A ‘dumb barge’ carries a load, but has no propulsion of its own, relying on other vessels to tow or push it. That seems an apt metaphor for dirty PR attack blogger and character assassin Cameron Slater – who is merely a tool of others.

The just-released book Whale Oil, by Margie Thomson, tells the ghastly true story of a nasty, protracted online smear campaign.

The dirty work was carried out by discredited dirty politics/dirty PR attack website owner Cameron Slater. But don’t misunderstand: Slater (long exposed as a recidivist liar) didn’t himself have any grievance against the target, Matthew Blomfield.

Nor was he engaged in some noble mission to expose a bad bugger’s badness in the public interest. Far from it.

As court documents and this extraordinarily detailed book reveal, Cameron Slater carried out a campaign of defamation and harassment against Blomfield at the behest of others. It seems likely he did this for payment or reward. As we’ve seen demonstrated before, Cameron Slater was a mere tool, a dumb barge used to carry out someone else’s vendetta — someone with a real grudge.

Then, when challenged about his actions, Cameron Slater defended his false, commercial undertaking against his paymasters’ target by appealing to be taken seriously as a journalist (I know, right?), even raising money for his ‘legal expenses’ (remember Begging Bowl Kitty?) from gullible followers of his hate blog.

Slater claimed his lies, exaggerations, embellishments and the deliberate misinterpretations used in the smear campaign and harassment that he carried out as a sock puppet for others were actually his work as a ‘news media’. (Yes, really.)

It’s important not to give Cameron Slater too much credit. As I said in a truly heartfelt 2016 post, ‘A message to Cameron Slater’s enablers – please think again‘,

…I don’t see Cameron Slater as a creative person except in the most derivative, aping way…

As if to confirm that observation, Margie Thomson’s Whale Oil book demonstrates that in the case of this Blomfield ‘hit’ (just like the paid ‘hits’ he carried out for Carrick Graham’s clients), Slater was spoon-fed the attack lines.

Blomfield’s correspondence, personal and family records, including family photos had all been gone through (yuk) and a series of ‘hits’ prepared for Slater beforehand. Like boiled vegetables put though a mouli to make baby food, Slater’s puppetmaster-clients wrote up their libellous misinterpretations for him to parrot – as the book confirms, in a late twist in the tale.

‘Yeah. That’s typical,’ I thought when I reached that part.

The big lie

Extract from the Human Rights Review Tribunal judgment against Cameron Slater, which resulted in a declaration Slater had damaged Blomfield’s privacy, issued take-down, erasure, destruction and restraining orders, and a $70,000 damages order — the award of which probably prompted Slater to declare himself bankrupt. (click to read the full decision)

Note the assumption in the HRRT decision that it was Slater himself who ‘set about rummaging though’ Blomfield’s ‘illegally obtained’ files. What a joke. That’s the ‘big lie’ Slater told: that he’d done some research work. Wrong. As already noted, it seems far more likely it was all spoon-fed to him by the ‘creative’ team with the an axe to grind: Marc Spring, Warren Powell and Amanda Easterbrook, according to Thomson’s  book Whale Oil.

Also, while we’re here, the real ‘network of crooks’ in this tale of woe was the cabal that originated ‘Operation Bumslide’, then the rubbery cast of characters like Dermot Nottingham (currently serving home detention, convicted of five counts of criminal harassment, two of breaching suppression orders using his own nasty blog) who swung in behind (sorry) the grotesque smear campaign. It was only fronted by Cameron Slater and his enablers like Pete Belt – while those actually pulling the strings stayed in the shadows.

Slater has tried to portray himself as a Master of the Universe type. You know, a powerful force in New Zealand media (“NFWAB”), a goliath striding across the landscape, yada yada. But truly, I’ve come to see him as deeply dishonest, hopelessly disorganized, and mentally lazy.

It seems to me Slater has always preferred to let others do his thinking, and writing, for him — hence so much ghostwriting by earlier puppetmasters Jason Ede, Carrick Graham, Simon Lusk, Cathy Odgers (Cactus Kate), apprentice black ops gopher Jordan Williams, subeditor Pete Belt and, of course these days, the equally derivative and islamophobic Mrs Oil, Juana Atkins. And god knows who else. Bylines mean nothing on that site.

Margie Thomson’s Whale Oil book is a worthwhile read and I recommend it.

Read it if this subterranean world interests you, or if you give a damn about how online harassment, bullying and smear campaigns work – and how weak our defences against them really are.

It’s also, as it says on the jacket, the story of the long battle fought by the impressively tenacious Matthew Blomfield to sheet home some accountability for his actions to Cameron Slater – who emerges as a slippery man-child. A lying bully.

Slater is someone who has gotten away with far too much for far too long, and been protected – probably partly due to his father’s connections, and financial support from a clique of fringe religious figures including Seventh Day Adventist elder Paul Honnor.

– P

PS At one point over the weekend, reading the Whaleoil book, I reached the part about an office burglary in September 2016 where Matt Blomfield’s computer was the only thing taken. I put the book down and re-checked the date my house was burgled – a Mac Mini and three laptop (including my then-current one, which was actually *chained* to my desk with a Kensington security lock and stainless steel wire) were stolen, among other items.
‘What a coincidence,’ I thought. ‘2016 must have been the season for burglars focused on stealing computers’.
In my own case, the Police appeared so … um, lackadaisical investigating the burglary that my insurance company actually asked them to supply a copy of their case file – of which, naturally, I got a copy, too.

Read the Human Rights Review Tribunal Decision in full here.

Facts are stated to the best of my knowledge and commentary is my honest opinion. Corrections or clarifications are always welcome by email. Comments are open, but may be moderated.
– Best wishes, Peter Aranyi