Posts by Craig Ranapia
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Hard News: Media3: The Maori Media Man, in reply to mark taslov,
Has the look of that old boilerplate. Underpinned by centuries of violent Western foreign policy
Fucking hell, Mark, just take a damn look at where that violence is taking place and who’s getting killed. Hint: It’s not going down in ‘The West’ and this isn't about smug white liberals sticking it to The Man.
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I wonder how future generations will view the things we simply take for granted and think of as normal
It's also too damn easy to forget the rights and freedoms we currently enjoy didn't happen through the intercession of magic elves -- something to think about on Women's Suffrage Day and every other.
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Cracker: Bloggers: Pr*cks, Ars*holes,…, in reply to Damian Christie,
I’m not sure who these plenty of people are you’re referring to – please illuminate (I’m being serious here, I have no idea).
Not here – you’re better placed for local media gossip because (unsurprisingly) most media outlets don’t exactly play up their own lay-offs. But it strikes me as fair comment to say that if you’re going to let a razor gang loose on a newspaper you go for the (expensive) low-hanging fruit and don’t replace them. It’s hardly the media story of the century, but the New York Times has just “reassigned” it’s classical music critic of 35 years to “general cultural reporting". At least he’s still got a job, because at least one senior in-house counsel isn’t that lucky. I’m all for “first we kill all the lawyers”, but I’m not sure the Times really wants a shallow bench when it comes to “news department legal matters, from story vetting to fighting First Amendment cases.”
Fact is most New Zealand print outlets cannot pay too many seniors a decent wage and still make a profit. Other media seem to have a better ability to do so. But for print that has been the case for 20 years at least.
Abba-solutely fair call, Hebe. :) I just can't help but wonder if it's penny wise, but pound foolish to decide experience, skills and institutional memory are luxury items. I'd say that's what adds value to newspapers. Then again, I'm not Warren Buffet putting my money where my mouth is.
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Most of my friends who have gotten married did so after living together for many years, and co-incidentally had kids real soon afterwards.
And does anyone want revert to the bad old good old days where a landlord could perfectly legally refuse to rent their property to a couple without a wedding certificate, or a mixed-gender group?
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Hard News: Tired and emotional, for reals, in reply to Felix Marwick,
Forgive me if I get a little pissed off at people who help themselves to my work and that of my colleagues, slap it up on their site without so much as a “please” or a “do you mind”. Journalism costs. You want to take our work? How about asking first?
That's a fair beef, Felix, but it goes both ways. Blogging "costs" too, even if that cost is time and effort that could otherwise be expended doing (or at least chasing up) paid work. And, yes, it's not only journalists who can work on a story for weeks and have it fall over.
Personally, I think some of your colleagues could bear with lifting their game when it comes to proper credit for - or at least attribution of - material, story ideas and even original reporting taken from blogs. But snarling about old media "parasites" wouldn't be very useful.
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Up Front: Submission Pun Goes Here, in reply to Hilary Stace,
If you do talk to them in person the protocol is that you can assume they have read it
Yup - I was part of the oral evidence on the Young Nats submission to the ERA. Don't think we changed Sue Bradford's mind one micron, but it was most endearing that she seriously engaged with the results of a lot of work with the membership.
Remember, they are just ordinary people – paid by us to represent us – and in my experience they are quite respectful of the democratic principles of the select committee process.
Couldn't agree more. And I'm not being entirely bitchy in saying the usual absence of television cameras tends to chill out even the most OTT question time drama queens. :)
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Certainly if anyone tried to be hard on a submitter, I think it likely that Trevor would be tearing the MP a new one.
Not actually Trevor’s job. Ruth Dyson is the committee chair and 1) she’s had more than enough experience in the value of having a touch of dominatrix when it comes to wrangling committees, and, 2) I’ve heard she’s runs a pretty tight ship. “Don’t be a dick” goes both ways, after all.
This one is absolutely harrowing. It won’t be the only one.
Quite. It’s vital, as I’ve said before, that not only the “no” camp but the fence-sitters on issues like this never forget this isn’t some lofty abstraction. There are real lives and real families here which the Colin Craigs and Bob McCoskries would rather not talk about. And which they sure as shit don’t want to see reflected in the committee report.
Because I know I can get very angry when the bigoted & ignorant make assumptions and/or sneer-
Tautoko to the max, Islander. That’s why I’m going to let my sub rest for a couple of days because there’s a lot of anger in the (too long) draft I did over the weekend. While a nice purgative vent might make me feel better, being effective (and putting a more conservative pro-equality POV in the pot) is more important for the cause.
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I can't square this circle without a Ph.D. in Cthulhuian geometry, but here's something to distract y'all. Remember: We can-can-can!
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Cracker: Bloggers: Pr*cks, Ars*holes,…, in reply to Bart Janssen,
You can’t really be taken seriously when you complain.
Sure you can. I don't know if you've been keeping up with the media news, but there are plenty of senior political journalists on the same rung of the career ladder as Armstrong who've been laid off (or strongly encouraged to jump first) by newspapers with a "sinking lid" - i.e. they're just not replacing people who leave, especially if they're expensive mid- or senior-grade reporters.
You know what the practical consequences of that are? If newspapers cover things like APEC at all (which I wouldn't assume), the expectation is that fewer people have to file more copy to feed the insatiable beast. And a lot of somethings have to give -- forget about spending half a day working on that backgrounder, or building contacts, while your junior covers that press stand-up that probably won't give up a meaty story... but has to be covered anyway. Never mind that you're not on your A-game while puking your jet-lagged guts out, there will be time to micro-nap when you're dead!
Who's going to notice - or care - if you just re-jig a press release or two? What does it matter if overseas news eventually ends up being a half page of wire grabs and half-arsed churnalism?
That needs a slightly more serious and nuanced response than "Harden the fuck up, whiny bitch."
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Hard News: Tired and emotional, for reals, in reply to Danyl Mclauchlan,
It was really up to his editor to exercise some judgment and refuse to run the piece.
Bingo – or, you know, actually do editor-y shit and suggest “you know, you might want to sleep on it (or at least have a cup of tea) and come back with another draft. This, this and this – great stuff. That – no so much. And this here – not on my watch, bubelah.” To be frank, I agree with Russell. Critique Bryce’s work? Fine. But the cheap shot about his previous employment in Parliament? That didn’t reflect well on Armstrong or Tim Murphy; and they’re better than that.
(people who allege Armstrong is ‘tory’ or ‘pro-National’ should go back and read his cringingly fawning columns about Helen Clark in the early 2000s).
Which raises a more subtle - and infinitely more interesting - question about the complex symbiosis between journalists and their sources. Politicians need press; and journalists need access. Of course, politicians and their spin things are going to be trying to get the most positive coverage possible. In the current media environment, journalists are all praying they're going to get the next "gone by lunchtime" or Undiegate scoop -- and frankly, I think that can lead to half-arsed "gotcha!" non-stories (Duncan Garner used to be a bipartisan offender on that score) as often as solid reporting.
Buggered if I know where the balance point is, but it's easy to forget that both politicians and journalists are human beings with human-sized egos. Egos that don't like admitting when they've fucked up. And egos for whom there is no flattery more seductive than "Want to know something nobody else does?"
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