‘Cool Kids’ by Echosmith — on Jimmy Fallon’s show (Update: that Jimmy Fallon link ‘expired’, so here’s a new ‘live’ version… albeit somewhat tightly produced & cut … I really did like the Fallon show live version)
‘Official’ music video here
John Pilger on the shabby persecution of Julian Assange
I have respected John Pilger since before I trained and entered journalism in the 1980s. I respect his courage and his tenacity, his willingness to show up and tell the truth as he sees it. He’s also no fool.
So, although it may not be a popular stand, in terms of some people’s interpretation of the ‘sex crimes’ kinda sorta alleged that Julian Assange may have possibly committed, I have tended to see him as the victim of a stitch-up. He has been a target of character assassination of the most cynical type. As I said somewhere here, about this: intelligence agencies tell lies for a living.
Documents leaked by NSA whistle blower Edward Snowden led me to ask: ‘Does anyone else think this spy agency ‘Discredit a target’ strategy might have been used against Julian Assange?‘
Well, John Pilger has more. Read his investigation …
click to read at JohnPilger.com
I hope Pilger won’t mind me stealing a little of his thunder by previewing one of his points (emphasis added):
On 18 March 2008, a war on WikiLeaks and Julian Assange was foretold in a secret Pentagon document prepared by the “Cyber Counterintelligence Assessments Branch”. It described a detailed plan to destroy the feeling of “trust” which is WikiLeaks’ “centre of gravity”. This would be achieved with threats of “exposure [and] criminal prosecution”. Silencing and criminalising this rare source of independent journalism was the aim, smear the method. Hell hath no fury like great power scorned.
Assange has been smeared in an effort to neutralise him and his organisation, as I have tried to say pretty consistently. The pity of it is when I see former collaborators in the media used as tools. ‘Useful idiots‘.
Seriously, read the full John Pilger article. I commend it to you.
– P
She’s a hard road finding the perfect instrument to manipulate the market, son.
Another post from the Colliding Worlds department, here’s an article I just posted at the Empower Education website …
Click to read at Empower Education
Comments & discussion welcome there.
– P
Leaving ‘Dirty Politics’ questions hanging. (It’s a PR strategy)
This recently published wrap of one aspect of the PR attack blog activities of Cameron Slater1 on behalf of his clients idealogical soulmates illustrates a couple of things.
1) Calls to ‘seek answers’ from corporate groups (like the Ports of Auckland, or even Auckland Council) to ‘questions raised’ will often be ignored. People and organisations under fire as the result of revelations of unsavoury or unethical behaviour (such as those in Nicky Hager’s book ‘Dirty Politics‘) can just go to ground or ‘go dark’ as Jason Ede did. Just brazen it out and rely on a lack of public/media attention span. Which leads to …
2) Even an implausible-sounding bald denial in the face of quite credible allegations will sometimes be quite sufficient. Just go through the motions.
Observe this overt stonewall from the Ports of Auckland Head of Communications:
Riiiight. And the settlement of those privacy breach complaints …? Oh, never mind.
NZ Herald writer John Drinnan’s lack of progress with his attempts to ‘raise questions’ about the photogenic Food & Grocery Council CEO Katherine Rich’s [alleged] involvement in the deployment* of Carrick Graham’s pet hate blogger Cameron Slater** to demean and smear health advocates and critics of sugar and fat illustrates the same principle:
click to read at NZ Herald
It seems some people don’t want to talk about their ethics … or, perhaps better put: they don’t want their claims of good ethics questioned. No matter how ludicrous those claims seem in the face of evidence.
– P
1 And his tag-team wrestling buddy David Farrar, of course.
* Commercial deployment? Yes, I think so, probably.
** Well, in name only. From Dirty Politics it seems clear Carrick Graham was the true author of much of Cameron Slater’s … er, output.
Power of music
Wow, watch this.
click to watch at Digital Human’s tumbler
via the extraordinary, effervescent Aleks Krotoski.
– P
Taylor Swift NOT entertaining misogyny, even for laughs
I saw this on Graham Norton’s show last night and was impressed with Taylor Swift’s deft ‘warning’ to comedian John Cleese … to not engage in comic misogyny – not even as a joke. Good on her.
Here’s a short clip of the show. Watch as Taylor Swift considers her response to Cleese’s sexist tease. The ‘moment’ is very nice, in my opinion. The other guest is cricketer Kevin Pietersen explaining how he doesn’t like cats.
As a dad of teenagers, I like this young woman’s role modelling.
– P
Blinding Flash of the Obvious re composing encrypted emails – Avoid auto-saved drafts
I recently reviewed Edward Snowden’s instructions for setting up and using PGP/encrypted email available on Vimeo: GPG for Journalists – Windows edition | Encryption for Journalists | Anonymous 2013.
It’s a good tutorial. One of the points it makes about keeping your communications secure is a very important one: Don’t compose your message (pre-encryption) in an internet-enabled window.
Gmail & Apple mail (for example) by default enable a ‘feature’ where the programme saves a draft of your message as you’re composing it. They save it to their servers.* Spotted the problem? Anything on their servers is (a) interceptable , (b) subject to search warrant/subpoena. That’s why you’re using encryption.
So, as Snowden so clearly advises, compose your message – the one you’re going to encrypt once you’ve written it – offline, in a text editor …
screen grab from Edward Snowden’s guide to encryption for journalists. (click to enlarge)
… otherwise, well, you get the picture?
* In Apple Mail you can turn that behaviour off – make sure this box Mail> Preferences >Accounts is unticked:
Just to be safe. (-ish.)
– P
PS My own PGP credentials are available on the About page. (At the bottom.)
Read Nicky Hager’s search warrant
How we want it to be:
How it sometimes is (click to read documents):
Search warrant
List of property seized
Documents from New Zealand cops raided home of reporter working on Snowden documents by Glenn Greenwald and Ryan Gallagher (The Intercept). Worth reading to see how our government’s actions are perceived.
– P
Why privacy matters: a TED talk by Glenn Greenwald
Comments about Eric Schmidt and Mark Zuckerburg — actions speak louder than their words.
– P
Fran O’Sullivan calls for a wider inquiry into Dirty Politics allegations
Worth reading.
click to read at NZ Herald.
Fran O’Sullivan says she told Cathy Odgers she was “damn angry about being drawn into a MH [Mark Hotchin] sting.”
Well, well, well.
I’ll put some comments up later. (It’s just too nice a Saturday morning to be blogging.)
– P
The escape of exnzpat, Part 25
The Hive Mound of the Chora
Lester’s Eidolon looked at the golem and said, “Down!” She pulled him into a crouching position in the deep snow, though why she did it she did not know.
The boy stared at her and whistled softly.
“What?” Lester asked annoyed, for she felt the boy’s attention hotly upon her cheeks.
“Your eyes are blue again… Continue reading →
Eric Clapton’s ‘Edge of Darkness’
Some Twitter buddies discussed a movie of Dirty Politics …
… which reminded me of the spooky music Eric Clapton composed/performed for the tv series ‘Edge of Darkness’.
Let’s remember the real victims here
Guy Body’s NZ Herald cartoon today (click to enlarge)
It looks like Nicky Hager is digging in for a fight with the police about access to the material they took from his house. An effort is being made to raise funds for his legal fighting fund. For details, and to donate, see: http://www.givealittle.co.nz/cause/NickyHager
Click to read how the police fired a shot across the news media’s bows over the teapot tapes.
For reference, and because it’s interesting, here’s the audio (below) of Prime Minister John Key’s appearance on TV3’s Firstline justifying making a complaint to the Police about the actions of journalists — he accused the Herald on Sunday of using ‘News of The World’ tactics – which saw search warrants executed on various arms of the NZ media (NZ Herald, Radio NZ, Mediaworks) two weeks before the 2011 election.
[You can watch the video of the exchange here at the 3News website: Key reiterates that he is ‘teapot-tape’ victim.]
As noted earlier, other newsrooms (including the one I was working in at the time) received extraordinary ‘chilling’ warnings from police — that any reporting of the contents of the tape would be “an offence against the Crimes Act s216B”.
John Key explains why he laid a complaint with the police over the teapot tape – Firstline 15 Nov 2011
MP3 file
Click to watch at 3News.co.nz
Listening to the interview again this morning, I was struck by how Rachel Smalley (who said she was ‘privy’ to the contents of the tape) gave Mr Key a chance to address some of the ‘political’ topics that he had been recorded discussing with John Banks (e.g. NZ First’s supporters ‘dying out’, replacing then ACT leader Don Brash with Banks) … but Mr Key didn’t bite. It all came out later — but that was well after the election. Timing, as they say, is everything.
Also, I’m struck again — genuinely impressed — by what a good communicator John Key is. He comes across very well in that interview. Even if what he’s actually saying, and his somewhat slippery argument, makes you uneasy … or to consider how politicians abuse power and intimidate/charm/manipulate the news media for their political advantage — you could almost call it Dirty Politics, eh?
Duncan Garner later revealed that John Key had been telephoning him ‘every night’ towards the end of the 2011 election (looks like some things don’t change!) He said John Key was anxious to know what was on the teapot tape, clearly desperate to suppress its publication. Which Mr Key managed to to. But none of that tension shows in the interview with Rachel Smalley, does it?
– P
Dirty Politics author’s house raided. Ten hour search by five detectives. Police say he’s ‘a witness’.
click to read the full statement at dirtypoliticsnz.com
This is a sobering development. Police raiding journalists who publish material which is politically embarrassing to the ruling party. Is this New Zealand? Not Russia or Zimbabwe?
The timing of the raid (leave aside ‘after the election’) when Hager was away in Auckland, suggests to me he may have been under surveillance. At one level that shouldn’t surprise us.
Nicky Hager’s sister Mandy tweeted tonight “I observed police as they searched – polite and respectful (and slightly sheepish) – clearly strings pulled from above #dirtypolitics” which, particularly her comment ‘strings being pulled from above’, I have to say, reminds me of: Are you dating a tyrant? Take our simple quiz to find out!
… and also: Is NZ’s international reputation as a democracy taking a pasting? which I wrote around the Bradley Ambrose teapot tape (cough) ‘prosecution’.
Nicky Hager told the media repeatedly that he had gotten rid of the leaked emails and material prior to publishing the book. And also, if I recall correctly, that he had prepared for a police raid. So at best it seems police could only have been hoping he’d been careless or foolish about material that might have exposed the ‘hacker’ Rawshark/Whaledump. Which, given his history (e.g. Secret Power) seemed … unlikely.
As a wag on Twiiter said, drily —
click to read on Twitter
So, we’re left with another possibility: The state is heavying Nicky Hager as a lesson for other journalists to observe. Chilling.
– P
and then there’s this:
Dirty Politics: John Key confesses to secret relationship with campaign worker
Election night Sept 2014: John Key comes clean about secret after-hours contact [pic by Mark Mitchell NZ Herald]
In the aftermath of the National Party’s emphatic re-election to lead a coalition government in New Zealand, surprisingly little has been made of Party Leader John Key’s confession to a secret relationship.
It was contact John Key admitted he was warned not to engage in.
“I was told not to … I know I shouldn’t have,” Mr Key admitted, confiding to friends that he had deliberately cultivated a relationship in ways he kept hidden from others. At the end of the day, the Prime Minister-elect seemed to make no excuses for his deceit, saying: “But anyway. Whatever. It was our little secret.”
The object of Mr Key’s forbidden attention was (as is so often the case, insiders say) a National Party campaign worker with whom he had worked extremely closely.
Political observers say it’s common, almost a cliché, to discover that the intensity of an election campaign can throw people together. As well as the ‘thrill’ of pursuing a joint goal, defending one another from attacks, election campaigns also bring long hours, hard work, and time away from home. It all takes a toll. The stresses and tensions of the campaign trail can create unbearable pressures — pressures that demand to be released.
Continue reading →
