Posts by Russell Brown
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Hard News: Reading the Numbers, in reply to izogi,
I enjoy his ability to deliver complex info, but I wish they’d stop with those shots of him staring into space in some kind of abstract wonder. It seems a bit pointless to me and makes the presentation more about the presenter than the topic.
For sure. Some of the docos are worse than others for that. There's one that seems to largely consist of him being driven through America in a car.
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Hard News: Reading the Numbers, in reply to Grant Robertson,
Not wanting to be picky, but the issue of the cuts to technology teachers was picked up on Friday, and David Shearer was commenting on it that day, e.g. in this TV3 story
Fair call. I was on a datura bender from Friday morning till Monday and hence missed everything.
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Hard News: Reading the Numbers, in reply to Hilary Stace,
. (I’m going to particularly miss that handsome English academic who narrates various cosmological programmes).
That's Brian Cox. He was in an actual pop band (D:Ream) as a young man.
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Hard News: Reading the Numbers, in reply to Tom Semmens,
At the end of the day, even the defenders of TVNZ 7 cannot deny it is being shut down because it didn’t make itself essential enough to a wide enough spectrum of New Zealanders to muster enough support to justify its funding and its existence in the face of a hostile government.
That's a very poor argument. Radio New Zealand is the most listened-to radio station in the country, and that hasn't saved it from the multi-year budget freeze imposed by the government.
FWIW, the people who come up and talk to me about Media7 (and it happens quite a lot now) are older New Zealanders -- they're the ones who'll lose most when the channel ends.
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Hard News: Reading the Numbers, in reply to merc,
People are not inclined to double-check results that agree with their prejudices.
To harp on, I want to know why Coleman has this prejudice? For what gain? For whose gain? Because if the answers to these questions are personally driven, then he is not being a representative Minister, in my view.
Steady on, everyone. Coleman did actually take to Cabinet a recommendation that TVNZ 7's funding be continued. Key was apparently relaxed about that, but Joyce (and English apparently) were not.
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Hard News: Reading the Numbers, in reply to Sacha,
Those in charge of strategy like Joyce and MccCully would be using it to gauge potential political backlash. Just like potential commercial partners would for profitability.
It certainly suited them, but I think the bogus figure was a matter of genuine ineptitude in pursuit of a low-sounding number.
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Hard News: The Editorial Image, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
Might be a niche for Public Address, an open online gallery....
PA-rody! We have takeoff! Welcome to the scorn fields...Ooh. We only need tick a box to reformat any post Capture-style, so if you wanted to do some curating ...
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Further in this unnerving vein, 1925’s Mental Defectives and Sexual Offenders: Report of The Committee of Inquiry Appointed by the Hon Sir Maui Pomare, KBE, CMG, Minister of Health, plucked from obscurity a few years ago by the tireless Jonathan Ah Kit.
It’s quite terrifying. Quote:
There are many cases of mentally defective girls, liberated from institutions in New Zealand for the purpose of engaging in domestic service or other work, returning afterwards the mothers of illegitimate children, probably also mentally defective. Unless such are to be maintained for years as wards of the State in institutions, should they ever again be allowed their liberty unless they undergo the operation of sterilization?
Shudder.
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Hard News: The Editorial Image, in reply to Hilary Stace,
Thanks for that link to my article on eugenics, Russell. I wrote that in the mid 90s, so its a bit out of date now.
I feel a bit daft that I didn’t say it was by you when I linked to it :-) Was too engaged with the content ...
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Hard News: The Editorial Image, in reply to Sacha,
Strongly recommend Hilary's essay. The revelations about the Plunket Society's underpinnings were eye-opening for me.
Yeah. You can never quite think about Plunket in the same way when you become aware of that stuff.
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