Author Archive
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 […]
‘Manifest Observable Behaviour’ – Patreon CEO on Content Policy, Lauren Southern
Worth watching in light of the ‘free speech’ debate under way.
Farewell Jeremy Hardy. RIP
Jeremy Hardy has died, aged 57, from cancer. He was a hero of mine, an absolute craftsman with words. In a world that values eloquence and intelligent, good faith argument, but has to often make do with ‘debate’, Hardy stood apart as a man who could couch the toughest criticisms in a comedy shell. He […]
Matthew Hooton’s latest fevered conspiracy theory: lügenpresse
National Party loyalist and paid political propagandist Matthew Hooton stooped to another low strategy recently, responding to a news report embarrassing to the National Party’s Simon Bridges with allegations of ‘corrupt’ journalism. I’ve noticed that when he’s under pressure, Hooton seems to opt for breathless conspiracy theories and smears. The last one we discussed here at The Paepae, […]
More on the motivations of leakers
A while ago, in relation to Murray McCully’s emails, we discussed the motivations of leakers, particularly poltical leakers, and I suggested that Every source leaks for a reason, Patrick in a post I illustrated with this ‘The best hackers are Russian’ T-shirt – which seems ironic at all sorts of levels now. Today, Axios writer Jonathan […]
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 […]
Poor @ProtonMail – smeared by its dodgy users
A side issue raised by the Cambridge Analytica exposé is the revelation that the subterranean dirty political operators use a feature of end-to-end encrypted email service ProtonMail – expiring messages (sometimes called ‘self-destructing’ messages, no doubt in homage to TV show Mission: Impossible and its classic line, “This tape will self-destruct in 5 seconds.”) Cambridge […]
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 […]
Goosebumps! Morgan James slam dunks another big song
Wow. Again. I remember being struck by this talented vocal artist Morgan James, and her wonderful self-awareness when I bought her album Hunter (we used do that, remember? Before streaming). I posted a nice video (which still works!) at this post: Wow. The talented and likeable Morgan James. The last line she speaks in the […]
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 […]
Farewell Stephen Hawking
What can you say about this hero? Boom! By his beliefs he has stopped existing now that he is dead. Fair enough. But few people make the impact he did – those that do, live on in our memory. Their insights ‘live’, recorded in books or other media. What a shadow he cast. – P […]
In the news, 1984. Some photographs.
My (endless?) decluttering continues, and with it, blasts from the past rise to the surface. During 1984, before I trained as a journalist, I set out to create a portfolio of photos of people who interested me – who were ‘In the news’ at the time. As a starting point, I approached figures I’d heard interviewed […]
Jordan Williams and Auckland Ratepayers’ Alliance – Putting the ass back into astroturf
Follow this twisted tale … start with Peter WM … I did a quick Google image search on one of the "People like you" from the rate payer association's website. He lives in the USA. I contacted him and he's never heard of the association, let alone been a member. pic.twitter.com/bLO22VdzJE — Peter WM (@pwmxx) […]
Stages of grief after an electoral loss
Don’t let anyone tell you this stuff isn’t real. It’s absolutely natural to cast around for blame, and then a fresh-faced leader after a not-exactly-unexpected-but-oh-boy-we-got-our-hopes-up election loss/disappointment. How long before Dr Jonathan Coleman is persuaded to throw his hat in the ring again? He’ll be getting sweet-talked by now, I reckon. – P
