Posts by Russell Brown
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awhile back i did an ego-stroke on RB when i said that he *is* a brand. but i was serious (and not just smoochey-schmoocey) because our new infobesity is pushing us towards trusted information sources.
Or you may dis__trust me as the occasion demands. That's part and parcel of the different way that people respond to blog brands as opposed to mastheads. It's a more personal relationship.
You may read my excellent views --- on, say, social welfare or the enduring greatness of Donna Summer's 'I Feel Love' --- and you may well think, __well, he would say that, wouldn't he? You may still, I hope, find the expression of those views useful.
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It's pretty easy to take the psis out of the smaller provincial dailies, but they pretty much run on the smell of an oily rag.
They also provide a place for good journalists to kick-off their careers;
Quite. There's something you get from a small publication with a strong editorial culture that you don't get anywhere else.
The Chronicle was judged last year as Pacific Area Newspaper of the Year (PANPA) and this year it has been nominated as the best performing newspaper in the APN stable. It's not losing money.
But -- and there's a question here about the local council's actions in where it has decided to spend its advertising budget -- APN has decided it will not be viable in its current form. Interesting story.
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An addition to the "age of Scoop" point. Over the same period, public information, rather than political spin, has also become far more accessible. And not only accessible, but able to be directly linked to via the magic of HTTP.
Asymmetrical Warfare: Having a biffo with the mainstream media, Keith Ng's classic for the Aotearoa Ethnic Journal, goes most usefully into that and other aspects of the topic.
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There seems to be an inability to distinguish between the medium and the messenger - to realise that blogging is just a platform, like TV or newspapers, and what matters is what you do with it.
I still remember fondly Karl du Fresne's column in the mid-90s, in which he declared that he didn't trust the internet. I pointed out at the time that was like saying you didn't trust the telephone.
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I was always impressed that both before and after the sale of Trade Me, Sam Morgan was out in the open on the office floor, alongside the call centre. He did admit to me it made some of the sale negotiations a bit tricky ...
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It should also be made very clear that you are again playing the sympathy card. Institutionalised generosity does not address individual needs. It sets conditions that people must meet. When a person gives out of charity they are able to directly meet a need.
Tosh. "Institutionalised generosity" met my individual need for food and shelter -- or more importantly, those of my young family -- during the brief period in which I claimed an unemployment benefit. I have since repaid that many times over in taxes, and I see that as a reciprocal obligation.
There is evidence that such transfers have a slight positive impact on GDP per capita, and a very significant impact on absolute poverty rates. Short version: in states with welfare systems, far fewer children suffer.
And, for that matter, die. The countries with the lowest infant mortality rates are all welfare states.
People in welfare states also tend to have homes. By comparison, the US, especially in the wake of welfare reform, has not only high rates of working poor, but the highest rate amongst developed nations of the working homeless.
Your statement above is less as argument than an article of faith.
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Anyway, courts "come to opinions" -- reach verdicts, even -- on sex abuse cases that are far futher in the past, with no physical evidence, purely on the basis of testimony. This case will be straightforward by comparison.
Quite. There is a public acknowledgement by the accused that something took place that led to a trip to hospital, news organisations have the paperwork for subsequent financial compensation, and ACC has a historical injury report from Ms Dunne-Powell that it has taken the unusual step of explicitly endorsing. There will be many people called to give evidence for either side.
It's not exactly Sensing Murder.
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I have not once said I think that there's blackmail involved; but I think that is a perception that should be addressed on the 'evidence'.
Yeah Martin, but you do keep using the word. In your own comment under the post I linked to, you say:
I have come to the conclusion that the ‘blackmail’ angle is in the mix if you read between the lines.
This after a prior post titled Was Tony Veitch being blackmailed?.
Passively saying something is still saying it, especially when you do so repeatedly. Blackmail is a criminal offence. It has a specific meaning. And it can be complained about to the police.
As I said above, this case will likely heap humiliation on all concerned when it comes to court. But I don't think hurling around words like "blackmail" is helpful at all.
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In my primary school years (mid 60s) each room had a coal stove for heating
Yeah, we had rooms with pot-belly stoves. I got put in an advanced maths class in Form 2, which basically amounted to a lot of opportunities to get the poker white hot while the teacher was elsewhere.
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A number of schools had themselves abandoned corporal punishment before then, perhaps yours was one?
John Key's alma mater, Burnside High, had abolished corporal punishment by the time I got there in (gulp) 1976.
The deputy principal later told me it had sharply cut the level of other violence at the school.
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