Archive for the ‘Media issues’ Category

The law of unintended consequences. Data security edition.

This report from Flashpoint: ‘Measuring the Impact of the Snowden Leaks on the Use of Encryption by Online Jihadists’ (available here as web page or PDF) concludes (SPOILER:) Meh, not so much. The Flashpoint report recounts how the use of encryption techniques by such groups — and the promotion by them of such techniques — […]

Eminem Publishers Sue New Zealand National Party

Ha! Those of us who thought, Gee, that sounds pretty close to Eminem … Will the real Slim Shady please stand up? – P h/t: Radio NZ’s Chris Bramwell

Allegations re mass surveillance by NZ’s GCSB

Here are the articles published by Glenn Greenwald and Edward Snowden about mass surveillance of New Zealand citizens by spy agencies that form part of the FIVE EYES intelligence alliance. These were released in the lead up to the anyway-you-look-at-it history-making event at Auckland Town Hall last night, ‘The Moment of Truth’ featuring Edward Snowden, […]

You really should watch this interview with Glenn Greenwald, despite the smears

It’s easy to fall for a rapid PR ‘framing’ response, especially from an experienced spin team like Prime Minister John Key’s media machine. This comment seems a fair description of what happens: Mr Key has been very quick with the personal attacks lately, hasn’t he? He has repeatedly described Pulitzer Prize winner Glenn Greenwald as […]

John Key working the phones “at length”

I was struck tonight by TV3 Political editor Patrick Gower saying on the news that he’d just got off the phone from a conversation “at length” with National Party leader John Key — Mr Key was, apparently, intent on countering the claims by Glenn Greenwald that the GCSB had undertaken mass surveillance of New Zealanders […]

High Court serves a mixed bag for PR attack blogger Cameron Slater

Here are some relevant excerpts of a High Court judgment* released today on the vexed question of “Can PR attack blogger Cameron Slater hide his clients’ names from someone suing him for defamation by claiming his extensive campaign of PR hits were ‘journalistic’ in nature and heck he is entitled to ‘source protection’?” Basically, the judge has […]

Media as power tools. Whether to expose the collusion, or not?

I closed my post last night ‘Returning to the scene of the crime (or How I fell for Jason Ede’s spin)‘ with these words… “There’s a conversation to be had about how journalists use and get used by ‘sources’ like Cameron Slater and David Farrar. It’s a discussion that’s been around for a while but […]

Returning to the scene of the crime (or How I fell for Jason Ede’s spin)

As I ‘confessed’ in my reaction to Nicky Hager’s book Dirty Politics, I fell for the deceptive spin on the extraordinarily rapid ‘service’ National Party attack blogger Cameron Slater was given on his 2011 OIA request for SIS briefing notes. The Prime Minister’s office’s role in this ‘hit’ on then Labour leader Phil Goff is […]

Cameron Slater’s extraordinary attempt to gag the news media [FAIL]

PR attack blogger Cameron Slater has failed in his bid to stop the news media reporting material from his email and Facebook accounts. He has, however, succeeded (perhaps) in silencing ‘Rawshark’ — the hacker who so clinically distributed evidence to support the allegations and narrative of Nicky Hager’s book Dirty Politics. Cameron Slater, the book alleges, was […]

Sean Plunket comes around on the Watergate comparison (‘Dirty Politics’)

Here’s RadioLIVE talkback host Sean Plunket from this morning — thinking his way through the prickly situation revealed in Nicky Hager’s book Dirty Politics … and finding the comparison to Watergate and the dirty tricks orchestrated from Richard Nixon’s office is actually apt. Sean Plunket acknowledges the need for a high level inquiry into the […]

Read it and weep. Nicky Hager’s ‘Dirty Politics’

Nicky Hager‘s important new book Dirty Politics – How attack politics is poisoning New Zealand’s political environment is out (and quickly ‘sold out’ in some places). The information in Nicky Hager’s book exposes — and for some of us, confirms — our worst fears about the grubby activities being undertaken by nasty, dishonest people to manipulate politics in […]

Lovely work from ProPublica: The NSA Revelations All in One Chart

The NSA Revelations All in One Chart — ProPublica.org

The evolution of news media pinching pics off social media

I noted this photo credit: “Photo / Supplied by Facebook” in the NZ Herald‘s front page story today. Whatever. I’m not that critical, and, in this case, it’s probably fine with the ‘subject’ … but what do you think?: Is it OK for news media to take and re-publish items from someone’s Facebook profile? (And […]

Daniel Ellsberg on why Snowden couldn’t get a fair trial

Worth reading. Daniel Ellsberg: Snowden would not get a fair trial – and Kerry is wrong As I know from my own case, even Snowden’s own testimony on the stand would be gagged by government objections and the (arguably unconstitutional) nature of his charges. That was my own experience in court, as the first American […]

Andrea Vance on protecting your communications

Reporter of the Year Andrea Vance talked to Radio New Zealand’s Colin Peacock on Mediawatch about government surveillance of news media in an illuminating interview broadcast last Sunday. [Coincidentally, Vance was part of TV3’s The Nation political panel the day before.] Listening to the Mediawatch interview, one can’t help but be struck by the loss […]