Hard News: A depressing day in court
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Shaz,
Saw the horse whip mum story on stuff this morning, and through some happy coincidence was trawling through kiwiblog archives and red the post & comments section following her original trial - sickening. Thank god the kid had a witness this time. What depresses me is that the best chance this case has of helping Bradford's bill is if the mother and husband are aquitted.
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Do you have a link to the old kiwiblog thread Shaz? I'd be morbidly curious to reread it.
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It was intresting that the boy tried to take a soft ball bat to his father and punched his mother...
I wonder where he learned that hitting people and using objects to hit people is an effective way to get what he wants...
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Shaz,
Ugh. Here it is.
http://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2005/11/why_does_she_still_have_her_ki.html#comments
Looks like you'll have to cut n paste, I'm computer illiterate. Also, I tell a lie about which post I was reading - it was the one about the mother who had recently lost her partner (I think from memory) who drove drunk with her 2yo and was stopped by the truckie who she later thanked on tv....
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Shaz,
whoops. nervous twitch meets spacebar
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Wasn't it his step dad, who complained the boy didn't have enough respect, that he took to with the bat?
But these people strike me as being unfit parents. Very glad there was a witness this time, and I hope his biological dad is able to give him a safe home.
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I wonder where he learned that hitting people and using objects to hit people is an effective way to get what he wants...
I'm guessing it wasn't on the web.
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"There were reporters crying. It's incredibly unsettling....[NZ Herald]
It's unsettling to think of reporters crying. How can we believe they're giving us the hard facts if they're really such softies at heart? But I digress ...
So you were present when the Private Equity Groups scoped out Radio Live? Did they wear Black Hats? Were their cold dead eyes covered by sunglasses?
Seriously 'Private Equity' companies are a blight on our economy - they rarely add value for anyone but themselves. They will typically buy a company, strip assets or downsize staff in order to gain 'efficencies', and then once the bottom line has been 'improved' the company is on-sold or floated on the stock exchange at a great profit. Feltex is a good example of what can happen.
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What depresses me is that the best chance this case has of helping Bradford's bill is if the mother and husband are aquitted.
Yes that was my first thought. If the parents are found quilty, then the pro-smacking brigade will simple argue that the law as it stands works, so there is no need to change it.
Also have a feeling that they will promote the scoop story that Russell linked to. Try and cloud people into seeing the parents as victims of a volent child, who anti-smackers are going after.
Man I'm in a depressing mood. It's black friday, Black Caps Lost, Spurs are out of the UEFA cup. Thank god the Crusaders aren't playing until tomorrow. -
Someone who isn't in a position to comment by name invited me to relay their perspective on Ralston's comments:
You know there was excruciating irony hearing Bill Ralston on Morning Report this morning hold TVNZ up as some kind of gold standard in news and current affairs. Anyone who has regularly watched PBS in the US or CBC in Canada or the BBC or the ABC in Australia would know just how far TVNZ is from being a model for quality public broadcasting.
There’s a lot of spot news reporting but little analysis. World news is fairly desultory and driven by images. If Sunday got canned, who would miss it? It certainly wouldn’t be me. For example, talking to the family of Graeme Burton’s victim is not investigative or deep journalism. The opposite in fact – it is the easiest kind of journalism to do. You’re guaranteed an angry/tearful reaction and some poignant quotes but it is hardly groundbreaking or challenging. Unfortunately a story like that encapsulates what Sunday thinks it should be doing.
I can't really disagree with this. Sunday began as a fit of hubris on the part of a former new chief, Heaton Dyer, and I also wonder about its cause to exist, given its recent performance. It doesn't seem like a healthy production, or a good advertisement for the current news and current affairs culture.
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A parent and child are in Foodtown, and the parent lightly smacks his/her child for disobeying a very important instruction. On the child's part it is willful disobedience and on the parent's part it is considered and done without anger. If someone sees this happen, could they report this to the police and will the parent be prosecuted under Labour's new law? Help me with the truth here; there's been so much misinformation from all parties.
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I wonder where he learned that hitting people and using objects to hit people is an effective way to get what he wants
i guess he just wanted to show that he cared about them
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merc,
Get rid of the desks, give people like Keith Ng a digi-cam and a credit card and let them loose, hell I'm happy to pay for that, also the Govt. must stop taking the dividend.
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"could they report this to the police and will the parent be prosecuted under Labour's new law?"
Yes to the first, the decision on it being prosecuted will be up the Police.
Indeed the situation is the same as being drunk in a public place, which is technically illegal. You could walk down Queen street on a Saturday night and report all the drunks you saw, the police would be obliged to "investigate: but I'm pretty sure no-one would get prosecuted.
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Russell
You are so right about Ralston. He was a real "bah humbug" self serving rubbish. TVNZ news and current affairs is not superior. Cambell Live consistently outshines TV one's Close up often on the same story lines and with I suspect far less money.
Mark Sainsbury has improved things but it is the content that is at fault. The only point Ralston made that was worth listening to was that there are probably too many lawyers accountants and HR people. But that is not really the issue which is programme quality in all areas. -
Also have a feeling that they will promote the scoop story that Russell linked to. Try and cloud people into seeing the parents as victims of a volent child, who anti-smackers are going after.
They can try (and the strained rationalisations seem to be rolling in already), but the account of the third-party witness, who has no reason to lie, directly contradicts the account relayed by Dave Crampton on some key points. Hopefully he'll now stop depicting these people as victims of their terrible children and think a bit harder about the violence in this family.
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Thanks, Sonic. That's helpful so far.
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merc,
Oooh, oooh, not likely, sounds like Dave C has Confirmation Bias,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias
Hat tip Agent Riddely.
My fav is My Side bias. -
yes you can't really expect PBS and audience maximization programming to coexist in the same channel, except in rare circumstances. the dividend requirement is a blunt, foolish accountacy method of pretending to require accountability.
Andrew S, there is rather a lot on this in these PA threads if you'd like to read through them here, and here are good places to start. But in short, the s59 bill doesn't impact on the likelihood of whether parents will be prosecuted, it just removes a particular defence for those the Police have decided to press charges against. There is as much chance of parents being charged now for the example you cite as there will be after it is passed. Suggestions to the contrary are all part of the bill's opponents' misinformation campaign.
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Hopefully he'll now stop depicting these people as victims of their terrible children and think a bit harder about the violence in this family.
Well, if they are terrible, it's not hard to see how they got that way.
You are so right about Ralston.
Actually, one thing Russell missed is the 20-30 year comment which, for me, was the real joke. I may be biased, seeing as how my father in law is a former TVNZ news editor who was cleaned out in the Great Purge of the late 80s, when TVNZ was shifted to Auckland, but for me that's a far more notable period when TVNZ started turning to shit. The last 20 years has been the decline, in my opinion.
Have a look at the TVNZ docos Maori TV replays from the 70s and 80s and ask yourself how much of a similar quality you've seen in the 90s, for example.
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yep, the rot started when they hired Prof Fred Shook as a consultant on how to americanize their news and turn it from the BBC model to the Dr Phil model.
My fav is My Side bias
me too, because my side isn't biased ;-)
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merc,
Asked in court by Mr Holmes if she considered her actions as her exercising parental discipline, Crown replied: "Sort of. But it's the first time I have hit her in this way. I was pissed off. There was no need for her to slap the baby."
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10433920
I just don't know what to call this, drunk? -
Holmes was the harbinger of the rot, that grandstanding merchant of emotional pornography. He was great for ratings, but bugger-all else.
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Further to Sonic, re: Andrew's "light smack" scenario - anyone could make such a complaint to the police NOW, and the police would be similarly obliged to investigate. The only difference that the repeal of S59 makes is that it weakens a parent's "reasonable force" defence in the event that they are charged with assault.
In fact (as I understand it) the law will still permit reasonable force as an argument in some instances (e.g. when the child's behaviour is a danger to itself or others), just not for the purposes of "correction".
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merc,
In those days a chimp would have rated the same at that time slot.
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