Posts by Tinakori
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Keith's article is a well-written example of the higher self-pity. Honestly, can't people remember when Labour was the big dog and those on the right were saying the media was crap cause they lost. Self pity is no more attractive for the left than for the right. Wayne Hope in the Daily Blog today on our supposed one party state is another example. I guess its all about going through the stages of grief.
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Hard News: The humanity, in reply to Katharine Moody,
But the collective culture (especially with male journalists) is quite often about the pursuit of the weakened.”
Did you not see Tova O'Brien with Winston Peters and Rebecca Wright with Laila Harre on Saturday night?
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There is nothing at all unusual about what's happening. In this journalists are as non-partisan as it is possible to get. Blood in the water attracts the interest of them and their viewers, listeners and readers. Bill English got treated the same, as did Jenny Shipley and Jim Bolger (the latter moved his press conferences to his office to generate a less confrontational atmosphere and then cancelled them all together). Poor old Geoffrey Palmer was another example of the walking dead. If you look weak you get treated as prey and everyone tries to pick you off at the back of the herd - your colleagues first and foremost and then the media who watch and take part in the hunt like jackals and vultures (those not pejoratives just zoological observation). Occasionally, like Helen Clark after her first four years as Labour leader the weak and the preyed upon can change the momentum but it is rare. In Clark's case she had the good fortune to still be leader when the Bolger/Peters coalition started to turn off voters in a big way. She went from prey to one of the predators and the journalists went from laughter and condescension to respect and, in too many cases, awe. The manners of journalists have changed a bit but Paddy Gower does remind me of Bill Ralston who pioneered meathead TV political journalism (that's not necessarily a criticism by the way). But even in the more orderly and respectful days the underlying search for sensation is exactly the same.
It's the news biz, for God's sake. -
Hard News: Five further thoughts, in reply to giovanni tiso,
"Italy has such a law. I am fond of it"
Ah, those poor dumb voters, they just can't be trusted to make the right decisions
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Hard News: Five further thoughts, in reply to CJM,
ne sector of society sees these people and understands their need to be rewarded, respected. Another sector of our society doesn’t, gets irritated by their neediness.
I guess you are describing Labour and the Greens in that second category - I think that is how they are perceived by many of the people in the jobs you describe. I spend a lot of my working life with large numbers of what were once heartland Labour voters - the skilled and semi-skilled in manual and service work. I am often struck by how poorly they are represented in Parliament. State sector employees like teachers and former bureaucrats are over represented in Labour and the skilled and semi-skilled working with their hands and brains are way underrepresented. And they know it.
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Hard News: Interview: Glenn Greenwald, in reply to Not The Messiah,
"Agendas seem more and more apparent with possible exception on TV anyway of John Campbell."
Even John Campbell would dispute that assertion. In fact I suspect he would be insulted by it.
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Southerly: Sign this Petition, in reply to tussock,
"but for the most part and certainly today and in the near future: being clean, open, and honest, playing the ball and not the player, is a left wing idea for government."
You must have had no contact with the Labour Governments between 1999-2008 to believe that. Think of Trevor Mallard's heavying of a low level contractor in favour of a future Labour MP, Jim Anderton's veto of the appointment of a comms person in the Ministry of Agriculture because they lived with John Key's press sec and Phil Goff's unilateral release of what was supposed to be a confidential conversation between the leader of the Opposition and a US Sec of State or Dep Sec of State. Then there is the ample evidence supplied by journalists of Helen Clark's leaking of information on a Police commissioner. Or the honey trap for Richard Worth. Then there was the left wing attack blog, the Standard many of whose authors were employed in the Beehive. Those are just the obvious ones. All power to those who attack political trickery but it is more credible when they do so without wearing a political eyepatch.
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Southerly: Sign this Petition, in reply to Sacha,
It not only sees that possibility it admires the strategy as a commercial strategy but strategies can also have multiple, complementary and reinforcing objectives.
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Southerly: Sign this Petition, in reply to Hebe,
You seem to have got the wrong end of the stick. Hilary was quoting Nicky Hager reassuring people the book would not affect the election result but would have a long term impact. Quite clearly its timing was intended to affect the election result but the impact appears to have been an unintended one of strengthening the Conservatives and NZ First and reducing the oxygen available for the left and Labour in particular. Flattered as I am to be seen as part of the vast right wing conspiracy my comment was simply pointing out that Nicky Hager was engaging in some post hoc rationalisation on the impact of his unguided missile.
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Southerly: Sign this Petition, in reply to Hilary Stace,
Surely the timing of the release of Nicky Hager's book at the beginning of the election campaign means it was intended to affect the election? He can't expect us to believe otherwise. Or is he spinning and trying to step back from what appears to be the main impact - increasing votes for Winston Peters and Colin Craig and further weakness in the Labour vote? His rhetorical gymnastics and holier than thou stance are starting to remind me of the master - Winston Himself