Hard News by Russell Brown

Russell & Wallace, love this and the tiny stage!

What a perfect way to spend a Sunday afternoon. Thanks for putting these events on. I heard more than enough insights from the attendees both on the stage and off it.

What stayed with me though were the comments by Tina about having a seat at the table. I work at the edge of lots of projects around the place and I would echo that. There are often a handful of the same people involved in many projects and they would love more input from all of us.

What I liked about this IRL was the sheer range of topics. Everything from Brexit to data journalism. I thought ex Waikato farmer John Lord might have got a namecheck on the legalisation talk although maybe the mentions of Colorado implied that.

I wish I had written it down but perhaps best quote came from Harkanwal Singh who was surprised to learn that a story didn’t need to be true to get published or something along those lines.

His comments about how stories get up to 2 hrs of prime space and then they disappear if they don’t get clicks seems right but it is still worrisome. It does mean that editors are not being editorial they are going for the lowest quality metric.

Now watching the video so I can check that one and it is:

"Things don’t have to be true to be published"

It was a very enjoyable event and having Julia Deans singing was special,

I have to admit to submitting the question about Chris Bishop’s political affiliation!

Good question! Great blend! Wallace and the Bish is a show I'd watch - though ratings would inevitably drop right off following the departure of the chief dragger and audience favourite Tze Ming Mok to further her career in being irrepressibly awesome.