Archive for the ‘Media issues’ Category
Full of sound and fury
Some who fancy themselves as ‘political players’ put me in mind of this from Macbeth: Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day To the last syllable of recorded time, And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! Life’s but a [...]
Radio station referred to police over pre-election ‘Prime Minister’s hour’
Not a great look for RadioLIVE just as their excellent TV spots boosting their ‘breaking news’ brand get under way. Ouch. Breaching the Broadcasting Act. I preferred the Broadcasting Standards Authority’s description of John Key’s (let’s-face-it:-pretty-entertaining-but-maybe-for-the-wrong-reasons) ‘politics free’ radio show as ‘light flim-flam and frivolity‘. No doubt the legal advice RadioLIVE sought prior to the broadcast [...]
Of goose and ganders. ACT on Campus referred to police for breaching the law
I was idly checking the 2011 election results on the Electorial Commission’s website tonight, to doublecheck my basis for recently referring to fringe political party ACT as the one-point-one percenters … they got 1.07% of the vote … and look: Referral to the Police 2 February 2012 The Electoral Commission has referred the following matter [...]
Blame the Blackberry
From a very-well-worth-reading Reuters article about the News Corp/News International ‘clean up’ over phone-hacking: James [Murdoch] has consistently said that he did not know all the facts when he approved the [£700k] payment [to a hacking victim, soccer union boss Gordon Taylor] despite the revelation by the MSC in December of an email trail that [...]
Hollaback girl Fran O’Sullivan
I generally like business writer Fran O’Sullivan’s work, which can be wide-ranging and interesting and often evinces a robust, seen-it-all-before, how-stupid-do-they-think-we-are? tone. Fran doesn’t often mince words (except for when she does) and she gets points in my book for taking a position, and saying what she thinks — or how the landscape looks from [...]
Justifying the dodgy
Mitt Romney seems to be indulging in the “I hit him first but it wuz self defence because I could see he was gunna hit me” justification I expect of a six year old. After reportedly outspending Gingrich five-to-one with ads that were overwhelmingly negative, and explaining his philosophy as “when you’re attacked you’ve got [...]
Matthew Hooton and the exquisite agony of being a paid shill
I’ve referred to spin doctor Matthew Hooton before — I positively delight in the shabby transparency of his gums-for-hire faux agitprop and the way he marshals an argument. He’s almost always accessible, usually very much in control of himself, except when overtaken by passion or appetite of some sort, and well, I find him just [...]
Media neutrality vs being truthful
We’ve talked before about my distinction (not just mine!) between being ‘impartial‘ (or big O objective) versus being FAIR — which I (naively?) primarily define as telling the truth. Some partisans (who shall remain charitably nameless lest we upset their finely-balanced narcotic calm) seem to me to frequently stoop to spinning half-truths or outright lies [...]
As predicted, tea pot tapes released
I predicted here and elsewhere that the recording of the now infamous election campaign ‘cup of tea‘ between ACT Epsom candidate John Banks and National Party leader John Key or a transcript would be released … I called that “inevitable“. Viz, yesterday: The recording is now available at multiple locations. This ‘cleaned up audio’ version [...]
I like this kind of news story
A report purporting to show potentially historic levels of support from Jewish voters for Mitt Romney in a general election matchup with Barack Obama appears to be either profoundly flawed or simply fabricated. … I like it when journos look behind claims and debunk them. Read it at Huffington Post – P
