Posts by Rob Stowell
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
Waiting for someone in the media scrum to challenge Key on his ‘left-wing smear campaign to avoid talking about policy’ line.
A smear is when you spread stories and rumours that you can’t back up. Allegations backed up by evidence are not smears.
A campaign is orchestrated; the ‘left-wing’ is primarily Labour and the Greens; and they are the ones who might otherwise be debating policy, so there’s an implication they are involved. If Key has evidence of this, he should be asked to provide it.
Because on all the evidence we’ve seen Labour and the Greens are keen to talk policy, and have nothing to do with Hager’s book or ‘whaledump.’
Which makes Key’s assertion a smear.
Accusing your opponent of doing what you are doing yourself is a classic Rovian tactic. But in this case not hard to challenge. Yet Key gets reported, and so far as I’ve heard, no one has even asked Cunliffe for a response.
We can do better :) -
Hard News: We can do better than this, in reply to Russell Brown,
the Gallery in particular tends not to move unless it smells blood.
This. It's been evident in much of the reporting on Labour under Goff, then Shearer, and now Cunliffe. Bully-boy stuff, the flip-side of sycophancy.
It's not everyone, and hard to pick any single individual or instance. But any pleasure in seeing it now directed at Key has to be tempered. It's kind've ugly. -
Hard News: We can do better than this, in reply to Euan Mason,
while sacking Collins would get the Nats back on track prior to the election, it would help destabilise his within-party support.
It would also put Slater's nose out. And it's possible 'pissing off the whale' is something those close to him are reluctant to do.
-
<thesighingpedant>
For some reason the adoption- eg in the Herald, last item on POA - of the PM's use of 'refute' to mean dispute or deny seems a symptom of the general decay of MSM news. I've met sub-editors who'd have made any journo who made that mistake want to crawl under a rock for a week.
And on TVNZ, someone appears to have failed the basics of Roman numerals.
Great subs also add long-term knowledge, news sense, and fact-checking. Makes me wonder how much of that slides through as well. -
Hard News: Dirty Politics, in reply to Kumara Republic,
Thanks Deep Red :)
-
Looking for examples/quotes from Mr Slater or the BlubberyhBlog that are especially egregious. There's the Greymouth headline, and the Chch quake quote- anything else especially stick out?
Asking for a friend :) -
Hard News: Media Take and Godwin's Election, in reply to Russell Brown,
I’m seriously thinking about hiding an FM transmitter with a car battery in a building or park somewhere, tuning it to a free guardband frequency and broadcasting the John Key song on an endless loop until the electoral commission track it down.
Plan!
The idea is to confess afterwards, under duress :-)
-
Hard News: Not doing justice, in reply to Hilary Stace,
Is comfortable in all environments and with people from all backgrounds.
Except television, leading a left-ish political party. Had to be said: watching him was bloody uncomfortable for the viewer. Can’t have been comfortable for DS.
Creeping anti-semitism: oddly, I don’t think it’s a response to the attack on Gaza. Most people can draw a clear line between opposition to Isreali militarisim and anti-semitism.
I think it’s just ugliness creeping out from the shadows. Some malicious and even cynical, but more ignorant. Not helped by the endless Godwins.
It’s disturbing.
eta: Might be wrong about Gaza, Stephen, that’s just my take. There is an element at least of letting off visceral dislike of the PM. I think it’s a little like people who mock Gerry Brownlee for his size. I’ve seen plenty of that, and I hate it. Plenty of good reasons to dislike what he is and stands for, and people resort to that? -
Sick to death of the blather about 'dirty politics'. Since that apparently includes strategic voting (god forbid a party think strategically?) it's become a completely meaningless term (Thanks, Mr Gower.)
"F8ck Whomeva" and burning in effigy are neither new nor especially scandalous except to the naive and hyperbolic. (Certainly not to anyone who lived through the Muldoon years.) Not especially smart, but who says letting off steam has to be smart?
Yeah- it's increasingly, embarrassingly obvious: conflict and 'gotcha' are the things the news will headline, and keep rolling. Policy is too dull. The incentive, then, is for all parties to manufacture these saleable items- a downhill spiral we can all watch on our 32" flat-screens.
On the positive side, we have the despised internet forum, home to hot-heads and invective. Where there's a good chance you'll find serious, extended debate. -
Hard News: The silence of the public square, in reply to Mark Easterbrook,
why do so many people assume Dotcom is “using” Harre and Harawira, and not the other way around?
This bemuses me too. I can't see anything Mana have given up - anything they stand for, or any policy position, or compromise, or promise. There's a huge chorus of 'sellout' but no one asking the choristers what exactly has been sold.