Posts by Craig Ranapia
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Hard News: Some Lines for Labour, in reply to A C Young,
Actually this makes me kind of sad because some of the nuance does seem useful.
You're quite right there. To take a recent example, I'm sure Goff could defend his vote to raise GST from 10% to 12.5% in 1989, after Labour explicitly campaigned in 1987 not to do so. He could argue that circumstances were totally different, or his views have honestly changed.
People are entitled to change their minds, and so are politicians -- for reasons ranging from sheer expediency to genuine changes of heart. (And you're quite right that that in the real world you sometimes have to swallow hard and pick the best of a bad lot of options.) But nobody is entitled to pretend they haven't changed their minds at all, or act as if being asked to explain their own voting records is some kind of dirty trick.
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Hard News: Doing battle alone, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
Perhaps I’ve had more than enough “arch” from John Drinnan on the subject – because The Herald and its proprietors would never even dream of engaging in anti-competitive behaviour or lobbying central government for advantageous policy concessions or corporate welfare. .
And yes, every word of that was sarcastic.
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Hard News: Some Lines for Labour, in reply to A C Young,
Come to think of it, I also can’t believe that Labour supports...
And you've accidentally put your finger on another serious credibility problem for Labour in general, and Goff in particular. (And one National has as well, in a slightly different way.) "It was totally different when we did it" and "we voted for it, but it's still evil" is political slight of hand that's difficult to pull off, and only works for so long before people figure out the trick.
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Hard News: Doing battle alone, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
But I am wondering when the gallery and the Commonwealth Press Union's media freedom committee -- both of them reliably noisy when the interests of larger media organisations are threatened -- will show some solidarity here.
I think your own interview might have provided a clue -- perhaps I mis-heard Jon Stephenson but it sure sounded to me like Mr Key and Lieutenant General Rhys Jones are about to receive a nastygram from Sue, Grabbit and Runne.
...were they just being mindful that they didn't want to piss off their mate Mr Joyce, and his buddies, who enabled the generous (multi-million) funding support for Mediaworks - maybe?
FFS, Ian. I don't want to interfere with a good conspiracy theory, but could it be equally possible that Three news and current affairs (and everyone else) is rather twitchy about spending very much money on anything?
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Hard News: Some Lines for Labour, in reply to Danielle,
I. Don’t. Get. It.
And I never have, and never will, understand the cult of David Lange -- a man who I rather doubt history is going to be particularly kind to. 'Tis what it is.
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Hard News: Some Lines for Labour, in reply to Danyl Mclauchlan,
Yeah, that’s what Labour thinks. It’s bullshit. Total bullshit. The media runs every anti-Key smear story Labour gives them, it’s just that the public doesn’t respond to them.
Thank you, Danyl. Reminds me of the rather epic denial that went down about why 2002 marked National's lowest share of the popular vote in its history. If the media really were lining up to tongue Helen Clark's arse, then Corngate would have been nothing. Much as I hate to say it, Bill English was a nice enough chap but he was fronting a bad campaign, an incoherent platform and nobody was going to vote for a party whose in-fighting was getting more press than random shots at the Government that weren't even causing flesh wounds.
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Up Front: First, Come to Your Conclusion, in reply to Emma Hart,
But you know (committing a little heresy here) that Joss didn’t actually WRITE most of the scripts for his shows, right?
No, but one thing I don't think he gets enough credit for is what all great showrunners do -- they may have the initial vision, but a great idea doesn't mean much in an intensely collaborative medium like television if you don't have the ability to attract, enthuse and retain a lot of very talented people. I think it was Jane Espenson who paid Whedon (and Ron Moore and Russell T. Davies) the lovely compliment of saying she's worked with people who'd build these worlds she could play in, and discover her own voice and point of view.
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Hard News: Some Lines for Labour, in reply to Sacha,
I agree that leading with the same tired “John Key is a bad man” crap that lost them the 2008 election crowds out other angles and is plain stupid.
No - just as most folks outside the Kiwibog-WhaleOily echo chamber may have disagreed with Helen Clark on a lot of things, but didn't believe for a moment she was some malignant neo-Marxist lesbian whose every breath was part of some Machiavellian "secret agenda".
And I've said this a lot, but it bears repeating: But too many folks in Labour really need to acknowledge that 1) disagreeable media coverage isn't always the fault of the VRWC, 2) people who ddn't vote for you last time aren't ipso facto stupid and/or evil, and, 3) you've got to earn the Treasury benches, not wait for the stupid plebs to come to their senses.
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Hard News: Some Lines for Labour, in reply to Russell Brown,
Whatever charisma Goff had – and it wasn’t a lot – seems to drain away daily.
Clark wasn't charismatic at all -- but my God, her ability to stay on message with the tenacity of a Terrier with a well-chewed slipper, recognise her strengths (and work them like a supermodel) and surround herself with people who understood the way the media she didn't like or trust was awe-inspiring. Compare and contrast at will.
Phil Goff being a charm-free zone isn't really the issue. His apparent inability to say the same thing clearly, simply and twice in a row is.
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Hard News: Some Lines for Labour, in reply to Carol Stewart,
Can we agree that they’re both awful, Craig?
Madame, I believe we can enter into good-faith negotiations on that basis. :)
What have we done to deserve such all round awfulness?
If my karmic overdraft isn't seriously reduced, I'll be having words with the cosmic bank manager.
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