Posts by Craig Ranapia
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OnPoint: Sunlight Resistance, in reply to Russell Brown,
He even tried to shop the “inappropriate tweet by an academic” line to me. Apparetly he’s never heard of (a) NWA or (b) irony.
And, honestly, anyone who hasn’t said something on Twitter that looks flat out awful taken out of context (or even fully in it) is either implausibly saintly, or a tech-savvy liar with a very good virtual scrubbing brush.
Te Morenga apparently called Williams a “twat”, occasioning this amazing post by Whaleoil, who professes to be shocked that someone said a mean word on the internet
I’d strongly prefer everyone lay off gendered insults of that nature, but it would be sheer hypocrisy not to note I’m hardly innocent of the occasional relapse into bad linguistic habits when seriously pissed off. Shit happens and then you don’t die, even of sheer embarrassment.
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OnPoint: Sunlight Resistance, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
Probably because at this point the ‘book’ (or more correctly the first chapter – 23 pages) is all of a week old, it’s available on kindle/ebook thru Amazon:
And judging from that listing, it's self-published and I have no idea whether Lusk and "Whaleoil Media" (whatever the hell that is) is sending out review copies. Perhaps Tom might want to put that question to Messer Lusk and Slater, because I'd much prefer they not get hold of my e-mail address. I do have standards, no matter how low and elastic they may be. :)
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OnPoint: Sunlight Resistance, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
Have you any other cavils (or larger gripes) with the actual content of Hager’s arguments, or are you just ignoring that completely, while trying to look upset.
Ian:
What I’m going to do is stop engaging with your tiresome imputations of bad faith in my direction, because it never ends up anywhere worth going. I gave Red a pretty minor but good-natured ping on a small matter of clear attribution, and he responded to it in kind. End of story, as far as I'm concerned.
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OnPoint: Sunlight Resistance, in reply to Kumara Republic,
DeepRed:
Did you omit the by-line accidentally? Don't want to give the impression you're linking to news content rather than an op-ed column by Nicky Hager.
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I’m also stating it explicitly because the connection needs to be made: National’s landslide victory means that the media’s reporting of Dirty Politics has had no effect. The media had no power to punish politicians for bad behaviour.
No, the media doesn’t and nor should it. Voters do, and perhaps if some folks on the left had actually deigned to go out and make a political argument why the electorate should have gotten their vengeful smite on instead of considering it all so self-evident anyone who thought otherwise was malignantly stupid things might well have turned out differently.
It may so be pertinent to point out that the media may be the “court of public opinion” but it isn’t a judicial body either, though you could be forgiven when too many journalists (and over-excitable columnists and editorial writers) are a bit fuzzy on the non-trivial differences between an allegation, a charge and being convicted of a crime in a real court of law. Or have we forgotten a certain newspaper that was determined to hound an elected mayor out of office because they really didn't approve of where he was putting his penis?
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Hard News: Five further thoughts, in reply to Jack Harrison,
I did read it. It was strange. It’s that strange column that leaves a little bit of sick in your mouth after you’ve read it.
More fool you for reading a gossip column then, chap. Still, I'm sure Ms. Glucina will be flattered to hear her fatuous burblings on the passing parade of autocue readers are of such import in the corridors of media power.
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Hard News: Five further thoughts, in reply to Jack Harrison,
Slagging off a competitors pulling power is a bit naughty , this influences the ad market place, the revenue.
Could you come up with a source, Jack, because I think you've just run out of sharks to jump. Not least because this week, the handful of mentions I've seen of John Campbell and TV3 this week have been to praise their election night coverage over TVNZ's. (Can't say whether that was accurate or not, because the hostess at the party I attended on Saturday declared her living room a Mike Hosking-free zone.)
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Hard News: The humanity, in reply to Katharine Moody,
Jane Bowron wrote this excellent article
I guess our definitions of excellence will have to differ because I thought this parting shot from Bowron was so full of irony someone should get mining rights...
The real loser on the night was democracy with only 77 per cent of the electorate bothering to turn up to exercise their franchise. With only half the world granted the great privilege of franchise, those who didn't vote should be herded into a container ship and pushed over the side somewhere in the Ross Sea, preferably in the middle of winter.
When Jane manages to climb down from that high horse, perhaps she might want to ask herself if she's a big part of the problem.
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Hard News: The humanity, in reply to Kumara Republic,
In my view, the release of Dirty Politics was only the start, and it’ll likely be a slow burner like Watergate was in the 1970s. There’s still David Parker’s complaint to the police to be investigated. And the Chief Ombudsman has been sounding warnings of late.
And I'm sure they're all going to be perfectly legitimate news stories when they come around, but I'm really wondering if some people hereabouts would only be happy if Paddy Gower was chasing Judith Collins around Parliament with a burning pitchfork.
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Hard News: The humanity, in reply to Russell Brown,
1. Most people haven’t read the book and, because they don’t follow politics, didn’t understand (or even care about) the substance of what it depicts
OK, I have to put a penny in the swear-jar for using the phrase but it was almost the textbook “Beltway issue”. And I’m not going to be popular for saying this, but I think too many people on the left forgot to go out and convince people outside the Beltway bubble to care rather than think chanting “Whale Oil” and “dirty politics” was going to be electoral Kryptonite. It just wasn’t, and you can spend the next three years pouring vitriol on the stupid sheeple but it misses the point.