonds purchased with the profits of misery and exploitation, especially. -
<quite>Here's your evidence.</quote>
Golly,doesn't he spend a lot of time with his family? -
Yeah, but seriously though, Craig....the Herald is biased.
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If it were a national daily paper it would have to be available, well, nationally - here in Dunedin I can buy the ODT and often see the Chch Press and the Southland Times in the supermarket - I think the only place I've ever noticed the Herald was at the airport.
Pre-internet every time I visited Boston I used to pop out to that big newagents in Cambridge to buy a week old Herald just because it was the only NZ paper I could ever find - which shows how isolating doing your OE in the US used to be
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Last CD you bought?
Albertine by Brooke Fraser.Hmmmm.
Brooke Gabrielle Fraser (born December 15, 1983 in Wellington, New Zealand) is an award-winning New Zealand singer-songwriter. She is also one of the principle worship leaders of the Christian worship band Hillsong United. Brooke is the eldest of the three children born to former All Black, Bernie Fraser
The CD was released in 2006
(puts foil hat on) This is Crosby Textor at work here. I mean 2006? he hasn't bought a CD since then? Does he Download?? This Brooke girl is just soooo squeeky clean and the daughter of an All Black. An idol made for image creation. We must venerate this Key chap, let us give him a name to worship him by.
OhBe wan Key John Knobby, perhaps? -
And if anyone actually comes up with any evidence -- as opposed to assuming -- that there's any collusion between the Herald and Key and his staff, I'm concede the point
Who needs collusion to be biased? It's highly unsurprising that media outlets run by large corporations would prefer a government that is friendly to large corporations. Chomsky once said something similar when accused of being a conspiracy theorist: you don't need to posit a conspiracy when there's a commonality of self-interest and ideology.
I've got the raw transcripts before they were sanitised by the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy
It's not about the answers, but about the questions. I don't care what he eats or listens to, but I do care about his political philosophy and policies. Oh, wait: we might be scared off by the former and there are none of the latter. So let's ask about the movies.
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<i> let us give him a name to worship him by</i> .......... how about 'honest john' the man who followed on from honest don.
.......... but I think of him as the keyster
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3410: Cute, but so lame I've taken it out behind the barn and given it a quick exit.
Don't be stupid Craig. You specifically asked about why there was an objection to the fact that this series was being presented as "unauthorised". Many people have shown you evidence that it has in fact been produced with the full co-operation of the subject. But then when presented with these evidence (e.g. a fully authorised Q&A) you chose to switch the debate to the content.
The thing is, if an article/book/whatever is "unauthorised" it means that it has been produced without the help and input of the subject. Indeed usually with the subject totally opposing the publication. This is diametrically opposed to what the Herald has presented, so they have misled their readers. This is not about John Key, it is about the Herald's honesty.
Surely, surely even you can understand that without shifting the grounds of argument.
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It's not about the answers, but about the questions. I don't care what he eats or listens to, but I do care about his political philosophy and policies. Oh, wait: we might be scared off by the former and there are none of the latter. So let's ask about the movies.
Way to hit the nail on the head.
Thus far, the Herald's effort amounts to a puff piece of the highest order, and while I'm no political operative I suspect the leader of either party would kill for one of those at this stage of the campaign. It does not demonstrate collusion, of course, but surely one is allowed to question the journalistic value of the piece, all the more since it's touted as an unauthorised expose`? I'll reserve my final judgment until next week, but thus far I'm very unimpressed.
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I found it a struggle to get through, it was like I was getting over a sleeping pill.
That probably has more to do with the inept writing than the content. What sort of journalist writes, 'the picture that has emerged is of a person of driving ambition and determination who is prepared to do what it takes to achieve what he is aiming for', rather than, 'Key is ambitious and determined'? Why are some sentences lifted out of context and set as paragraphs despite not standing alone? "He also remembers Key as being very resourceful and someone who would seek advice", is treated to paragraph status for no apparent reason, as are several others throughout the article. Is this severely misplaced emphasis?
It's not just a puff piece, it's mess.
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So. Robyn have you been hacking into Crosby Textor eMails again?
Polling shows that while mainstream New Zealanders enjoy the musical Cold Players pop group, being seen to support musicians of a local nature may prove to be a more robust stance to take in a chronlogically forward direction.
Our Sound-Alike-Tron 2000 device has detected that the Mutton Bird musical group's song "Anchor Me" shares 78.3% of the same attributes that audiences favour in the Cold Players "Clock" song. Therefore, it is our recommendation that Mr Key's favourite song is now "Anchor Me" by the Mutton Bird.
A compact disc of this song will be provided to Mr Key. It is recommend that he listen to it at least once.
http://publicaddress.net/system/topic,1230.sm?i=20#forum-replies
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The CD was released in 2006
(puts foil hat on) This is Crosby Textor at work here. I mean 2006? he hasn't bought a CD since then?Um, could be -- I don't buy a lot of CDs (and the last was over a year ago) because I'm not really that interested in contemporary music. Don't download either, because 1) I'm a tech-tard, 2) don't have a credit card, and, 3) am more interested in blowing what discretionary income I have on DVDs.
Then again, I guess if Key pulled a Gordon Brown and gushed about how he bounces out of bed every morning to the dulcet tones of the Arctic Monkeys (or whatever the uber-hip band of the moment is) we'd be rolling our eyes and muttering "you pathetic try-hard".
It's not about the answers, but about the questions. I don't care what he eats or listens to, but I do care about his political philosophy and policies. Oh, wait: we might be scared off by the former and there are none of the latter. So let's ask about the movies.
Well, great, you don't care. Neither do I, come to that. But I'm not really seeing some giant media conspiracy.
Surely, surely even you can understand that without shifting the grounds of argument.
I can see the grounds, Don. I think it's specious crap, and am saying so. Just as I'd quite happily explain to the "Kiwiblog right" that the media isn't a cesspool of neo-Marxist dykes because, my God, not everything the Government does is presented as an act of untrammelled malevolence. Except it would be a full time job, and I kind of have to detox from the bile-poisoning involved with any contact with the usual suspects.
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It's not about the answers, but about the questions. I don't care what he eats or listens to, but I do care about his political philosophy and policies. Oh, wait: we might be scared off by the former and there are none of the latter. So let's ask about the movies.
Yes, yes, yes, yes.
In fact, Stephen Franks previewed a variation of this approach recently in a post, called Policy or Character, where he detailed a discussion with Wellington Central constiuents where he was asked about <shudder>policy</shudder>. Franks offers this view:
At this particular meeting a sceptic was pressing for specific National policy on matters not familiar to me. Another guest intervened with the view that the last thing citizens should be doing is falling into the trap of encouraging political parties to develop detailed policies. I supported one of his reasons with some personal experience
FFS. I don't know the provenance of the tactic, Crosby or Textor or Murry McCully, but it's clear that the approach is to contrast crazy-old-Helen and her obession with policy and us; people of character and substance. Bollocks to that, I didn't care for Doug Graham's character but he was a bloody good Minister who actually, like, had policies.
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The thing is, if an article/book/whatever is "unauthorised" it means that it has been produced without the help and input of the subject. Indeed usually with the subject totally opposing the publication.
Bullshit, Don. I've got on my bedside table Deirdre Bair's award-winning biography of Samuel Beckett, which certainly wasn't 'authorised' in your sense but he didn't go out of his way to warn off friends and acquaintances from talking to her, or refuse her permission to quote from copyrighted work (as the Eliot Estate and J.D. Salinger notoriously and litigiously did to Peter Ackroyd and Ian Hamilton respectively). As I said, granting an interview is a far sight from the full scale "authorised" bio-jerk where the subject picks the writer and (to various degrees) tries to assert control over the content. If you want a case study of just now nasty that can get, I'd recommend finding a copy of Janet Malcom's __The Silent Woman: Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes__, which is in large part a biography of Anne Stevenson's biography of Plath.
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At this particular meeting a sceptic was pressing for specific National policy
That's the bit that got me. What was he sceptical of? the fact that they had any?
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FFS. I don't know the provenance of the tactic, Crosby or Textor or Murry McCully, but it's clear that the approach is to contrast crazy-old-Helen and her obession with policy and us; people of character and substance. Bollocks to that, I didn't care for Doug Graham's character but he was a bloody good Minister who actually, like, had policies.
And Doug wasn't prone to unilaterally writing policy on the fly at cottage meetings either. BTW, Paul, thanks for at least posting a link because the rest of it was rather interesting. I'd actually like to see all parties being a little cautious about making promises they're not absolutely sure they can... well, actually pay for. To put it a little crudely, a five hundred page policy paper is just arse wipe if there isn't a hope in hell that it's either affordable or workable (and I suspect the first task for civil servants facing any incoming government is to fill a bucket of cold water or two).
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That's the bit that got me. What was he sceptical of? the fact that they had any?
If the subject of law and order came up, I suspect that the problem was the lack of a timetable to re introduce the auto-da-fé as an instrument of mortification and edification for young and old.
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And Doug wasn't prone to unilaterally writing policy on the fly at cottage meetings either.
Ahhh but that's not the point Craig, the point is that Franks was asked about a question of policy and couldn't answer because there is none.
Instead of simply noting the obvious, he pretends this is some new virtue - don't ask me what I'll do, ask me about what I am.
Well in the case of Franks, it appears the answer is whatever his party/ies require so long as he's high on the list.
To put it a little crudely, a five hundred page policy paper is just arse wipe if there isn't a hope in hell that it's either affordable or workable
Agreed. However, when it's in fact fixed and available and more than just a vague notion like we'll investigate selling off the Employers' Account, this is a conclusion people might draw... which takes us full circle to the question about when National might release policy?
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the auto-da-fé as an instrument of mortification and edification for young and old
Hah! Classy as ever Mr Ranapia.
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A five-hundred page policy paper isn't arse-wipe if it gives voters an insight into where a particular party will be starting post-election negotiations with potential coalition partners, and it isn't arse-wipe if it gives the voters a concrete perception of a party's ideology.
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