Posts Tagged ‘telling the truth’
Spoofing David Fisher
Some malicious drongo with too much time on their hands is pretending to be NZ Herald reporter David Fisher on Twitter, closely mimicking his real Twitter account @Fish_NZH, which is one I follow. (UPDATE: As you’ll observe in the comments below, David Fisher renamed his Twitter account to @DFisherJourno … And the deceitful impostor renamed […]
Insane
Hostage Taking Not Like Regular Negotiating By Jonathan Chait NYMag.com Worth a read, not least for the refreshing line: This is completely insane. The two parties disagree about the appropriate size and scope of the federal government. They don’t disagree about the debt ceiling.
A small update: now I am ‘a sanctimonious twat’, too, apparently.
Earlier this year, in discussion with Cathy Odgers (Cactus Kate) about certain RWNJ’s affecting to foam with outrage (see Wailing about death threats, forgetting what they’ve written themselves) I noted National Party hate blogger Cameron Slater’s marked tendency to spit insults at those who disagree with him rather than make the effort to mount an […]
‘As playful as he is psychotic’
I read this wonderful line in Michele Manelis’ preview of Skyfall, the latest Bond movie: Javier Barden stars as Raoul Silva, and brings the sinister-yet-comedic element to the story. This over-the-top baddie is as playful as he is psychotic, but of course, underneath it all, he feels that he’s simply “misunderstood”. Which reminded me of […]
Romney
I haven’t got much to say about the debate yesterday. (I watched it.) Romney, as discussed, it seems to me, will say anything, whether he believes it, or whether it will stand scrutiny or not, The ‘Etch-a-sketch’ illustration his campaign organiser Eric Fehrnstrom forecast in March (wherein Romney could pretend to be a ‘conservative Republican’ […]
Oh, for a straight answer to a straight question
John Key delivered a good performance on TVNZ’s Q&A current affairs programme this morning — UNTIL he was asked about John Banks.* You can watch the interview here at TVNZ on demand (17 mins) And here is the audio of the 3 minute section where interviewer Shane Taurima asked about Mr Key’s standards for his […]
The D-word. Name-calling in place of intellectual debate
A nice line from Stanley Fish’s New York Times review of right wing polemicist Dinesh D’Souza’s ninety minute anti-Obama campaign ad masquerading as a feature film … … While a viewer could certainly disagree with D’Souza’s analysis of the genesis and emergence of Obama’s views, it is nevertheless an analysis to which one could respond […]
Criticism or demonisation? Thoughts about The Standard’s treatment of the Paganis
I personally still don’t buy the ‘left wingers making death threats’ spin promulgated recently with faux ‘outrage’, ‘sympathy’ and ‘concern’ by certain right wing political propagandists. (see: ‘Wailing about death threats, forgetting what they’ve written themselves‘) They’re just exploiting the evident divisions between some on ‘the left’. As they do. Making hay while the sun […]
What a strange coincidence [Updated]
Let’s just put a pin in this and come back to it later … Ms Boag, as well as all recipients of the email – including Ms Collins, ACC chief executive Ralph Stewart and Mr Judge – have denied leaking the email. But Ms Collins told the Herald last night that the email from Ms […]
Choking on one’s own sanctimony (I think Juana has ‘issues’ with me)
On harsh criticism “[A]t its worst, the show chokes on its own sanctimony,” Thus wrote a New York Times TV critic, Allesandra Stanley, responding (negatively) to The Newsroom, Aaron Sorkin’s latest TV series. The opening line of her review, ‘So Sayeth the Anchorman‘ reads: It’s not enough to be right; everyone else must be wrong. That’s […]
Laughing all the way to the Banks
‘Insufficient evidence’ From one Banksy to another — Police have decided they won’t prosecute ACT Party leader and sole MP John Banks for [alleged] electoral law offences relating to him improperly declaring tens of thousands of dollars of campaign donations as ‘anonymous’ when he’d personally solicited those very donations … because they can’t prove he […]
Someone who asks questions for a living does a good job of answering some
From one of the most thoughtful and illuminating* ‘Twelve Questions’ columns I’ve read … NZ Herald: Knowing what you know now about the media, would you still want to be a journalist if you were starting out in 2012? Anita McNaught: It has changed, but with a few reservations I love the way it has […]
Declaring where you’re coming from
Like most people (I think), I find it interesting, at times fascinating, to speculate about WHY people do and say what they do … WHY they might express views that they hold in the way they do … and WHY they enter into discussions or debates (and sometimes flame wars) on the internet. But I’ve […]
The curse of hypervigilance
Recent angst-ridden discussion about comments published on the internet have reminded me of a conclusion I reached when I was myself the subject of scurrilous anonymous comment: It can bloody hurt. But some of the pain is, sadly, self-inflicted. We’ve seen again and again how anonymity seems to loosen people’s grip on civility. Some of […]
Guest post: Andrew King responds to Dean Letfus feature
You may recall my post The trajectory of property spruiker Dean Letfus which was the blog equivalent of a sharp intake of breath at the positioning of Dean Letfus‘s smiling face on the cover of the NZ Property Investor magazine. I wasn’t the only one surprised at that placement, or the soft ride he was […]
