So, I got a text this morning …
Maya Angelou on Nelson Mandela
One of the reasons I run this blog* is to post inspiring material like this … a great spirit farewells another:
Wonderful. – P
(* as much for me as for you)
Fooling the devilishly-clever stitching-up process that creates a panorama photo
This morning at the Golf Club, I took this panorama shot on my phone. Whether it was that action that prompted it, the guy in the blue shirt decided to finish warming up on the practice tee and walked to his bag. Look at the result …
Another perfect day in paradise AKA Howick Golf course (click to enlarge – Pic: Peter Aranyi)
Generally, the panorama ‘effect’ is pretty good. But sometimes it gets flummoxed. (Remember this bent lighthouse?)
– P
Nice tribute to Nelson Mandela on Apple’s homepage
I see that as a good example of the company’s consonance with my liberal values. Heartwarming.
Good on them. (click)
Hateful or cynical comments will be deleted. – P
Target of Cameron Slater’s ‘campaign’ speaks up
image: chickenlist.wordpress.com
If you’re following the issues we discussed in ‘Part of the news media? or a “PR blog” dedicated to “destroying” reputations?‘ there’s a worthwhile post over at The Standard which offers some background and argument from the point of view of Cameron Slater’s target, the man who is suing him for defamation.
Read it here: When the wolf cries boy
This extract, it seems to me, is key:
I told the Court that I believe Mr Slater published this material at the behest of a third party and that, directly or indirectly, he received a benefit from doing so. If he is just a crank being a crank, that is one thing, but if he is a gun for hire masquerading as a commentator, that is a different ball game. The damages will increase substantially.
In an attempt to avoid having to hand over this information, Mr Slater claimed that he is a journalist. The Judge, without any real prompting from me, decided that he is not. I agree. Journalism is a profession. It has standards and he has none.
Whilst I well understand the commentators who say that, because his blog apes a news medium, he should be given his own tea set, the High Court can assess the application of the privilege afforded by the Evidence Act in this case.
The protection of journalists’ sources is a “public interest” privilege. It is hard to argue for a public interest privilege in the absence of any public interest. There was no public interest in my hard drive. If I am right about who gave it to him, Mr Slater has, for whatever reason, allowed himself to be a megaphone for one source individual who wishes to inflict considerable damage on another individual and his family from behind a cloak of anonymity. In this instance, there is no public interest in allowing that source to remain in hiding.
I believe Mr Slater himself has a great deal to hide with respect to my hard drive. That is why, as Martyn Bradbury so pertinently observed, we have the wolf crying boy. A person who has previously eschewed the mainstream media and made so much of his swashbuckling outsider status now begs the protection afforded to the establishment. Rather than point to any aspect of the public interest that arises in this case, Mr Slater hopes that he can acquire the mantle of a journalist and get blanket protection….
Good on him for laying out his case, and good on The Standard for publishing it.
We’ll see what the High Court decides, if it is actually asked to do so.
– P
A smartphone Flashlight app that records and reports your location data and phone ID to advertisers? The hell?
Who are these people? And what on earth do they think they were doing? Fast Company reports:
click to read at Fast Company
Not an iPhone app, at least.
– P
Haere ra, Mandela. RIP.
What if he was RIGHT? (Just consider it.)
What a great man.
What an inspiration.
“The quest for reconciliation was the spur that gave life to our difficult negotiations process and the agreements that emerged from it.”
— Nelson Mandela to Parliament, Cape Town, 25 February 1999
– P
Her majesty is not amused
Re-tweeted into my timeline …
#teamjudith (in this case)
– P
UPDATE: Oh, someone else is not amused. Look who weighed in …with whatever-the-opposite-of-an-endorsement-is …
via David Fisher
Bowie ‘Lost is Love’ remix
A few days ago Russell Brown pointed me to this ten minute remix of one the good songs from David Bowie’s excellent The Next Day album (Jay and I discussed the album here somewhere.)
I’ve had it on my phone since then, listening when I’ve been out working up a sweat … it’s very, very cool. Listen for the ‘kick’ about half-way (5’25”) when they include some strands from a classic Bowie song. Great.
Today, after this tune played,* the music went on to the Ziggy Stardust album … and it worked!
Bliss.
– P
PS You can buy the song on an ‘extra’ EP to the The Next Day album here at iTunes.
* This is the slope I was puffing up, listening to this track this afternoon, grateful for a break in the rain and a chance to get out …
Conservatives’ Colin Craig vows to be ‘less casual’ about conspiracies
In response to this fiasco …
Click to read at NZ Herald.co.nz
Someone on the Conservative Party website asks …
What’s the deal with all these ‘conspiracy theories’ that have been touted about in the media of late? The media are having a field day! It must be a low news week for them or something!
– Maria
“Here’s a response released by Colin Craig today;”
Mischievous Media should not lose sight of Main Issues
Thursday, 5 December 2013, 1:36 pm
Press Release: Conservative Party
Mischievous Media should not lose sight of Main Issues
Colin Craig says he “hopes the media who have in the past few days mischievously and inaccurately credited him with a belief in conspiracy theories will not be forgetting that this Christmas there are New Zealanders who are facing major challenges.”
“I have recently returned from Christchurch where many homes are still not repaired and it’s finding solutions to problems like that that occupies my time” he said “not keeping current on the latest conspiracy theories. I realise people can get very serious about these theories but I haven’t had the time to look into them.”
“I believe I have now been asked about at least a dozen different conspiracy theories and my answer remains the same. I simply don’t know enough about theories to give comment and suggest the questions be asked of those who are better informed on them. Refusing to pass comment on these matters is not the same as believing the theories are true. “
Mr Craig said he is “taking the mischief making by media in good humour”, although he was a bit surprised when a friend contacted him yesterday concerned that Mr Craig may be in doubt about the moon landings. “I admit that surprised me” says Mr Craig
“Certainly the media are making a good story out of this and using a fair bit of licence. I have always thought man did go to the moon and said so to media interviewers but not all media chose to portray my views that way”. Mr Craig joked that he has “rejected the conspiracy theory that suggests the media are alien beings despite their unpredictable behaviour.”
In response to the Prime Ministers suggestion that Mr Craig is winding the media up deliberately Mr Craig admitted his “casual responses have been provocative”. “I shall be less casual with my responses in the future” says Mr Craig[.]
I must say, that vow to be ‘less casual with my responses’ echoes this from John Key, remember?:
John Key toughens up? “Forearmed is forewarned (sic), I’m going to change.”
How’s that working out?
– P
Part of the news media? or a “PR blog” dedicated to “destroying” reputations?
2011: Mallard wins the race in the real world. Slater simply not fast enough to live up to his own trash-talk. (Pic: Peter Aranyi) – click for link
Apparently attack-blogger Cameron Slater is considering appealing a recent court judgement denying him a journalist’s conditional protection of sources.
The ‘whale oil’ blogger, with close links to the National government including his pick for next leader of the Party, Justice Minster Judith Collins, is facing trial next year accused of defaming an Auckland businessman through a protracted series of negative and abusive posts published on his [apparently] widely-read website.
Many of the posts (since removed) published email communications and other business documents Cameron Slater says were supplied to him on a computer hard drive. The businessman claims the hard drive was stolen, although that is disputed. While not absolutely proven, it’s claimed in court papers (and it seems possible, if not likely) that the hard drive was provided to the blogger by one or more former business associates of the target. It’s also claimed he met with the sources: “The meetings were held for the purpose of collating and providing information for the Whaleoil Website”, documents before the court claim. (see: scoop.co.nz PDF)
What’s unclear (and we’ll get to it below) is whether Cameron Slater carried out the systematic campaign of published attacks on the businessman as a commercial venture (i.e. remunerated in some form by the businessman’s estranged former associates) or whether he did it as a promotional exercise for his website (he ran teaser ads promoting advertising spots on his website in the midst of the ‘campaign’ against the businessman), or as a hobby. I guess he could also claim to have done it as a public service.
Whatever Cameron Slater says, my own observation of the campaign leads me to see it as the outworking of a vendetta — I don’t know whose. At question is: Was its motivation personal or was it ‘professional’?
Let me say up front that based on my personal experience and observations, I have come to regard Cameron Slater as a dishonest manipulator of information and ‘facts’. He has admitted lying to my face. As a result, frankly, I no longer believe anything Cameron Slater says or writes (especially any denials) unless I can verify it separately. (Sad, but there it is.)
In preparation for the substantive court trial, Judge Charles Blackie ordered Discovery of all relevant documentation held by either party. Cameron Slater has objected to supplying information which would/could identify his ‘source or sources’ — the person or persons who supplied him with the computer hard drive and any other documentation. His lawyer Jordan Williams (yes, the same Jordan Williams we discuss here from time to time) in a well-written Court filing submitted that Cameron Slater’s ‘source or sources’ should be protected since … Continue reading →
Still one of my favourite photos of John Banks
So, facing trial for offences against the Electoral Act (no pun intended) John Banks is bowing out. See: Banks shuffles towards retirement stuff.co.nz
No retrospective view of his career would be complete without mention of the now infamous ‘cup of tea’ with John Key at Newmarket’s Urban café. I was lucky enough to get a lift from Mr Banks to the event in his yellow ACT Party sign-written car. What transpired was a political stunt which became a farce when the Prime Minister refused to go further than ‘sending a clear signal’ to Epsom voters. A ‘dirty deal’ Patrick Gower insists on calling it — well, maybe he’s got a point.
I believe the slide in the Prime Minister’s popularity (at least with the media) was worsened by that event and the aftermath of the ‘teapot tapes’ investigation. Police were called to the Beehive and tasked with serving search warrants on newsrooms … and there were heavy-handed police threats to other media.
The Henry inquiry into the leaked Kitteridge report — an inquiry which trampled news media rights and protections with invasive surveillance of Fairfax’s intrepid Andrea Vance — was a clear outworking of the same Nixonian ‘media as enemy’ mindset which, sadly, seems to exist in some members of the Key Administration. Pity.
Anyway, this isn’t the time to go into all that.
Goodbye Mr Banks.
Well, it was hardly a private chat anyway … but leaving a recording device on the table? Doh. (pic: Peter Aranyi)
For context see: Mystery object was a bug!
– P
You may also be interested in reading: Is John Key ‘hugging a corpse’? Does he have a choice?
“Only one blogger has the courage to tell the truth…” (Psst: It ain’t @whaleoil)
“Sometimes the blogosphere can become a Terror Dome…” (Man, I can almost hear Juana’s voice.*)
Enjoy it!
– P
* You know, “…the whole internet was ablaze with the news of him becoming the Editor of Truth.”
I’m guessing the Ports of Auckland company PAID to ‘quietly’ settle their privacy breaches
A whimper, a confidentiality agreement and a bank transfer — that seems the likely end to the Ports of Auckland’s dirty tricks PR campaign against its unionised workers [details here: Of bloggers, dogs and fleas. The Ports of Auckland’s ‘ethical and legal breaches’].
click to read at NBR
I almost (almost) feel sorry for companies who are ‘sold’ on the supposed power of ‘influencers’ like attack-blogger Cameron Slater by their PR flacks. It must sound so appealing. (Well, until you’re caught out and the NZ Herald calls your dubious actions ‘lamentable‘.)
Someone within the company had decided to hit back at unionist critics by way of the personnel filing cabinet. Someone on the industrial, human resources or public relations strategy teams, no doubt. Someone sufficiently senior to risk ethical and legal breaches to send a message to the union that fire would be met with fire.
Here’s the test: If readers don’t know the ‘influence’ is being paid for … it’s dodgy.
And on that topic, undeclared payments, I don’t believe the weasel words expressed in this inane ‘explanation’ from a year ago:
Cameron Slater interviewed by Russell Brown on Media3 Nov 2012 (MP3 file here)
(see details here: ‘As playful as he is psychotic’).
Some discussion in comments here.
– P
