Posts Tagged ‘Dirty PR’
Dark money has entered the New Zealand electoral scene at unprecedented levels
Radio NZ’s Farah Hancock has analysed the Electoral Commission returns of money paid to influence the 2023 NZ General Election. Her article $2m surge in election campaign spending by third-party groups (RNZ) shows that as well as the huge donations-directly-to-the-parties imbalance, previously reported, a large amount of untraceable dark money was expended by bodies established […]
Slow train of accountability for Cameron Slater
It’s an adage, almost a cliche: ‘Justice delayed is Justice denied’, but genuinely, that has to be one’s response to news this last week: That dirty PR attack blogger Cameron Slater has (finally) been judged in the High Court to have defamed Auckland businessman Matt Blomfield. Further, that Slater’s false and damaging campaign of destruction […]
So, I was right about paid character assassin Carrick Graham, eh?
Today the shabby little train of denial ran out of smoke. Payment, apology in Dirty Politics case — Newsroom Crushing defeat for Dirty Politics PR man with apology to defamed academics — The Spinoff Here’s the apology wording, below. It’s ruined only by the clearly bullshit implication that there was a time when Carrick somehow […]
Who funds Matthew Hooton?
I was asked a question about Matthew Hooton on Twitter recently, and it got me thinking: Who funds Matthew Hooton? Gee, that’s a good question. Hooton used to run a corporate lobbying/PR firm in Auckland. That’s the basis of the frankly risible NZ Herald disclosure statements on his ‘opinion’ columns (hit jobs, really) which variously describe him […]
Cameron Slater is a liar. We already knew that, but it’s actually worse.
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 […]
Busted 2: Sinclair Broadcasting demonstrates what’s “extremely dangerous to our democracy”
How craven is this? (Very.) Highlighted by (among others) Deadspin in ‘How America’s Largest Local TV Owner Turned Its News Anchors Into Soldiers In Trump’s War On The Media‘ Earlier this month, CNN’s Brian Stelter broke the news that Sinclair Broadcast Group, owner or operator of nearly 200 television stations in the U.S., would be […]
Soo busted. Cambridge Analytica’s extensive dirty tricks shopping list exposed
Good god. This is devastating. And, at another level, deeply ironic. Watch below. 19 minutes of your time well-spent. And to think we used to regard Crosby Textor as ratbags, huh? Just goes to show. This exposé also puts into context our local wannabe political activists highlighted in Nicky Hager’s book Dirty Politics — remember […]
Making a pig of it. Jordan Williams has been tardy with his financial reporting obligations
It appears the PR attack machine operated by New Zealand’s most defamed man Jordan Williams (the value of whose reputation has been under review) and his ‘co-founder’, long time National Party political activist David Farrar, has been delinquent in its financial reporting obligations since the end of January this year. The ‘NZ Taxpayers Union Inc’ incorporated society […]
Murky PR update: ‘The Bloggers Club’
Alex Casey at The Spinoff had some emails leaked to her which revealed a behind-the-scenes attempt at opinion manipulation via news media. See ‘Mum’s the word’: The online influencers secretly paid to go on 1News Two prominent online “influencers” appeared in a 1News story about Kmart without having disclosed payments from a PR company acting […]
Is undisclosed, paid PR the new normal in politics?
It’ll be no surprise to readers of ThePaepae.com that I despise behind-the-scenes, subterfuge public relations and opinion shifting efforts, especially if they’re funded in a non-transparent way. By coincidence, if you examine the tags dirty PR and dirty politics on this blog, the same cast of characters keeps on appearing. Over time that can make me […]
Carrick Graham and Slater Jnr’s PR attack blog smear campaign inches towards court – with Katherine Rich attached
I mentioned in an earlier post, Most Defamed Man Ever Jordan Williams to appeal ruling, that NZ Food and Grocery Council Inc lobby group head, former National Party MP and bright young hopeful Katherine Rich, had been ‘joined’ to a defamation action against dirty PR operator Carrick Graham and his glove puppet Cameron Slater. This […]
Why is Matthew Hooton SO UPSET at efforts to increase voter turnout? (AUDIO)
Here’s some commentary from PR professional Matthew Hooton, owner of the ‘Exceltium’ PR agency*, on how he sees efforts by New Zealand’s Electoral Commission to increase voter turnout. “I think the way the Electoral Commission has behaved, taking upon itself (despite having no statutory basis) to try and massively increase the turnout to try and […]
‘Dirty Politics’ – two worthwhile retrospectives & some new developments
The Spinoff website recently carried two worthwhile retrospective articles looking at the impact of Nicky Hager’s book Dirty Politics. Read them if you’re interested via the links below. First, ‘Sunlight did what sunlight does: Nicky Hager on Dirty Politics, three years on’ (link to The Spinoff here) which includes a good number of points with […]
Jordan Williams is still a lawyer
A quick follow-up. Earlier, I had wondered aloud whether New Zealand’s most defamed man, part-time propagandist and bad boyfriend Jordan Williams would still be ‘good to go’ as a lawyer, by New Zealand Law Society standards. I noted his practising certificate was due to expire on June 30. And it seems it’s been renewed (right). This […]
Silencing critical voices with personal attacks
Watch this video. It’s short, less than 5 min, but it’s very good. The ‘flack’ filter — attempts to attack, invalidate and delegitimize “inconvenient” media narratives (starting about 3′ 30″ in the video) — was clearly on display in the NZ Government and NZ Defence Force spin response to Nicky Hager & Jon Stephenson’s book […]
