Posts by Kumara Republic
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Hard News: On youthful indiscretions, in reply to Russell Brown,
I think you’re right. True or not, suing would be disastrous.
A lawsuit would come across as rather Colin Craig-ish – suing not for actual libel, but for butt-hurt.
And is Black Mirror the new Max Headroom in a way?
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Hard News: On youthful indiscretions, in reply to John Palethorpe,
The simplicity of it “Cameron fucked a pig” is what’s dangerous. As an idea it’ll stick, he’ll be oinked at for the rest of his career. Because basically, it’s pretty believable. His Bullingdon antics, the restaurant trashing and general poor baiting, combined with that photo, make it ‘the sort of thing he’d do’.
He can’t sue, because he’d need to be in court and have his uni days examined. So it sits there. Like a dead pigs head. On his career. Oink.
Some things are simply too big to be spun – the Chernobyl meltdown is probably a modern example of it being taken to its logical extreme.
As for David Cameron personally, cracks are appearing in the whole notion that “it’s not illegal when President Nixon’s doing it!” If Cameron's much-vaunted “Broken Britain” is to be fixed, it needs to start from the top.
Perceptions of overt betrayal are another fatal weakness – Australasian leadership spills are just the entreés.
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Hard News: NZME and you, in reply to BenWilson,
No. Just…no.
Again, VUW's Peter Thompson proposes levying all communications infrastructure, not just the Internet.
Which is far from surprising as the media owners are vacuous money managers (Oaktree capital which owns Mediaworks is a so-called Vulture Fund) who think that news is a form of complicated content widget which can be commoditised scaled and exploited for gross profit margin.
Just as there's "junk-food news", there's also 'junk-food finance'.
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RE: Pig-gate, the real issue is that those pontificating about "Broken Britain" need to meet their own standards that they set for the lesser-born. Otherwise it comes across as "it's not illegal when President Nixon's doing it!"
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In that NBR article, John Roughan looks to be in for the chop too. So the news isn't all bad.
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Speaker: Are we seeing the end of MSM,…, in reply to Alfie,
What that story fails to mention is that top journalists John Drinnan and Brian Rudman will likely have their roles disestablished, following the recent departures of Dita De Boni, James Griffin, Peter Calder and Paul Casserly. Up to 40% of sales staff will also lose their jobs. Morale in the Herald newsroom must be on a par with Mediaworks these days.
As a consolation prize, John Roughan could be walking the plank.
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Hard News: Friday Music: A Life of Stories, in reply to Russell Brown,
Which is more than can be said for Karl du Fresne.
du Fresne is yet another of those "drugs bad, booze good" types.
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Hard News: The Silver Scrolls: watch and…, in reply to Russell Brown,
Karl du Fresne: the only person in the world to remain outraged by punk rock 40 years on.
When John Lydon heard that an anniversary reissue in NZ of the Sex Pistols' "God Save The Queen" was required by censors to change the original cover art - the one depicting the Queen with a safety pin through her lips - he reputedly remarked, "I'm delighted we're still causing trouble with the establishment."
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If Karl du Fresne wasn't being so deadly serious in his latest column on "sex, drugs & rock and roll", it'd be in the comedy section.
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Hard News: A better thing to believe in, in reply to Tom Semmens,
When you have pro-National, ex-media works head Brent Impey as head of the NZRFU then the temptation to use all that soft power was always going to be to much for Impey and Key.
The same Brent Impey who dismissed long-form current affairs as the sort of thing only the "chattering classes" were interested in. In other words, blatant anti-intellectualism.
I took that as a sign of healthy interest in the topic, but one of the panellists that night chucked a bit of cold water on that theory - Brent Impey, the former boss of Mediaworks (the company which owns of TV3, C4, Radio Live, music stations such as The Rock, The Edge and others).
He's always been an energetic advocate for commercial broadcasting, and he gave an interesting answer to a question from the event's host - Finlay McDonald.
FM: "How come there is no serious long-form current affairs on New Zealand television?
BI: "Because people don't want to watch it".
FM: "People do want to watch it!"
BI: "People do not want to watch it, Finlay".
FM: "Put your hands up if you'd like to watch some. There you go!"
BI: "With the greatest of respect the people in this room are socio-economic 1 and 2 living in Herne Bay, Grey Lynn or Parnell."
FM: "Put your hands up if that's true!"
BI: "I want to point this through. There is this great craving for 'It was better when Brian Edwards did that interview on the Post Office. Or Ian Fraser. But the reality is it's been tried time and time again and the public don't want to know".