Matthew Hooton regrets (cough) using ‘that particular word’. Of course he does.

With all due respect to Radio New Zealand, it seems to me they are indulging a notable double standard with respect to Matthew Hooton, and quite possibly being gamed by the National Party spin doctor.

Today’s Nine to Noon political segment began with noble Lynn Freeman reading again Radio New Zealand’s “position” on their ‘commentator from the Right’ Matthew Hooton using taxpayer-funded airwaves to assassinate the character of a senior Opposition politician.

Listen below (at 0’28”) as Matthew delivers much the same ‘I was wrong to use that particular word’ sophistry and his mealy-mouthed Clayton’s apology. (Yes, sure Matthew. Wrong word. Four times. And having been told to shut up) … not very convincing.

Compare Matthew’s calm and reasoned tones today with his Shaker-like raving (‘Lies!’ and ‘Liar!’) just a week ago (clip here).
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Flogging a dead horse? Yeah, consider stopping that.

On a visit to New York City in the lead-up to the 2008 US Presidential election, I was walking along a Manhattan street when someone thrust this flyer into my hand:

Ralph Nader handbill (click to enlarge)

Ralph Nader handbill (click to enlarge)

Wow. The legendary consumer and industrial safety advocate (Unsafe at Any Speed) and left wing political activist Ralph Nader would be speaking that very night on 95th Street. At the time, I was staying with a friend near 96th and Amsterdam Ave, so that was literally right in my backyard. Of course I went along.

Oh, what a disappointment.

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Matthew Hooton: an apology

hootonSpin doctor and Oscar-nominated* actor Matthew Hooton has added his own apology (well, sorta-kinda) to those of the two media outlets which broadcast his pre-determined, calculated smear of the Leader of the Opposition.

Writing in the National Business Review (hilariously in an article he says will be behind a paywall tomorrow morning, Matthew challenged Radio LIVE’s Duncan Garner for the coveted ‘Most mealy mouthed, equivocal apology’ award.

For the record, these are the words Matthew used:

20130929-170817.jpg

Like a parent concealing grated vegetables inside their burger mix in an effort to sneak vege-goodness into their kids (or a spy novel baddie doing something similar with ground glass?) Matthew buried his apology in a cold and crafted reprise of his hit-job on David Cunliffe. As one would expect from him. So, smear followed by fall-back smear.
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Obama on MLK speech 50th Anniversary

20130927-210303.jpg

I know I’m late to this. I just spotted this photo in Barack Obama’s Instagram feed. (I ‘follow’ it, but pretty much abandoned Instagram when Facebook bought it.)

I’ve stood on that spot (yeah, tourist, me) at the top of the steps in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC, right on the battered little sign: Dr Martin Luther King delivered his ‘I Have A Dream’ speech on this spot on August 28, 1963 …

To me, it is so fitting that President Obama should stand there — he who embodies Dr King’s sentiment:

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”

That and the gift of inspirational oratory they share.

Very cool.

– P

Frankly, I can’t see how ‘bomber’ Matthew Hooton can survive as a political commentator [UPDATED]

I honestly hadn’t bothered listening to Matthew Hooton’s foaming hit-job on the new Opposition Leader on Radio NZ National earlier this week, but having heard a statement and ‘apology’ from Radio NZ’s Kathyrn Ryan (below) — issued through clenched teeth this morning — I went to the RNZ website and listened to it.

Wow. What a cynical, nasty performance. He started pretty calmly, but Matthew really lost it. It’s actually embarrassing. So is listening to the host, poor Ms Ryan, uselessly trying to rein the desperate spin doctor in. Here’s the relevant clip from Monday’s Nine to noon ‘Politics’ segment:


MP3 file

It seems to me Matthew’s apparent loss of self-control and the way he ignored the host’s calls for him to ‘stop it there’ — to stop using Radio NZ as a platform for repeatedly calling David Cunliffe a liar — disqualify him. Sorry, Matthew. Goodbye. (Or perhaps it was a resignation letter?)

Here’s Kathryn Ryan reading Radio NZ’s statement this morning:


MP3 file

Frankly, alongside Matthew Hooton’s earlier public statement that Nicky Hager is a “commo c*nt” and his obvious disrespect for Ms Ryan and contempt for Radio NZ’s editorial standards, I just can’t see room for him on that show, nor any show, as a ‘political commentator’.

But that’s just my opinion. Perhaps Matthew will be happily employed in such roles on Radio NZ National and Radio LIVE from now on, uninterrupted all the way to next year’s general election. Some in the National Party might be hoping so, I guess.

– P

UPDATE: Here’s Radio LIVE’s ambivalent ‘apology’ to David Cunliffe following Matthew Hooton’s routine on Duncan Garner’s show.


MP3 file

Pretty shabby Duncan.

What’s wrong with this picture? Nothing.

Twitter was … atwitter today about an [alleged] ‘selfie’ by Bill Clinton (below) which Bill Gates tweeted:


Gates-Clinton-selfie

Now, I saw it and my first thought was: Gee — why isn’t it even in focus? Then I looked at the file and thought, Gee that’s a big pic for a phone-camera. I wonder what phone it was?

Inspector-Clinton-pic

Hmm, a Sony NEX-5N … is that a phone? Nope …

Sony NEX-5N Review_ Digital Photography Review

So, it’s a good quality, interchangeable lens digital camera. So, again: Why is the photo so out of focus?
What is actually IN focus? Oh …

Gates-Clinton-selfie-background-adj-shadow

Right. Makes total sense.

– P

Left and Right: useful when doing the hokey cokey, but past its use-by date for politics?

“I put my right hand in,
I put my right hand out,
In out, in out.
shake it all about. …”
— words to the popular 1940s participation song (from Wikipedia)

Tag-team-wrestling

Did anyone else notice these two “paid PR practitioners” (to quote Steven Joyce) tag-team wrestling to smear the Opposition Leader? Going for their ‘Teamwork’ badge?

Prompted by Bill Ralston’s use of the label ‘the Left’ above and an earlier comment in another thread wherein Ivan says:

I’m not a leftie .. or a rightie … I’m just confused.

… I got thinking (again) about how underpowered that ‘Left’ vs ‘Right’ nomenclature seems when used to describe political ideologies.

For instance, ask yourself, how useful is this label?:

Jordan Williams is a lobbyist for right wing interest groups

Right Wing Commentator. TV3’s The Nation calls a spade a spade.(pic: frontpage.co.nz)

Put aside for the moment how tenable you think it might be to ask Jordan Williams — neatly labelled a ‘Right Wing Commentator’ — to wax lyrical on the topic ‘What are Labour’s problems?’ (I mean, Bill Ralston gets asked for his opinions about ‘the Left’ all the time, so, bokay.)

I don’t know how Jordan feels about being so classified by the media. He may be immensely proud. In my own observation, Jordan describes himself as ‘a constitutional lawyer’ or a ‘public lawyer’ (two noble vocations) — descriptions which nicely blur the lines. What is he really?

Based on his track record (fronting the Peter Shirtcliffe/Simon Lusk anti-MMP campaign and Don Brash’s ACT Party leadership coup) I personally see Jordan as a paid political mouthpiece — nothing more, nothing less. He is, it seems to me, merely another lobbyist who, it appears, works for ‘right wing’ figures or interest groups. (As if we need more of those, eh Bill? Sheesh!)

Now, I might be doing Jordan Williams a terrible disservice. It may be that he’s done/does amazing work for Greenpeace, or the People’s Centre/Community Law, or a trade union. I’m genuinely open to correction on that score. (Let me know in comments below.)

“both sides of the political spectrum” – that’s a pretty narrow spectrum if you ask me

I read here, in an announcement that the author of The Righteous Mind, Jonathan Haidt (whose ideas we’ve discussed here before e.g.) was to join New York University as a Professor of Business Ethics. Congratulations to him, I  must say. As you read this clip, look for another example of the widespread, almost unconscious use of the creaky Left vs Right not-so-much-a-spectrum-as-a-partisan/binary-divide model …

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A hint of siege mentality from Steve Joyce?

Steven Joyce on America's Cup and Chorus (click to watch 7'39" at TVNZ.co.nz)

Steven Joyce on America’s Cup and Chorus – TVNZ Q&A (click to watch 7’39” at TVNZ.co.nz)

I watched an interview with Steven Joyce on TVNZ’s Q&A show yesterday and, as has happened before, was pretty impressed with his commendable communication skills … up to a point. Then, as has also happened before, I watched him unravel a bit as he descended into ‘political’ debate.

Yeah, well, ‘Yawn’, you might say. Fair enough.

But what interested me about yesterday’s effort was when Mr Joyce started smearing specific ‘paid PR practitioners’who are working as lobbyists for those opposed to the government’s pricing policy on copper broadband (look elsewhere for the details).

I took those references to be to Matthew Hooton (whom I have discussed here before, and will again, in another context, in a day or two).

I’m pretty sure I heard Matthew declare to Kathryn Ryan during last week’s Politics discussion on Radio NZ National that he is working for (i.e. professionally engaged by) the group advocating for a change in the copper pricing policy. So … in that context, read what Steven Joyce told Michael Parkin yesterday from San Francisco (full transcript at TVNZ):

MICHAEL But you’ve now got a powerful lobby group here trying to overdo your work here. I mean, you can understand that people at home using the internet don’t like the idea of having the price artificially inflated on them. It’s that simple, isn’t it?

STEVEN Yeah, but that’s wrong. And you can call it a powerful lobby group, but fundamentally they are misrepresenting the facts a wee bit, and that’s the issue. The first thing is they’re suggesting that somehow that the contract is being changed, and it simply isn’t. They’re suggesting that somehow that Chorus is going to get a big bonus, which it simply isn’t. And they’re suggesting that prices are going to go up, which they’re simply not. Prices are actually going to go down. So apart from that, you know, I suppose their argument has some mortar, but with the greatest respect to them, they are being a bit cute, and I think they know they’re being a bit cute.[Comment: By ‘cute’, I think Mr Joyce actually means ‘dishonest’, don’t you?]

MICHAEL Minister, did you underestimate the pushback you were going to get when you made this decision to change these prices?

STEVEN No, I don’t think so. I mean, there’s one or two PR practitioners that are known for this. I remember when I was the minister, they ran a campaign on something else, and the ISPs are quite good at arguing their case, but I noticed that they’re not actually saying, ‘Whatever price cut occurred we’d pass on to consumers’. They are actually talking about who gets to profit what out of the prices charged, so I think we all have just got to be awake to it and know that there is a midpoint here that will work fine and don’t necessarily be taken in by the PR spin from the paid practitioners, because there’s a bit of that going on.
[emphasis added]

Look, I’m not saying there’s a sea change or anything. It’s just interesting.

Punch_and_Judy_by_lonopan-600w
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Staying positive with your team

Sound-board-positive

Be careful about WHEN you load up your teammates with ‘feedback’ or correction. Choose a useful time.

In the offline (i.e. real) world, one of my businesses is a training company.

Over the years, I’ve had the privilege of working with some amazing presenters and speakers. Not the least of those is my founding partner who is, in my view, one of the most inspirational facilitators I have ever seen in action. Her ability to build rapport with a group of people is breathtaking. She is very, very good.

Yesterday I was poking around in our storeroom looking for something, and I came across an old sound control board I used for our seminars years ago. There, prominently stuck on the board on a tatty piece of masking tape, was an important prompt I’d written for myself:

” POSITIVE ! ACK ”

… which was my reminder, that when the facilitator or trainer came to the back of the room (usually having set the participants to work on an activity, or at a session break) that I should ONLY speak positively to them;  that I should acknowledge what was working; and focus feedback (at that time) on what was going well.

I learned over hundreds of hours as a programme director that it’s almost always best to assume your speaker simply cannot absorb correction or criticism while they’re ‘performing’. Unless it’s a safety issue, you are far better to leave any ‘negative’ feedback for a debrief — later. Even the best-intentioned criticism can knock the wind out of their sails, reducing the confidence so crucial to their performance leading a group.
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NYPD promotes iOS7 security features

It’s pretty clear there’s a market for ‘hot’ Apple devices — ‘hot’ as in stolen!

The police think reducing a device’s ability to be reset after theft from its lawful owner will reduce the market. Hence, as Michael Hoffman (@Hoffm) discovered, NYPD are promoting the new security feature of Apple’s iOS7 … with a public information campaign.

Wow - click to see Michael Hoffman's tweet.

Wow – click to see Michael Hoffman’s tweet.

Lorde – Royals – Later… with Jools Holland – BBC Two

Cool!

-P

Nothing like a clear rule

Spotted this sign as we were paying for lunch yesterday.

– P

iOS7 — no worries

Every now and then one has to ignore the doomsayers.

Earlier today I downloaded and installed Apple’s new mobile operating system iOS7 on my iPhone (5) and iPad (2). No issues.

Of course, now I’m reading about a worldwide internet traffic spike and terrible delays and Apple’s servers being ‘slammed’ and yada yada … There was a while there when my devices couldn’t get a straight answer from the App Store about which of their apps needed updating. But that’s no big thang, is it?

It works. And the new look/functionality is growing on me.

– P

Inconclusive

A friend tweeted a link to this AAP/NZ Herald story about research into coffee drinking, with the ALARMING headline… Coffee quaffers face increased death risk: study

As someone who, from long years of practice, knows how to repeatedly give up drinking coffee (i.e. I’m imbibing again, at present) reading it made me queasy — but not for the obvious reasons.

No, it was the terrible inconclusiveness of the ‘study’ typified by this statement about the (supposed) increased mortality of ‘heavy’ coffee drinkers:

“It could be the coffee, but it could just as easily be things that heavy coffee drinkers do,” says The University of Queensland’s Dr Carl Lavie.

Wha? The whole article is a bit like that, with a double-mindedness that makes me (a) laugh and (b) think it shouldn’t have been reported. That line, “It could be the coffee …” Well! Spare me.

Read it at NZ Herald … and see what you think.

– P

Here’s the story political journos fixated with sports metaphors missed yesterday

I got bored quickly with the boxing/gladiatorial references to Parliament’s Question Time yesterday.

Apparently it was David Cunliffe’s first QT as Leader of the Opposition. The coverage I saw was largely a (sad) case of style being reported over substance.

Having earlier in the day defended Patrick Gower’s ‘colour’ and instability, I was intrigued and, yes, disappointed with his ‘reporting’ on the six o’clock news. It seemed like a comedy skit more appropriate for Hamish & Andy or another laddish prank show rather than the network news.

Patrick Gower focussed on Cunliffe’s verbal faux pas (mixing up the words Chorus and caucus) and mocked Labour’s clear use of a talking point (Robertson replaced by Parker as deputy leader by ‘mutual’ agreement).

Bokay. As 3News ‘political editor’, that’s Patrick’s  call — but it seems apparent he is pursuing an agenda to demean the Labour Party and its leader. Which, speaking as someone with no dog in the fight, is interesting to watch from the sidelines. In a slow-motion-car-crash kind of way. (I wonder how it will end?)

But by indulging his inner Jono Pryor last night, Patrick missed the real political story right in front of his nose. Fairfax’s Chalkie (veteran business editor Tim Hunter) spotted it

Click to read the story at stuff.co.nz

Click to read the story at stuff.co.nz — including the observation (spoiler alert): “Chalkie must conclude that Key is talking codswallop, presumably for political reasons.”

There’s a ‘bubble’ effect, where a politician gets accustomed to deference from his underlings (if not obsequiousness). It can make them lazy, intolerant of dissent or correction, and casual with the truth. We’ve seen that.

But now and then, the bubble gets wedged up against reality. Throwaway remarks (or ‘codswallop’ as Hunter says) can awkwardly come back to bite. Continue reading →