Posts by Craig Ranapia
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Hard News: The perils of political confidence, in reply to Clint Fern,
The recording of a publicity stunt is to my mind a very, very long way from hacking the phones of murder victims and dead soldiers.
Nobody here is suggesting otherwise – and I’m not the only one who’s said that to Henare on Twitter. As I’ve said right here, there’s plenty of ethically sub-prime/legally dubious media monkey shines that don’t sink to that level. Can we now stipulate that straw man has been reduced to a handful of ash?
I’m also fairly appalled at the response from National. I feel some loyalty to fellow journalists here, and the pursuit of a criminal complaint against an editor who, after all, did not publish the transcript gives me the shits.
Look, I’m understandably going to get a slap for this but I think it’s also fair to ask whether Bryce Johns played it all a little too cute. Before you put your chain-mail gauntlets on, Russell, Johns could have decided any of the following:
1. The tape was legitimately obtained and the contents meet a public interest/news value test for publication. Check the spelling and let everyone else go to the devil.
2. The tape was legitimately obtained but ethically didn’t meet a public interest/news value test for publication. (Before the conspiracy theorists get a hard-on, happens all the time folks. You really don’t want the Press Gallery shoveling into circulation every bit of gossip, speculation and shonky agenda-pushing that comes their way. Really.)
3 (a) It was legally questionable whether the tape was legitimately obtained, but the content was of such overwhelming public interest it was worth the calculated risk of publication. Take a deep breath and hope your lawyers are better than everyone else’s.
3 (b) It was legally questionable whether the tape was legitimately obtained, but the content was of such overwhelming public interest it will be worth the calculated risk of publication. Mitigate that risk by attempting to independently corroborate the material, so you can run the story without using the tape. STFU, and pray the story is fit for print next week.
4. Neither legally obtained nor of any news value. Oh, well. Something else that happen all the times in newsrooms: Stories don’t pan out. Shit happens. Move on and fill that hole.
Instead, I really don’t know WTF Johns was thinking. If he was trying to hype up interest in a "gone by lunchtime"-style gotcha! for the last HoS of the campaign, I think he's succeeded brilliantly. Just probably not in the way he'd prefer.
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Hard News: The perils of political confidence, in reply to Rich of Observationz,
Lots of people die in an impressively bloody manner and there aren’t too many big words.
Does that break the embargo?
I'm afraid to ask. :) But journalists accept access restrictions, some reasonable and others not so much, all the time. Doesn't immediately follow that there's some evil secret agenda in play. Really. Promise.
NZ First leader Winston Peters told 3 News he thought Mr Key should “release them”
Third grossest thing on Three News tonight behind the epically vile concern trolling of Zac Guildford and the vaginal deodorant advert. (I thought stinky vag freshener had gone out with the corset and the marcel wave. Who said you never learn jack from the news?)
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Hard News: The perils of political confidence, in reply to Sacha,
I’ll bear that in mind next time I invite the media to my photo op
Oh, Sasha - I think there are legitimate ethical questions here, and assessing any possible illegality is way above my pay grade. But, yeah, my hackles start to ripple when folks think saying "photo op" shuts down any argument. I've just submitted to The Listener my review of the new Stephen King. My review copy was under a pre-publication embargo. I could have been a smart-arse and printed an embargo-busting review here, and it's an open question whether such embargoes are legally binding or enforceable. Don't think, however, Russell or The Listener would particularly want to die in a ditch testing that in court. (Nor, to be honest, would I blame Guy Somerset for deciding my services were less valuable to him that his relationship with King's publisher.)
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Hard News: The perils of political confidence, in reply to Russell Brown,
I’m really not sure if going to the cops was a good idea. If the police prosecute, National will be responsible for the bringing of criminal charges against a newspaper editor. That is hardly ever a good look.
Neither am I, but I'm not entirely comfortable with the idea that if you're a politician you're just asking for anything and everything that happens to you. Might be a radical idea, but even if you think Key and Banks are porn-sized twatcocks they're entitled to exactly the same recourse to the law as everyone else. No more, but certainly no less.
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Hard News: The perils of political confidence, in reply to Russell Brown,
It does come across as unfathomably contemptuous.
It's quite fathomable to me that someone at Campaign HQ needs a good hard sucker punch for not doing the bloody simple "cut and paste relevant policy talking points into an e-mail and hit send"job that's probably been sitting on someone's task list for weeks. Sloppy, amateurish but most probably not sinister. Cock-up over conspiracy, Keystone Cop trumps Machiavelli.
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Hard News: The perils of political confidence, in reply to BenWilson,
They can only do that for so long before all media are giving all political airtime to their opponents.
And however tempting a collective editorial spite-fuck like that would be, I'd respectfully suggest both the BSA and Press Council would have quite a bit to say about that - especially in the context of an election campaign.
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Hard News: The perils of political confidence, in reply to Ian MacKay,
A very similar situation?
Oddly enough, I don't think it's done Sarkozy any harm is a country where criticism of Israel is not automatically seen as rank anti-Semitism. Obama makes a simple statement of fact in response, and the usual suspects on the psychotic right have a collective meltdown.
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Hard News: The perils of political confidence, in reply to dc_red,
Pshaw, Red. As Idiot/Savant pointed out last week, the Police are fully occupied not investigating cases of alleged electoral law breeches against multiple candidates referred to them by the Electoral Commission. Be reasonable, chap – as Jim Anderton wisely told us there’s rape and pillage out there and you can’t expect the constabulary to multi-task.
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Hard News: The perils of political confidence, in reply to Russell Brown,
Stuff’s Twitter account is reporting that Key will complain to the police over the matter.
It’s probably a decent strategy for Key and his people – to reframe it as a criminal offence against him – but it’s also a bit creepy.
To be coldly cynical about it, I don't think it's a good strategy at all. I can understand why there's a lot of paranoia in Key's inner circle around rogue audio (not expecting any sympathy here, just saying I get it), but I think it would have just been smarter to say "publish and be damned" and let it be a one day wonder. Seriously, unless Banks and Key were saying "Cunliffe doesn't know what he's talking about. I'd tap Judith's booty, for shizzle" I really don't think they'd have said anything damaging outside the media-political complex. Really. Key, of all people, should know the difference.
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‘’Otherwise speculation will continue to mount. What did they say about the role of other parties in the government they would like to form? Did the sale of further state assets come up?’’
Oh, if Grant managed to say all that with a straight face I want to have his babies. FFS, Grant, you're not stupid - we all know what ACT's position on asset sales are. You don't have to be a genius to intuit that the further away the Greens and Hone Harawira are from meaningful influence the more "relaxed" Key would be. Sorry, but I don't think anyone is going to be clutching their pearls at the idea that, say, politicians talk politics. And, dare I say it, right-wing politicians might say a few things that won't go down well in enlightened liberal circles.
Meanwhile, what about the serious allegations of influence peddling by Pita Sharples' electorate manager? Anyone have anything to say about that?
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