This is not new stuff by any means - the seminal work on this is the chapter titled "The Degradation of Sport" in the the book "The Culture of Narcissism" (Picador), by the American philosopher Christopher Lasch, way back in the 70s. Essential reading - boy, was he ahead of the game (pun intended).

Jeez Russell, harden up, man.

For some time now, commentators, bloggers and others have been complaining about how limp the mainstream media is in interview - but when Oliver Driver pushes Phil Goff (and the envelope) a little, the handwringing about that is near-deafening.

Well, you can't have it both ways. Would Craig Ranapia rather we returned to the good ol' days when Holyoake wanted to see the questions beforehand, and Muldoon banned some reporters?

As to the substance of the interview itself: Craig Ranapia may tapdance uninvited on Phil Goff's behalf all he likes, but it's absolutely possible that Labour could dump Helen Clark before the election, in a futile re-run of the Mike Moore scenario.

If nobody has mooted that before now, you read it here first (and for the record, I write this as someone who has never voted for the National party - yet).