Posts by simon g
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
Hug and snog to your heart's content, but let us not embrace the latest fad ... joyous celebration before the try is scored. "Where's the camera? Wave! Hand signals!" ... oops, dropped it.
Did George Gregan and Jeff Wilson teach us nothing? Put the ball down, then you can have an orgy the length of the field. Just put it down first.
Also, leave the kicker out of it, his job's not done.
-
They're not even bothering to pretend any more.
Scout's latest celebrity, featuring in their TV trailers? Julie Christie. Yep.
-
Hard News: About Chris Brown, in reply to Russell Brown,
Yes, I didn't make my point properly there, sorry.
Agree entirely that Brown is not entitled to any special status, and his crimes are horrific. Some of the commentary online seems to be "Judith Collins must be wrong, ergo Brown not that bad" - which is cock-eyed nonsense.
-
Whatever may happen in the justice system, there is no requirement for the rest of us to outsource our personal choices to either the courts, or an employer.
I would like to have heard a few sports people - and indeed, the Prime Minister - say that while Veitch absolutely had the right to due process and, if possible, redemption, they also had the right not to appear on his radio show, and they intended to exercise it.
Perhaps some have said that, and I'd be happy to learn of those who did. I don't know any. That bugs me more than Newstalk ZB's decision to hire him.
FWIW, I don't listen to Veitch, and I used to listen to Murray Deaker, so I'm not setting the broadcasting bar too high.
There is another, and local, aspect to all this: our concentrated media village makes prominent people less likely to speak out against the hosts who give them a regular platform (see previous cases: Tamihere/Jackson, Henry, etc). The need to be "mates" with the broadcasters overrides the need to call them out when they deserve it.
No such need exists for fly-in fly-out foreign celebs, so Brown is a safer target.
-
Speaker: Rugby, Racing and Emotions, in reply to Russell Brown,
Although in the case of, say English football fans, I think it’s fair to acknowledge that it can be deep and cultural.
Yes, and there are many examples overseas of sport meaning more to the fans than rugby does in NZ. I'm not saying that is necessarily a good thing - there are stories every week of crowd trouble from Belgrade to Buenos Aires - but if our media are going to talk about "passion" and "religion", then it should be acknowledged that there are plenty of agnostics.
The Auckland Blues and Newcastle United are two failing 'football' teams, in their respective national codes. One plays in front of a vociferous capacity crowd, every week without fail. The other runs out to a half-empty, sleepy Eden Park.
There are other, more involved experiences here - say, holding the Ranfurly Shield in the smaller centres - but overall, if you tell a supporter of Indian cricket or German football or US college games that Kiwis are passionate about their spectator sport, they'll laugh (participation is another story, and a better one).
New Zealanders who dislike or are indifferent to sport - and rugby in particular - shouldn't make the mistake of thinking it's some kind of uniquely local feature. Again, it's confusing a media construct with ordinary reality. In 1950 or 1970 maybe it was all-consuming, but today it isn't.
-
There's also much fun to be had in adopting a temporary allegiance. I was Welsh for a couple of hours and it was as good a mood-enhancer as any pill. Cymru am byth.
More seriously, the whole issue of fans losing perspective needs to be ... well, kept in perspective. Just because the TV reporters are stalking the usual venues and picking the silliest faces for their report on how "the nation" reacted, doesn't mean we have to buy into that story. It matters a lot to many, it doesn't matter absurdly much to anything like as many as we're told.
-
Hard News: The positive option of Red Peak, in reply to Sofie Bribiesca,
I’m still trying to see where Labour MP’s are trashing the Greens
http://www.inthehouse.co.nz/video/39828
Labour's position is clear. It is now the same as National and the Greens. Because that's how they voted.
-
Life's too short to keep track of all the Mediaworks incest, but there were a couple more last night: TV3's Story had Dom Harvey (I didn't watch it, turned off at 7.01 pm as usual) and Scout's pre-news minute teased us with Mr Green the Bachelor.
It seems that cross-promotion is now compulsory every day.
-
Field Theory: It's about time, in reply to Glenn Pearce,
His selection was due to poor phone reception. Hansen actually said "I need another Walter Little", not "call to Little".
-
Field Theory: It's about time, in reply to Peter Darlington,
as far as I’m aware he’s never done anything to say he’s a bigoted, violent, red neck neo liberal asshat.
Yes, I'd certainly take Richie over some of his apartheid-blind predecessors (honourable exception: Graham Mourie).
Generally I think the whole Key = McCaw line is overblown. Key is doing what he does. Whereas McCaw just mumbled an answer to a question from Patrick Gower on TV3 and got turned into an unwanted headline.