Posts by simon g
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Happy Birthday, and thanks for all your work.
I wonder how many people realize what a valuable resource Public Address still is. There are not many places online where you can follow old stories from the Clark and Key years, revisit old debates and reflect on our wisdom and prescience (or lack thereof!). I often find myself reacting to today's news and thinking "hang on, didn't we do this before?". And the search engine says "yes, we did".
Those old dudes churning out columns could do worse than consult this website. It works better than their selective memories.
Anyway, I know you're much more than PA and I hope you enjoy your day.
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Insurrection
(won't win, but I feel obliged to complain every year that the first part of the year gets ignored, and we actually do Word of Recent Months)
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Hard News: Public Address Word of the…, in reply to Allison Oosterman,
Motu…as used by Dr Ashley Bloomfield and has now become fixed in the vernacular.
Yes. Always noteworthy when a word enters another language. It's part of NZ English now.
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I suppose the number of people reading the Berl report - even a summary - will be dwarfed by the number seeing the utterly misleading Newshub twist on it tonight, selling it as "They Didn't Want You To Know". Along with the ridiculous vox pops.
Any hope that we really were going to make an informed choice has pretty much died. I want to weep.
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I realize that the PA conversation these days has moved to Twitter and other social media, but I just wanted to make a note of a complaint that I registered with Newshub today.
On the AM show today, Duncan Garner asked a planted question to Judith Collins. It was provided to him by Collins’ staff. During the day various media outlets have hinted that this is how it happened, with subsequent questions to Collins about her actions, but (sadly) they seem reluctant to make that clear in their reporting. This, of course, is how the players get away with the grubby game. They are not called to account.
I want to make clear that I am not making a complaint about an interviewer’s bias (always a matter of perception) or joining the general grumbles about “the media”. It is about the essential integrity of the interview process, as practised by Duncan Garner this morning.
This was not simply a “tip-off” from a source, a common occurrence. A tip-off is (or should be) followed by further enquiries of relevant parties. This was doing Collins’ bidding, unchallenged. When interviewers are complicit in asking questions that have been given to them by a politician’s staff, then they are no longer journalists in any meaningful sense. I do not expect much from Newshub in response, but in any case I thought I would share it here.
Cheers
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Something everybody knew but some pretended not to: the level 4 lockdown was not the real reason Bauer shut down its NZ magazines.
Today they've shut down the Australian ones too. 70 staff made redundant.
A few apologies would be in order, I think (but don't expect).
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Yes, nuanced is a fair description.
It's really an extension of the media mirror game, which is more evident now than ever before. The NZ media report on Ardern and/or NZ, and then they relay international reports on Ardern/NZ (often of dubious merit), and then they comment on the response in NZ to those international reports, and so the cycle continues. Each day a new contribution (today, Bloomberg).
Because we are globally insignificant, this is a new experience for us: what is happening in NZ is being widely reported (accurately or not) not because we are important, but because the virus is. Covid-19 is happening everywhere else, so the different approaches and results around the globe are news. For the most part, this overseas commentary isn't really about New Zealand at all.
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I wake up, I stay in bed without guilt. It's my patriotic duty to have a lie-in. Love me a lockdown.
Anyway, this was my morning laugh (from the UK):
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Thanks Graeme (and Andrew).
Going in the opposite direction, it would seem less likely now that the PM would call a snap election. I'm sure she has no plans to, but things can change ... NZF could unravel, Shane Jones could push his luck too far, etc.
But all kinds of practical problems then have to be considered: imagine a campaign without people gathering in large numbers (insert ACT launch jokes here). No rallies, no marches, no handshakes ... no baby kissing?
Selfie-isolation?
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"Buyback"
Several options related to the gun laws, but this is probably the headline choice. A news staple for half the year.