Posts by Russell Brown
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Hard News: The Great Unwinding, in reply to Martin Lindberg,
Way too many scare-quotes in that screed. Apparently Jon Stephenson is a “New Zealander”, a “reporter” and a “special correspondent”.
Indeed. It's the kind of reference point by which you assess a text. The fact that the author clearly hadn't even googled Jon's name before potting him as an American stooge certainly informed my reading of the rest of it. The author also seems unaware that Stars & Stripes -- which takes stories from Jon's employer, McClatchy, and other agencies -- isn't a US government newspaper and has run stories that have aggrieved the military establishments many times.
I think Yalda Hakim needs to be a bit careful of what she endorses. Seriously.
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Hard News: Home Brewed, in reply to bob daktari,
I respect how Amanda Palmer works social media... I wish her music was as inspiring... but its not, its pants
She's a performing arts graduate. I'm not big on her records, but I thought the ninja gig I saw her do in Civic Square in Wellington was brilliant.
But what you and I think matters much less than the fact that hundreds of thousands of teenage girls utterly relate to her, in a very healthy way. If I had a teenage daughter, I'd be delighted if she listened to Amanda Palmer.
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Hard News: The Great Unwinding, in reply to nzlemming,
SBS are complaining about a programme they broadcast? Wow. That’s fucked up.
No, they’re complaining about our programme to the New Zealand BSA (or not -- it's unclear whether it's a formal complaint or a defamation threat) – after *the ABC’s* Media Watch used a comment made by Jon Stephenson on Media7 as part of a clinical appraisal of the SBS dateline programme.
Yalda Hakim, the Dateline reporter has, meanwhile, alerted her Twitter followers to this screed, which contains this bizarre passage:
All implications of the American government’s desperate effort to silence doubts about its version of events, including by applying pressure to President Karzai, who’s utterly dependent upon U.S. backing, to get him to change his public statements on the matter, are invisible to the credulous “Media Watchers” – who are obviously not “Government Watchers” – at ABC.net.au. Tellingly, though I haven’t investigated the facts myself, a comment by Gillian Tebbutton quickly posted on the story-related Media Watch webpage noted this about McClatchy’s “special correspondent” Jon Stephenson:
“Did nobody at Media Watch look into the journalistic history of the New Zealand reporter who called Dateline’s story into doubt?!! Better check, guys. The man whose stories are run by Stars n Stripes magazine has a background worth exploring…"
The author very clearly did not “investigate the facts” if they believe Jon Stephenson is a US military stooge.
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Capture: Howling at the Moon, in reply to Lilith __,
You can see the Belt of Venus/earth shadow creeping up the sky. Looks like a beautiful evening in Auckland!! Was a bit chilly here.
Nah, Wellington. Chilly and beautiful.
(Also, you managed to reply to me while my comment was mistakenly saying "with permission" rather than "without". Damn.)
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And my crummy iPhone long-shot.
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And later.
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A minute or two later ...
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Can I post some #supermoon pics now?
In the hours before we flew home from Wellington, Fiona and I went with some friends (and quite a few other people) to the top of Mt Albert to watch the moon rise from behind the ranges. It was spooky and thrilling.
Credit: Fiona Rae
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This is all part of a learning process, but you’d expect that the Herald would have learned by now. It’s more a matter of courtesy than anything else. Just ask.
Ironically, the Herald is using one of my photos without permission today (credit: “Photo/Supplied”). But that’s fine – Ana’s a mate, she mentions my name and – importantly – there’s no craft in the photograph. It’s just an iPhone shot of a sign in a restaurant.
There may also be times when it’s not practical or possible to seek permission, particularly in a breaking news story. But I do think it’s easy enough to work out some practice for how and when to seek permission, given that independently-generated content appears frequently now on news websites. The kind of junior staffer who puts together the likes of the #supermoon photo feature would benefit from this kind of editorial guidance.
It does cut both ways. Whale Oil recently used several Listener pictures without permission and descended into one of his abusive toddler-tantrums when he was asked to stop doing so. But I don’t think it’s exactly symmetrical. Bloggers will often be making non-commercial use of images to illustrate a commentary on the news organisation that published the image. But the Herald was using Jackson’s picture as feature content. There’s a legal and ethical difference there.
Anyway, it’s an interesting discussion to have.
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Up Front: Making It Better, in reply to Tom Beard,
As much as I think that Out To Dinner sounds like a good idea, I can't help shaking the feeling that it has a strong undercurrent of middle class "Some Of My Best Friends" privilege.
I don't think we should get too hung up on that. If having an LGBT person as a friend -- or just meeting one over dinner and not being struck by lightning -- helps you do the right thing, then that's okay. Clem Simich's support for civil unions was a result of his son being gay -- and it made Ricardo proud of his dad. It's a small thing that was a big thing in the context of that family.
Not that I can speak, of course, being as middle class as it's possible to be without reading the property pages. And I also don't think I'm the target demographic, because I'm really struggling to think of any "on the fence" couples that I know
This is a problem. I don't know anyone I'd want to have over for dinner who would need convincing. Otoh, a young gay man I know moved to a regional centre to be with his boyfriend, who's a rugby referee. When the end-of-season refs-and-spouses dinner came around, my friend was invited, and welcomed. When I heard about that small thing it made me very happy.
... or all that many same-sex couples, come to think of it, as most of the LGBT people in my social circle seem to be either single or currently in heterosexual relationships.
Wait till you're older, sonny.
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