Hard News by Russell Brown

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Hard News: Dirty Politics

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  • Tom Semmens,

    Espiner was furious about something!

    Sevilla, Espana • Since Nov 2006 • 2217 posts Report Reply

  • Lucy Telfar Barnard,

    Laila Harre's observation that Judith Collins was Minister for the Electoral Commission was thrillingly chilling.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 585 posts Report Reply

  • Ian Dalziel, in reply to Bevan Shortridge,

    Darkness falls upon the land...

    John Key At The End of the Day

    I'm looking forward to beyond the end
    ... 'The Remains of the Day'

    When Key finally learns about Dignity & Greatness (and that he doesn't have it), then he will then have to traverse loss and regret - while keeping up the inane banter...

    Christchurch • Since Dec 2006 • 7953 posts Report Reply

  • Tom Semmens,

    one of the jaw-droppers from the Espiner/Key interview was the PM (Minister for SIS) revealing/claiming that he doesn’t trouble himself – his ’desk” – with OIA requests about the SIS.

    Key has nothing but contempt for the habits and minutae of democratic governance. How many more examples do we need to conclude he sees running a country as simply a promotion from managing a trading floor, where the values of the Wolves of Wall Street prevail?

    From the tone of Espiner's interview I would guess Espiner has read the book over the weekend. Like Danyl, Russell Brown, and Andrew Geddis he sounds like he was disgusted by what he read. Key's blithe dissembling clearly outraged him.

    Sevilla, Espana • Since Nov 2006 • 2217 posts Report Reply

  • Dismal Soyanz, in reply to Tom Semmens,

    But to be fair, Key is blithe about everything.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2010 • 310 posts Report Reply

  • Lucy Telfar Barnard,

    It was satisfying to hear a proper grilling....

    06:58
    Guyon Espiner: "The Justice Minister of New Zealand has conceded publically that she did pass on the name of a public servant, That resulted in him getting some pretty severe death threats. And you think that's OK?"
    Prime Minister John Key: "And people can see that..."
    Espiner: "Is it OK?"
    Key: "And people can see..."
    Espiner: "Yes or no, is it OK?"
    Key: "And people can see that this is..."
    Espiner: "Is it OK?"
    Key: "And people can see..."
    Espiner: "Is it OK that Judith Collins did that, yes or no?"
    Key: "And people can see that this is a smear campaign by Nicky Hager and by...[inaudible]"
    Espiner: "I'm not asking you for a critique about Nicky Hager's motivations, I'm asking you that about something that is publically in the arena, Judith Collins has said 'I passed on the name of this public servant,' and we know what happened after that. I'm asking you a simple question, was that appropriate, yes or no?"
    Key: "It isn't totally relevant, because at the end of the day, I don't know all the context of what happened there and all those situations..."
    Espiner: "You know the context here Prime Minister, please answer the question. Was it appropriate for your Justice Minister to pass on the name of a public servant doing his job, who was then severely sanctioned on a website?"
    Key: "I don't know all the details behind all of that, but what I do know is that this is a series of selective pieces of information, many of which can't be backed up. I know that this was..."
    Espiner: "I'm asking you about one of them."
    Key: "Yeah, well, I'm not going to go into your individual ones because in the end this is a smear campaign, which I gotta say, started the week with people out there...
    Espiner: "No, you're not going to talk about burning effigies etc., because it has nothing to do with this."
    Key: "Well, it does actually..."
    Espiner: "No...I'm talking about..."
    Key: "Well it might have something to do with it..."
    Espiner: "No."
    Key: "...because at the end of the day..."
    Espiner: "No, this is about the behaviour of your Justice Minister. Do you stand by her today?
    Key: "Yeah, I stand by her," ...[stopped transcription 08: 35].

    Of course, that's not the whole of that section of questioning, but I count that as seven times Espiner asked the same question, which Key refused to answer.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 585 posts Report Reply

  • cindy baxter,

    Undercover cop Rob Gilchrist on how Hager discovered him and how Hager always gets it right:

    "You see, Mr Hager is very good at what he does. He is not just a journalist who working to a deadline just makes stuff up to add to the word count. He researches the hell out of the subjects in his articles and books. He talks to the right people, asks the right questions and goes over every little detail he has available to him with a nit comb."

    http://thestandard.org.nz/rob-gilchrist-on-nicky-hager/

    auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 102 posts Report Reply

  • stephen clover,

    2008 is a long time ago and I'd been struggling, but thank god for Branko Marcetic whose memory is clearly better than mine: When John Key was concerned about dirty politics

    wgtn • Since Sep 2007 • 355 posts Report Reply

  • Brodie Davis,

    Hasn’t Slater inadvertantly admitted that all the content is real with his claims that dotcom hacked him to get the emails?

    Keys saying its all false/out of context. Slater is just going full guns at who he thinks is responsible, and ignoring/unaware that it pretty much confirms everything as being true.

    Since Aug 2008 • 54 posts Report Reply

  • ChrisW, in reply to Ian Dalziel,

    Darkness falls upon the land...
    John Key At The End of the Day
    I'm looking forward to beyond the end ...
    'The Remains of the Day'

    (Perhaps prematurely, but) I’m looking forward beyond all that
    to the new dawn to follow !:-)

    Gisborne • Since Apr 2009 • 851 posts Report Reply

  • Luke Williamson,

    God it was good to hear Guy Espiner scold him like that. Finally, someone who doesn't just let him wander off into analogies with the All Blacks. It makes you realise just how weakly tested John is by the mainstream media most of the time.

    Warkworth • Since Oct 2007 • 297 posts Report Reply

  • Sofie Bribiesca,

    Matthew Backhouse makes page 1 in the Herald. Thanks to RNZ. Is Ede the fall guy that Nactional are throwing under the bus?
    Plus this may be an old link. You'll are too fast !

    here and there. • Since Nov 2007 • 6796 posts Report Reply

  • simon g, in reply to stephen clover,

    Another comparison that springs to mind is David Benson-Pope. He was in the wrong, was found to have "misled" (or whatever euphemism we prefer) and had to go.

    Back then, people like Sean Plunkett thought their job was to hold the Minister to account. He doesn't seem to think so now.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 1333 posts Report Reply

  • Rob Stowell,

    <thesighingpedant>
    For some reason the adoption- eg in the Herald, last item on POA - of the PM's use of 'refute' to mean dispute or deny seems a symptom of the general decay of MSM news. I've met sub-editors who'd have made any journo who made that mistake want to crawl under a rock for a week.
    And on TVNZ, someone appears to have failed the basics of Roman numerals.
    Great subs also add long-term knowledge, news sense, and fact-checking. Makes me wonder how much of that slides through as well.

    Whakaraupo • Since Nov 2006 • 2120 posts Report Reply

  • Tom Semmens,

    And on TVNZ, someone appears to have failed the basics of Roman numerals.

    I predicted disaster from day one when they introduced that new fangled whole numeral approach to learning Roman numbers. Back in my day, you were beaten for III weeks if you couldn't recite the year of first publication of Keat's poems in Latin before writing it flawlessly and without hesitation on the blackboard.

    Sevilla, Espana • Since Nov 2006 • 2217 posts Report Reply

  • SteveH,

    Key says that Ede's job was briefing bloggers and that he txts or calls Slater 3 or 4 times a year to clarify something about story he didn't understand. This is apparently perfectly normal and widespread. So Russell, how many calls/txts have you received from Key and Ede? From other ministers?

    Since Sep 2009 • 444 posts Report Reply

  • Rich of Observationz, in reply to Tom Semmens,

    What did they do if you misplaced an apostrophe?

    Back in Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 5550 posts Report Reply

  • Sofie Bribiesca,

    here and there. • Since Nov 2007 • 6796 posts Report Reply

  • Richard Aston, in reply to Lucy Telfar Barnard,

    It was satisfying to hear a proper grilling….

    Yeah that was so satisfying to hear Guyon going hard trying to nail Key down.
    I had been wondering if Espiner was a national apologist but this interview gave me hope.
    Did it actually reveal anything new? Not sure and maybe the full frontal "yes or no" approach will never actually reveal anything.

    Northland • Since Nov 2006 • 510 posts Report Reply

  • stephen clover, in reply to Richard Aston,

    Did it actually reveal anything new? Not sure and maybe the full frontal “yes or no” approach will never actually reveal anything.

    Poor guy. It must be like a tight-rope act for him. On the one hand he has to try to run the official lines which are designed to insulate National & the govt from damage – but at the same time he has to dovetail those with the lines his private advisers are concocting in order to maintain sufficient distance so that when everything REALLY blows up he can claim ignorance / deception by his Ministers and staff and still walk away smiling.

    The stress!

    wgtn • Since Sep 2007 • 355 posts Report Reply

  • Paul Campbell,

    Surely Ede's phone logs are FOIAable for the period of time he was paid by the public purse

    Dunedin • Since Nov 2006 • 2623 posts Report Reply

  • Richard Aston, in reply to Sofie Bribiesca,

    Hacker comes forward

    Ok so the evil hacker kim.dot.com diversion is a dead duck what will be next ?

    Northland • Since Nov 2006 • 510 posts Report Reply

  • Neil Graham, in reply to Sofie Bribiesca,

    re @whaledump's details.

    Flat 3b, 3 Hans Cresent is the Euadorian Embassy in London.

    9284C4A9EB9268918E03313DCDAD5C12EFF3D467 is a hash of bitcoin address
    1EMihuUXnttweLaARu83CW9i8V5c4d1r3t with (as yet) no transactions.

    Christchurch • Since Nov 2006 • 118 posts Report Reply

  • Alfie,

    +1 for Guyon Espiner - nice job!

    Dunedin • Since May 2014 • 1440 posts Report Reply

  • Paul Campbell,

    Listening to Key essentially saying "it's perfectly OK to take confidential stuff from a web site if the security is lax" just pisses me off - the is the guy responsible for the GCSB - if the minister for the GCSB has this attitude what can we expect from his department?

    Dunedin • Since Nov 2006 • 2623 posts Report Reply

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