Posts by Craig Ranapia
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Well, Paul, you have a point as far as it goes. But I think you, and others, are displaying a certain regard for absolute candor that was conspicuous by its absence when every manufactured 'gaffe' from Don Brash was pounced on with undisguised glee. It's just a little rich to be piling on John Key for being over-cautious under those circumstances.
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rodgerd:
I'll actually leave our host to decide what's permissible discourse around here, and suggest you step away from the disingenuous naivete about the soundbite culture that so often passes for political debate in this country. Sorry, but if you think Key wouldn't have the racist card dealt against him with ruthless efficiency by the Labour Party, Tariana Turia etc. if he ever said 'I was pro-Tour in '81' I'd suggest you're either enchantingly naive or spectacularly disingenuous.
And thanks to Russell for bothering to engage with what I wrote rather that trotting out the tedious bad faith evasions when someone is saying something you don't want to hear. It's boring and hardly adds anything useful to debate on any subject.
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Yet on the other hand if he wants to be the next PM he will need to have an opinion on everything because the public will expect it.
Well, Nick, when you've got serious analysis about the impact of this weird but ultimately trivial 'gaffe' was the final nail in Kim Beazley's political coffin, you really have to wonder if that's what the public expects at all. And I don't think it's snidely partisan to ask if Helen Clark's biggest liability has been her tendency to have an opinion on every subject under the sun, whether she knows what she's talking about or not.
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Craig "Gotcha soundbite interviews" are never dull. Misrepresentative, maybe.
Oh, yes they are. Ever listened (and I use that word advisedly) to Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music - which is sixty four minutes of feedback. It's horrible, and tedious beyond endurance - much like Sean Plunkett when they forget to put decaff in the National Radio coffee machine.
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Ben Wilson wrote:
Stage managed soundbites are really so dull.Well, yes they are, but so is 'gotcha' soundbite interviews. I feel a small grain of sympathy for politicans who must feel like every word, every move is another round of "does my bum look big in this?"
I'm not suggesting a rousing chorus of Poor, poor pitiful me for any politician or civil servant, just wondering if responsibility for the relentless sound-bit, blanded out and spin cycled nature of modern politics needs to be spread a little wider. -
dc_red wrote:
Funny, could have sworn I've been to lots of weddings lately, and seen numerous children born to married couples (not literally being born, though ... you know what I mean). Maybe I'm unfashionable?Oh, and I bet you know plenty of people who are co-habitating and raising children (not 'illegitimate bastards") without benefit of clergy who couldn't imagine the social stigma - as well as the perfectly legal discrimination - that existed not so long ago. However inelegantly phrased, Bill English isn't wrong. You can argue that this is a good or a bad thing, (and there are plenty who will argue both sides), but the statistical evidence of the increasing number of people who marry later in life (or not at all) speaks for the genuine change is social custom and, yes, fashion, that exist.
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I'd have been quite happy for Key to have said "Well, I was 20 years old, living in the halls of residence, drinking beer and enjoying rugby, so, yes, I was pro-Tour. But history shows I was wrong."
It was the evasiveness that I found odd.
Well, Russell, if Key had said what you suggest, it takes precisely zero imagination to pick the soundbite he'd be hit over the head with for the rest of his life: "...yes, I was pro-Tour." 'Cause we all know anyone was was pro-Tour was then, is now, and ever shall be a drooling racist don't we?
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Well, Marcello, I guess it's much the same as people who become... well, let us stay, rather vague about what they really thought about the Homosexual Law Reform Bill. I have a very good friend - staunch Labour man - who's ten years older than me, and he said he's now ashamed of being one of those who begged Fran Wilde to withdraw the bill before it lost Labour the '87 general election. I respect his candour, but if he was the new leader of the Labour Party he'd be fucking mad to say any such thing.
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It was lovely watching Daniel Beddingfield peeking between his fingers, and I always thought Barrowman was English. He has a talent for being cheerfully grubby with a light touch Yanks never quite seem to pull off - it's like the difference between having your arse pinched with a saucy wink, and a leering grope.
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Robyn:
Who needs to watch? - John Barrowman is automatically the gayest of 'em all after out-swishing Nathan Lane in his brief, but memorable turn, in The Producers' infamous 'Springtime for Hitler' number.
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