Posts by giovanni tiso
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I/S
I find the idea that voters have a "responsibility" to elect your preferred government deeply troubling and undemocratic.
And Rich Lock.
If 'The Left' continues to sit around and bitch about media bias, what is likely to be the result?
I find these lucid and impassioned refutations of arguments that absolutely no-one has put forward to be utterly engrossing. Can we have more please?
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Hard News: Limping Onwards, in reply to Gareth Ward,
But it's generally rarer to find people making consistent complaints about voter engagement and media coverage regardless of which "side" is benefitting. There are a few more to be found here given the broader interest in the political game*, but as a general statement I find most people complaining about voters not engaging or biased media coverage to be pretty partisan based - the switch in narrative between KB and the Standard being a clear example
Quite beside the impicit bias toward free market ideology inherent in how our commercial media operate, I think it is pretty uncontroversial to suggest that they privilege political scandals and controversies (in that they sell) over policy issues (in that they don't). This is a problem for politicians, and especially opposition parties, and even more especially progressives. Radio New Zealand is biased towards public interest information, therefore implicitly public ownership of government and assets, if you like. But it's just one voice.
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Hard News: Limping Onwards, in reply to Gareth Ward,
However I suspect that when "your side" isn't getting favourable coverage or reaction it's because the people just aren't getting the message; and when the "other side" aren't it's because of the insight of the people and balanced accurate reporting.
I like me a good sweeping, unwarranted statement.
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Hard News: Limping Onwards, in reply to Lew Stoddart,
As far as ‘look it up’ went; Giovanni had already indicated that he couldn’t be arsed reading further on the topic, so I decided against belabouring the detail.
Excuses. *Sigh*.
Surely if I fail to read any further into your writings it's your fault, no?
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Hard News: Limping Onwards, in reply to Paul Williams,
Are you saying that in European nations there is a deeper engagement? I'd bloody love that!
In Italy there is a much deeper engagement and I think we can all agree that the results speak for themselves. (But no, seriously, it's enormously complicated. Still, there are aspects of the wretched politics of my home country that I'd gladly import wholesale.)
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Hard News: Limping Onwards, in reply to Sacha,
But implying the failure to engage is all down to the voters or media as Curran did doesn't leave much room for constructive action.
And saying outright that it's completely the opposite, as Lew does, seems unhelpful to me as well.
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Hard News: Limping Onwards, in reply to Jan Farr,
I think I'm trying to point out that the voter has some responsibility here.
I'd like to think so. The idea that the narrow focus in our media and the difficulty in reaching the public are wholesale 'excuses' nicely exonerates society from taking any more interest in politics than absolutely necessary in order to locate a polling booth correctly on election day. I keep returning to Jesson's analysis of the hollowness of New Zealand society in this respect - I think it still bears true, and it's a genuine constraint on our political class, much as politics itself has contributed to it over time. But I'd like to see people acknowledge that the interplay is much more complex than "if you can't communicate your policies then it's your fault", or that it's up to the parties alone to agitate on the matters that matter in elections.
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Hard News: Limping Onwards, in reply to Jan Farr,
Under 'Power' Giovanni? Please explain.
Whoops! Parker.
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Hard News: Limping Onwards, in reply to Sofie Bribiesca,
Goff may blunder ,but he admits when he's wrong
When he was out of Parliament, after the 1990 election, he was asked about Rogernomics and he said that the policies were right, they just hadn't been explained well enough. That's not the talk of a man that admits to mistakes. (And he was speaking as a private citizen on the occasion.)
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Hard News: Limping Onwards, in reply to Russell Brown,
And yet, how many times have you heard Goff interviewed on the radio and come away wondering what the hell he actually said?
Oh, no question. And I think there is cause for doubting whether Goff actually believes in the platform. Again, I'm the guy who thinks they ought to kick him out. However that doesn't reassure me that the next leader - so long as he might be more interested in being 'successful' (as per Lew's diktat) than right - will articulate an equally anti-cuts agenda. And I'm rather attached to that aspect of the current Labour incarnation.