Posts Tagged ‘telling the truth’
Deceitful “PR blog” questions worth considering
At the risk of creating a terrible circularity that could collapse the interwebs, let me suggest you read Bryce Edwards’ Political Roundup today (available here at The NZ Herald.) Bryce introduces his political topic du jour thus: New Zealand politics is ‘a dirty, disgusting, despicable game. And it involves dirty, disgusting despicable people at all […]
Emmerson – Palino’s diner
This, from Rod Emmerson in the NZ Herald, is one of those cartoons with plenty of subtlety* … it rewards scrutiny. – P *Like, for instance, the ‘speciality’, the puddle under Banks, and, is Slater junior wearing pants?
The challenge of dealing with a whistle-blower
I referred in this post: Please read this NY Times column — ‘The Banality of Systematic Evil’ to the discomfort that ‘management’ can experience — and the poor decisions they can make as a result — when someone in their organisation highlights wrongdoing. Remember?: “… an accountant was dismissed because he insisted on reporting “irregular payments, […]
A hint of siege mentality from Steve Joyce?
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 […]
On vulgar, irrational, deceitful misinformation campaigns
This, from Jon Stewart talking about Fox News, put me in mind of some of the oily local propagandists and liars who demonstrate a similar nasty, negative, fixation with ‘the left’ and reflexively spin their personal attack lines against public and private figures who represent it … After showing a montage of Fox clips, Stewart […]
Perception vs reality
He wasn’t the first to say it, but he was the first I heard say it, and he said it with such passion. Then Prime Minister1 Geoffrey Palmer, whose book Unbridled Power? was one of the texts I’d studied in politics at Victoria University, said, with feeling: “In politics, perception becomes reality.” — The Right […]
“… serious criminal offences …” *
From ACT Party insider Simon Carr’s slender volume The Dark Arts of Politics… In the end, despite attempts at distraction (or bluster) the evidence speaks for itself … and is often inescapable. For my own part, I try to be a reasonable person, remaining open to negotiation where possible. But only up to a point. – P […]
Groping for the truth
Why does a lie offend us? Why is it that a lie — especially a lie to our face — vexes us so? Our efforts to identify the veracity of a claim (sometimes a very basic claim), can be frustrated by liars and rogues. So much of our lives can be taken up with efforts to […]
Dealing with one’s disillusionment with an elderly man
Rolf Harris is innocent until proven guilty, of course. But it struck me as sad that prosecutors have said (as quoted): “We have determined there is sufficient evidence for a realistic prospect of conviction and that a prosecution is in the public interest.” Quite unrelated to Rolf Harris, I know the sharp pang of disillusionment one […]
Misplaced trust (‘I’m telling you this in strictest confidence.’)
Yeah, this happens … JK Rowling on the leak that saw her ‘secret’ pen name John Galbraith leaked to the world (turns out lawyer Chris Gossage, sworn to secrecy, blabbed to his wife’s best friend who tweeted it): Rowling said that “only a tiny number of people knew my pseudonym and it has not been […]
Simon Bridges #PantsOnFire poster for the record
Simon Bridges may pretend to be ‘chuffed’ about this. I don’t think so. pic Greenpeace NZ via @Elipsister
John Key’s resignation? Pretty bold prediction, John.
In violation of the inverted pyramid model of news writing (most important factoids & points at the top) NZ Herald political writer John Armstrong buried his strongest line in the third-to-last paragraph of his narrative of Kim Dotcom’s appearance at the NZ Parliament’s Intelligence and Security committee last night: Outside the hearing, Dotcom accused Key […]
A sock-puppet called Scalia. A deceitful viper bearing false witness.
For those of you who are ‘over’ the recent controversy about internet take-down orders and indefinite gagging of a blogger, you might want to skip this post. If you’re one of the parties involved, or close to them, please don’t put yourself in harm’s way or at risk of distress by reading on … I […]
This is what I mean by ‘chilling’ …
Here’s NZConservative blogger Lucia Maria, replying to [public] correspondence with the successful applicant in the recent internet take-down and gagging order case I referred to in Is this what we want? Internet ‘take down’ and indefinite gagging orders? and Steven Price: ‘wider factors to consider’ in recent online gagging order. As I do (and others […]
Sir Robert Muldoon: ‘Always On the Record’
I remember an interchange I had with Sir Robert Muldoon back when I was a young Press Gallery reporter and he resembled an aged warrior chief — still with teeth, and claws and MIND more than sharp enough to puncture those he wanted to, don’t-you-worry-about-that. It’s here, in comments on my post ‘Banks: Doing the […]
