Posts by Craig Ranapia
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Does it move on, or continue to contrive petty stories like today’s lead?
As I've said to you on Twitter, The Herald (and Bernard Orsman in particular) are little more than obsessive trolls where Brown is concerned. I'm really sorry they didn't manage to drive an elected Mayor out of office, but it's long past time to build a bridge and get the fuck over it.
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Hard News: Bad Judgement, in reply to Biobbs,
One of the funny ones that once happened in the EC was when an opposing counsel tried to attack my independence because I was a trustee for a grass-roots environmental restoration group in the area of science I worked in.
Something the lawyer only knew because you’d fully and properly disclosed that fact in accordance with your legal, contractual and ethical obligations?
I might be wrong, but I thik what we’re talking about here wouldn’t really raise an eyebrow in an academic environment.
Maybe, maybe not. My point (and one I could have made better) is that of course tertiary institutions have rules around the use of e-mail and computers, and people like Geoff and Deborah can follow them without undue trauma – or needing to be micro-managed by their department heads. As you’ve said, and I totally agree, the bewildering thing about Taurima & Morris’ action is that they ever thought their actions were OK.
Look nobody worth taking seriously is saying Taurima or anyone else at TVNZ has to be a "political eunuch" (to use Brian Edwards' unlovely turn of phrase).
But here’s what really raised my eyebrows, because it’s not entirely clear to me.
When Taurima was re-hired after the Ikaroa-Rawhiti nomination was decided, did he or didn’t he assure management that he was no longer actively involved in the Labour Party, and would not seek selection again? Did TVNZ really have no idea this wasn’t the case until Three News rang asking for comment on their story – as some reports I’ve seen have stated?
That’s a serious question, because everything else aside, if the above is true Taurima’s position should have been untenable simply because he misled his employers – even if by omission rather than commission.
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Hard News: Bad Judgement, in reply to Geoff Lealand,
This really is a distraction and very small cheese. So, if I use my university email address to forward on messages from Labour or the Greens, I am breaking some vow?
Would you like to share the University of Waikato’s policy around staff use of university e-mail accounts and computers? I’m sure much of it is blindingly obvious (do your porn on your own broadband, for example), and highly dependent on the basic good sense and professionalism of staff. YMMV on whether that's in plentiful supply at TVNZ nowadays.
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It’s Rusbridger. (If I’m allowed to correct a prefect’s spelling under the rules)
Thank you, Rich, but I do prefer it without the lingering passive-aggressive chaser.
As for Boris Johnson? He was the first to admit that the tiresome scut-work of editing a weekly magazine was firmly delegated to full-time deputies. (One of whom, Siôn Simon, ironically enough quit when he was elected to Parliament as the Labour MP for Birmingham Erdington.)
What he’s more (and atypically) discreet about is whether he flat out broke an undertaking to then-leader William Hague that he’d resign if elected to Parliament. The issue was forced a few years later when David Cameron made clear to Johnson he could be a full time member of the shadow Cabinet or a job-sharing magazine editor and backbencher.And I’m one of those Spectator readers who thinks having a full-time editor who is totally independent of Westminster is a good return to form.
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Hard News: Bad Judgement, in reply to Chris Waugh,
But overall, I’m still uncomfortable with the pretense of objective truth. I prefer the European approach in which everybody knows the editorial and political leanings of each newspaper before they pick it up.
Up to a point, Chris. Yes, you’d have to be a complete idiot not to realize that (say) The Guardian is editorially center-left and The Daily Telegraph... isn't. (Which, by the way, is very different from being glorified newsletters for the Labour and Conservative Parties, which neither is.) But I very much doubt Ian MacGregor or Alan Rushbridger would be allowed to treat editing a major metropolitan daily as a sidebar to establishing a political career. That’s not only ethically cretinous, but very bad business.
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Hard News: Bad Judgement, in reply to Rich of Observationz,
I think people who don’t want another three years of Key government should concentrate on the real issues.
And it’s really bad form to moderate or tone police a forum where you don’t have actual moderator privileges.
No, you’ll have to take an unpaid leave of absence for the period of the campaign, generally speaking
Quite – it’s something Parekura Horomia and his managers at the Department of Labour managed quite easily when he stood for Ikaroa-Rāwhiti. It's only rocket science if you want it to be.
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Hard News: Bad Judgement, in reply to Tristan,
So it seems to me people have an issue with Shane because he didn’t wear his bias like a badge.
OK, you tell yourself that. I don’t know how the hell I can make any clearer my issue is with Taurima’s blatant lack of political neutrality (can’t really think of a bigger “badge” than seeking to become a parliamentary candidate), and an AWOL management culture at TVNZ that should never have let things get this far.
And for the record, if Paul Henry is using Three’s newsroom as a platform to restart his political career we can being drawing some real equivalences here. Tough interviewing – even being a bit of a dick – is no more ipso facto “political bias” when Paul Henry does it on Three, than when ‘Scary Mary’ Wilson or Kim Hill are ruffling feathers on National Radio.
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Hard News: Bad Judgement, in reply to Russell Brown,
Well, Al Morrison’s working for the State Services Commission, perhaps he can fly up to Auckland and facilitate a few workshops for TVNZ management and staff on the nuances of public sector political neutrality and basic media ethics?
All I can think of is thank God TVNZ and Radio NZ, unlike the BBC, isn’t desperately trying to make a politically tricky case to Parliament and the public for increasing the license fee that provides the bulk of their operating income.
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Even the most aggressive reporters will never turn on colleagues who cross to the other side to work for politicians or take money for media training in the way they might scorn those who display any political beliefs.
No, but let’s take Radio New Zealand for example. Kathryn Ryan is a bit of an oddity in not leaving the political editor slot to become a political spin doctor (or in Al Morrison’s case to join DOC). But there’s actually a clear process in place to manage any actual or perceived conflict of interest, and I’m damned if I can see any such thing in place at TVNZ.
It should be an absolute fraking no-brainer that senior editorial management at a public broadcaster don’t use their workplace for party political purposes. Ever. Really. WTF were Morris & Taurima thinking?
Oh, and as a sidebar. Much as I despise Paul Henry, if the best Taurima's defenders can do is bring up Henry standing for Parliament fifteen years ago, while working on-air NOT in senior editorial for a private broadcaster, you're reaching.
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Hard News: The Uses of Dotcom, in reply to Graeme Edgeler,
Had the census not been delayed by the Government (and, you know, the Canterbury Earthquake), we’d have had the boundaries a couple of years ago.
Thank you, Graeme. Though I’m not blaming the RC for anything, you’re quite right on the points of fact. Even there, while there were plenty of arguments at the time that Williamson made the wrong call and passing the relevant legislation under urgency was bad process, I have serious doubts he was motivated by some cunning long con to screw up Labour’s candidate selections two general elections down the road. Nor am I seeing any credible evidence that the timetable this time around was cunningly contrived by the Government just to do over “the left”.