Posts by Russell Brown
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Perhaps a good time to link to Josh Drummond's account of Glucina's turn at Wintec Press Club:
Braunias prompted her into an anecdote about her story on Mick Jagger, which was genuinely interesting because it snapped her out of the self-absorbed mode, and had her discussing the way she went about pursuing the story. Then he asked about the ethics of outing Alison Mau and her same-sex relationship. Well, that was fine, Glucina opined, because everyone knew about it anyway. Everyone? Well, yes, and besides, Mau had sold stories to women’s magazines in the past so she was fair game.
The things that came to mind at this point were: no, the public didn’t know, and what right did she have to out someone? Surely it’s a personal decision to publicly reveal your sexuality? Braunias asked something similar. No, that didn’t matter, because Mau was in the public eye and had sold stories, and blah fucking blah.
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Hard News: Friday Music: A Life of Stories, in reply to Rob Hosking,
Thorn's more recent Naked At The Albert Hall is a companion volume - its more about singing and her favourite singers, but it is highly personal.
As well as being a superb read.
Oh, ta. I used to see Tracey 'n' Ben walking around quite a bit when I worked at the HMV Store in Piccadilly in the 80s. I always thought "they look lie people like us".
I'm ploughing through the Viv Albertine book. It's wild and informal and funny and interesting.
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Hard News: A cog in the Mediaworks machine, in reply to Stephen Judd,
everyone here should watch Anne Helen Peterson's excellent Webstock talk What we talk about when we talk about Brangelina
Seconded. So-called gossip has an important social function. Also, how is it worse or different to sports news (or many other kinds of "news" that are coded masculine)?
Sports gossip is a thing now, sometimes maliciously so – as when Glucina splashed a personal picture of All Black Aaron Smith all over her column. We had no right to see that and there's no rationalisation that would make it so. Ditto what happened to Teuila Blakely.
Our interest in the lives of people we don't know isn't new – how many pictures of the royal family has the Woman's Weekly published over the decades? But let's not ignore the realities of modern gossip media. Did you see Amy? Its depiction of the way, no matter how sick she was, Amy Winehouse had to step out into a blaze of flashbulbs and men shouting at her was horrifying. TMZ and other basically get their pictures from men who are freelance predators.
I was genuinely surprised by how many people were happy to declare that Lorde had bought into it when she, as a 16 and 17 year-old, was stalked by Simon Runting. It's an insult to what she achieved creatively to just say she had it coming because she was successful. But it keeps happening because there's a market for it. I've had friends in music who've been dragged into the "gossip" sections in more minor ways and hated it. They're not our bloody property.
The other side of celebrity gossip – and it's the more common one in New Zealand – is the people who work to be its subject. What did Aja Rock do to be "famous"? Scout's ludicrous "25 Most Influential New Zealanders under 25" – the list where Max Key is ranked above Lorde – is an attempt to engineer same. It's really about trying to establish the celebrity of people to whom Glucina already has a line.
So yeah, I would confidently submit that gossip is a lot more morally perilous than sports reporting.
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Hard News: A cog in the Mediaworks machine, in reply to Sue,
why do we care about her house and who she owns it with?
do you not go to her level when you delve into personal lives?uncool
I honestly just thought it was odd that Simon didn't ask her how she'd done it, after including that information in the story (presumably because she'd volunteered it). Although the Pink PR bit is interesting, for the reasons Rob notes.
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Neil Finn's new charity single. The introduction by Benedict Cumberbatch is very relevant.
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Hard News: A cog in the Mediaworks machine, in reply to Rich of Observationz,
Same way everyone does - use the flexi mortgage to meet the payments on the fixed mortgage and recapitalize often? Plus a bit of help from mummy and daddy, you'd think? Who are mummy and daddy in this case?
Update: the house is owned by Pink PR, as is another property in Newmarket. So yeah, effectively she's bought a house with her mum.
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It's clunky and annoying deleting numbers of comments (and I am grumpy with a rotten cold) but I've cleaned up the troll-derail and would be grateful if we could get back on topic.
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The Hosking story is Glucina's and almost beyond parody:
EXCLUSIVE: Mike Hosking, New Zealand’s richest broadcaster – who is believed to earn $1.2m for his NewstalkZB radio show each year – has been spotted by SCOUT cruising in his new hot wheels - a racy red Ferrari. But the multi-millionaire motor-mouth and connoisseur of the finer things in life is not above embracing his inner cleaning lady and can be seen most days fastidiously taking to the Italian supercar with a dust buster!
Mike is - quite literally - a motor maid.
“Mike hoovers his machine after nearly every drive,” said an observer. “He is quite OCD about it. He used to be an almost daily visitor to Washworld. But you’d think after splurging all that money, on what some deem a midlife crisis car, he’d pay someone to clean it. It’s good to see he’s not above getting down and dusty.”
In an exclusive video for SCOUT, Hosking was spotted coming out of his Remuera home with a handheld vacuum.
There are also earnest "Life", "Style" and "Views" sections, and Francis Cook is clearly trying gamely, but his stuff feels like a guy with an Honours degree trying to write down.
I can see what they're aiming at, but it needs someone with more ability and experience than Glucina at the helm. There are kids working in online editorial for the major media companies who could have stepped up to run something like this, and it would have been better.
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Sorry folks. Troll dispatched.
Don't forget you can always report a post if I seem to be missing something.
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“EXCLUSIVE: Hosking hoovers new Ferrari on street”
That’s Scout’s launch-day lead. I shit you not.
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