OnPoint: Brownlee: Now 93.5% fact-free!
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Bloody nice work on your energy analysis, Keith. I am slightly reassured to know that we have at least one clever journalist in this country.
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Did you happen to catch parliament the other day - the last general debate I think? Repeated efforts to not-quite-directly call Mr Key "Slippery John" ("The man the media have dubbed 'Slippery John'") were ruled out of order,
Subsequently someone tried to, in a but-I-didn't-say-it-was-about-anyone-specific way, read out the dictionary definition of 'slippery'. Which was ruled to still be an implication, and out of order,
Cue complaints about the dictionary being ruled out of order.
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Subsequently someone tried to, in a but-I-didn't-say-it-was-about-anyone-specific way, read out the dictionary definition of 'slippery'. Which was ruled to still be an implication, and out of order,
Cue complaints about the dictionary being ruled out of order.
*sigh* One of the first things I learned in high school debate club is that 'my dictionary is bigger than yours' is not a persuasive or endearing form of argument.
Hey, in my dictionary the primary definition of 'bitch' is "the female of the dog". I like most females almost as much as I like most dogs. What's the problem?
I just hope the next Speaker - unlike the incumbent - is going to be a little less tolerant of being treated like a numpty in a silly hat with bells on.
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This was a few months back, at the beginning of "Phase I" of my conspiracy for numeracy.
The Numerista?
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so you're saying that it's really Brownlee that's the slippery one? .... (or just clueless)
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I rather suspect that the "Slippery John" meme wasn't actually created by Labour, but adopted from the wild. The Standard was using it as far back as December, in this YouTube clip:
The Standard uses it at every opportunity now, and there's clearly a conscious effort to do so. No Right Turn and others have used it recently too. Labour just saw a line it liked and ran it, which got it into the papers.
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Great post Keith.
I assume you heard the articles on National Radio on Monday, about PR manipulation of mediaon a positive note, i caught a bit of TVNZ7 news at 8pm last night, it wasn't too bad. Definitely more in-depth that the tv one infotainment
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Good stuff Keith. Great to think that there is a journalist who doesn't insult my intelligence as TV reporters seem to do.
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Was there allmost a 'chuck you down the stairs moment' in Brownlees comments?
"..With all due respect – we can terminate this interview if you want – but you've got to sharpen up a bit here.."
Scary
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on a positive note, i caught a bit of TVNZ7 news at 8pm last night, it wasn't too bad. Definitely more in-depth that the tv one infotainment
I haven't managed to catch it yet, but I've heard good things from people. They don't have much in the way of resources, but if that means more news off the satellite and none of the dreaded live crosses, it's a bonus.
Oh, and Media7 went well last night. It'll be a good first show.
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Just chiming in with the praise - I look forward to more of these stories on an even more regular basis. :D
What Nicky said at the conference really resonated with me actually, in that it's actually really hard to fight that kind of linguistic snowball effect. And the 'slippery Key' one is going to be especially persistent, especially since there *is* a grain of truth to it.
I have a healthy degree of skepticism about National policy and the lack thereof. But by framing it as an ad hominem, we lose sight of what we actually want from our Opposition. While this might not be an especially popular view, I actually appreciated that Key didn't start shooting his mouth off as soon as the AIA story broke. Ideally, you'd prefer him to have an informed opinion on the issue, but at least he didn't cop out with the reactionary tactics we've come to expect from Brownlee et al. And yet he was briefly pilloried for it.
Thoughts?
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Was there allmost a 'chuck you down the stairs moment' in Brownlees comments?
"..With all due respect – we can terminate this interview if you want – but you've got to sharpen up a bit here.."
Scary
Steve:
What I find scary is that kind of bullshit. Hey, I could make some snarky crack about Mallard 'beating up' on a journo every time he opens his mouth, but that contributes exactly what to a rational and substantive policy discussion?
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actually to me it sounded more like a Muldoon moment from decades past (note to Nat MPs - that's not a compliment ...)
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I assume you heard the articles on National Radio on Monday, about PR manipulation of media
Mark: I found them interesting, but would suggest that Radio NZ needs to clean up it's own act more than a little.
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Mark: I found them interesting, but would suggest that Radio NZ needs to clean up it's own act more than a little.
true. and they're probably one of the more impartial/reliable news sources in NZ...
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true. and they're probably one of the more impartial/reliable news sources in NZ...
And I do want to be fair-minded here: In a much more modest way, I know what it's like to have a deadline that won't move by one second, not matter how much you rant and swear, and putting the bird call of the day on a loop just isn't an option. Leads won't pan out, interview subjects will blow you off, and the clock is always ticking, ticking, ticking.
The temptation to just cut and paste a PR, and leave a pair of spin doctors to shout their talking points at each other is always there. And it's not always resisted.But, God, I do wish most folks in the media would try a little harder. I just had to weep at Close Up last night. This could have been an opportunity for Mark Sainsbury to justify the business class ticket to London with a substantive, thoughtful long-form interview with Don MacKinnon. Silly me. He got shoe-horned between a cretinous non-piece on the Diana Inquest, and Ralph Finnes' uncle shilling his new book.
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... and who decided to put those grisly ultra-close up macro pictures of sainsbury's face on the side of auckland buses? argh!
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keith, two words - "thank" and "you".
on a positive note, i caught a bit of TVNZ7 news at 8pm last night, it wasn't too bad. Definitely more in-depth that the tv one infotainment
oh thank god. bring on freeview and TV7 news at my house (we're getting there).
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... and who decided to put those grisly ultra-close up macro pictures of sainsbury's face on the side of auckland buses? argh!
The thought processes of TVNZ's publicity department, like the peace of God Surpasseth human understanding. But all Sainsbury does is make me break into the chorus of 'I Am The Walrus'. Guyon Espiner, on the other hand, brings out my Jewish maternal instincts: I want to drag his manorexic arse home and start force-feeding him deep-fried Mars bars.
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Congratulations on an excellent post. Independence is something to be treasured. We seem unable to receive the unedited truth from mainstream media. I discussed the subject on the Eastbourne ferry a couple of weeks ago with a couple of acquaintances that earn a living out of PR. They said they are no longer surprised how often their biased views on subjects are printed verbatim. Particularly on weeks that are short on news, by journalists who either do not have the time or experience to do some background.
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Fantastic post Keith. Regular analysis of this nature would hopefully have the effect of getting politicians to pull their socks up, to avoid being embarassed. Hopefully your approach will catch on more widely and it won't just be up to you!
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In some ways it seems surprising that it has taken so long for spin doctors to catch onto the mere exposure effect. Wonder why Nike bother to put their swoosh on everything? Or say a ubiquitous pair of golden arches...
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Freeview, increasing the digital divide since 2007...
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We seem unable to receive the unedited truth from mainstream media.
Waiter, a finger bowl for Mr. Pilate. I once had a similar conversation at a party with a PR flack, and (my big bad) I just couldn't resist laughing in his face. Sorry, but I just couldn't take seriously this crisis of conscience from someone who bolted from the newsroom -- taking his plump contact book -- because the money was so much better, and had precisely no intention of going back through that busy revolving door.
Perhaps that's just the free market I love coming back to bite me in the arse, but I don't have to like it. :)
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These people are trying to put a bit of gloss on a very big turd
or is mr Brownlee trying to smear a bit of brown stuff all over some fairly unalarming information?
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