Author Archive
Media bias: In the eye of the beholder
This comment from Ivan feeds into what I think is a perception about the ‘wicked-news-meed-ya’ today … My opinion is that there is a monolithic seachange in media approach. I believe that there has been a shift toward populist shockjock opinionated and quite trite media. They look privileged – they sound privileged and they act […]
A dignified response to Labour’s complaint
I don’t want to get into the argy-bargy about the Prime Minister’s hour on RadioLIVE last Friday. I listened to it and enjoyed it. Good to hear John Key reading the weather and being a gushing fanboy interviewing people he looks up to. He does it well. I saw Mr Key copped a bit of […]
A wittle bit of hyperbole? Or not?
There’s a saying in newsrooms which goes something like: “We’d better hope when the End of the World comes there won’t be a sports reporter on the newsdesk … because they’ll have used up all their superlatives.“ Look at this great lead paragraph regarding a Rugby League star: Last night’s game redefined the word irreplaceable. […]
Dan Carter – a nation groans
News of NZ Rugby star Daniel Carter’s injury (Carter ruled out of World Cup 3News) drew a collective groan. Oh, ouch. Not what we wanted to hear. Good luck to him and the team. Now that is a story which will dominate the ‘news cycle’ … and rightly, because so many of us care. Bugger. […]
Let’s make it an even 5-million views … Leonard Cohen
When I watched this, it was sitting at 4,956,083 views on YouTube. I’ve seen Leonard Cohen perform this song LIVE twice: Montreal, Canada and Wellington New Zealand. What a legend. (Yeah, I’m a fan.) Apparently there’s a new collection coming out: The Complete Albums Collection while we’re waiting for a new album. – P
Sue Kedgley on trench warfare and the value of MMP
A worthwhile interview between Sean Plunket and retiring Green MP Sue Kedgley was broadcast on The Nation today. I’d seen reports of her valedictory statement with ‘parting shots’ about Parliamentary ‘trench warfare’ and nodded in agreement. Much of the time it’s trench warfare in here,” she told Parliament. “The aim is to do battle, to […]
Newly political Peter Leitch – timing is everything
There’s been a dose of opprobrium directed towards a Labour MP Darien Fenton for her Facebook comments (yawn) in reaction to ‘The Mad Butcher’ businessman/philanthropist Sir Peter Leitch publicly endorsing the National Party in the lead up to the General Election. Some of Labour’s political enemies have sought to make it a litmus test, describing […]
Lawyers (and lab rats) have their uses
Despite all the jokes about lawyers (some of them very funny, like Q: Why do some experiments use lawyers instead of lab rats? A: Because there are more of them, there are some things even rats won’t do, and the experimenters prove less likely to become emotionally attached to lawyers than rats) there are times […]
Coincidence
I swear every word of this is true. A couple of days ago I tweeted a link about a ‘Blogger whose poos don’t smell …’ … referring to my post that day about [update:] recent tactics of the VFC anti-MMP campaign … Well, today after I picked him up from school, my son and I […]
Another good graphic
Another in my series of ‘graphics that communicate‘ … this poster design for an upcoming event in Leigh next month really appeals to me: Now the funny things is, I found the poster because this morning Facebook recommended I ‘friend’ Tame Iti (since we have four friends in common) and I wandered over to his […]
How to piss off an All Blacks supporter
Crikey! UPDATE: Apparently the Queenslanders are buying them from a South African T-shirt maker: I made this one off t-shirt for a rugby union mad friend as laugh for his day out with his kiwi mates to the rugby just after the 2007 RWC. To my surprise, four years later, his photo has gone viral […]
Authentic use of a following …
Brooke Fraser gets the value of using her ‘brand’ … and putting her body in the space to support good causes. Here’s what she says about the poverty of Africa, on her way to Ethiopia: “This is my eighth visit to the continent but my first to Ethiopia and I’m expecting it to be a […]
Doing the anti-MMP campaign’s dirty work
I’ve been critical of partisan attack blogging (which I called “fixated, credibility-eviscerating attack blogging“). I am troubled (but not ‘shocked‘ or ‘outraged‘) by a demonstrated lack of what I called ‘fair-mindedness’ and the occasional deployment of untruthfulness (I regard that as a far more serious breach) I observe in some political blogs, some of whom […]
