Author Archive
Romney faces a ‘Vast Left Wing Conspiracy’. OMG!
Highlights from Kevin Liptak’s CNN post: Romney cites ‘vast left wing conspiracy’ Romney was making an appearance on Breitbart TV [Comment: surprise!] and was asked by host Larry O’Connor whether he was ready to take on “the media and these nonprofits groups that are working together.” “There will be an effort by the quote vast […]
NY Times smears former collaborator Assange: ‘a nut job’
What a sleazy smear. But just the latest in a long line. His reputation has taken a deep plunge since he shook the world in 2010 by releasing, in cooperation with The New York Times and several other news organizations, masses of secret government documents, including battlefield reports from Iraq and Afghanistan. Most news organizations […]
Oops. What? He wants us to LISTEN to the murderous ultra-right nut job? Er, well, gee. OK.
In my experience, sometimes when one is interviewing someone in the news, particularly a LIVE interview, things can take an unexpected turn. Your subject says things that you didn’t expect. This morning, roused very early by an insistently affectionate cat (still getting over her spell in the cattery while we were at the beach last […]
Be of good cheer
Spotted this encouraging message on the way to town… Um … OK. – P
Of bloggers, dogs and fleas. The Ports of Auckland’s ‘ethical and legal breaches’
Now that the Ports of Auckland has admitted it, I haven’t got much to add to my earlier ‘Lie down with dogs get up with fleas’ comment in ‘Garner: “@whaleoil lies again.” Surprise me‘ about the Ports company leaking their personnel records to a sympathetic (at best case) blogger. Today’s Yesterday’s NZ Herald editorial: Port’s […]
The business of selling words
So, does all-encompassing MEDIA find an audience, or does the audience find what they ‘re interested in knowing more about? What do you think? From a new article ‘How to Blog’ by Rob Beschizza at Boing Boing with some good stuff to say about writing, including the ‘so yesterday’ thought that maverick bloggers were always […]
The trajectory of property spruiker Dean Letfus
I hadn’t seen this until today — a remarkably positive article about investment ‘lessons’ spruiker Dean Letfus has learned from the collapse of his ‘property empire’ in April’s New Zealand Property Investor magazine. A few other bankrupt investors are mentioned to leaven the loaf, but in the main it reads like an article about cover […]
Politicians and the media
Richard Nixon on “outrageous, vicious, distorted reporting” from Oct. 26, 1973 Press Conference (days after the Saturday Night Massacre) … reminds me of something. But I can’t quite put my finger on it. -P
Always try to be the one to write the contract
Those in the news media undertaking scrutiny of the New Zealand coalition government’s unpopular* state-owned asset sales/partial privatisation (your choice) programme will, naturally, look for ‘fish hooks and broken glass’ and clauses like this … and write headlines like Vernon Small’s Loophole allows sale of over 49pc A democracy depends on it. *I say ‘unpopular’ […]
Danger of dogma
Following our protracted discussion on conservatism and liberalism (for want of better labels)— and differing levels of willingness by adherents to validate the values of ‘The Other’ … by coincidence, here’s William F Buckley on what Andrew Sullivan calls ‘the Danger of Political Dogma’. From a brilliant article What William F. Buckley Would Think of […]
The web: almighty humbler of power, or useful tool?
Worth a read: this brief article by Dan Zak at The Washington Post Woodward and Bernstein: Could the Web generation uncover a Watergate-type scandal? discussing how a ubiquitous internet has so seized the world-view of even bright people that they think journalistic ‘sleuthing’ can be done online and that no corrupt power can but kneel […]
Bank sugar coats price-fixing penalty as ‘rebate’
‘Spin’ (bending reality), is not a phenomenon just confined to politics. At the risk of being accused of ‘looking a gift horse in the mouth’, here’s a fine example: Yesterday I saw this letter which looks like a kind gesture from the BNZ — telling ‘small business owners’ who are credit card merchants about the […]
