Hard News: The Exploding Banana Scandal
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One of the biggest post-9/11 gems was when Richard Prebble compared flying passenger jets into skyscrapers with this...
IIRC, he was using 9/11 as a cheap point scoring exercise about Labour scrapping our fighter jets. Quite what he thought they could have done about the plane, other than shooting it down over a city, was not clear.
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The whole journo as celebrity is pathetic. Is it really so hard to just report the news instead of manufacturing it and putting yourselves in the midst of it ?
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One of the biggest post-9/11 gems was when Richard Prebble compared flying passenger jets into skyscrapers with this...
Re the flying flour flypast, I met the mother of Marx Jones on one of those Out West train trips. She was the sister of the fake Goldie, and inordinately proud of her son. Interesting family. I wonder what ever happened to him?
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The whole journo as celebrity is pathetic. Is it really so hard to just report the news instead of manufacturing it and putting yourselves in the midst of it ?
Apparently, yes.
Much as I don't have a great deal of respect for Marshall's work I do have some admiration for his tenacity. At the ripe old age of 18 he was stirring the pile and getting himself noticed. He may grow up one day and show some of his intelligence but I fear he is just another Wishart in the making.
He is, partly, a product of the Media, not so much for their ability to make him a celebrity but for their complicity in encouraging him with large sums of dosh for his foray into Paperatzi-ism (?) in taking pictures of small children. -
I hope the NZRU and NZ Cricket see the funny side when they deny the SST media accreditation until 2012. That'll be fun to watch the sports dept see Johnathan Marshall for a "chat".
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He may grow up one day and show some of his intelligence but I fear he is just another Wishart in the making.
I believe he used to write for Investigate Magazine when he was young(er).
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You don't need explosives if you want to watch the Chiefs being destroyed. It happens most weeks anyway.
Unkind, unkind! Perhaps they could have set Sione on them.
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He was at a wedding
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He was at a wedding
Did you know you were at the house that was filmed at, Friday ? :)
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Ae
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I hope the NZRU and NZ Cricket see the funny side when they deny the SST media accreditation until 2012. That'll be fun to watch the sports dept see Johnathan Marshall for a "chat".
Another media beat up
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I look forward with interest to Marshall's long awaited expose on the Dihydrogenmonoxide trade.
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IIRC, he was using 9/11 as a cheap point scoring exercise about Labour scrapping our fighter jets. Quite what he thought they could have done about the plane, other than shooting it down over a city, was not clear.
Well, given that the top speed of a Skyhawk was only 100 km/h higher than the top speed of a 737, and the Skyhawk would have to scramble from Ohakea to Auckland or Wellington, it seems unlikely it could even do that.
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Unkind, unkind!
Yes, sorry. As one who supports the Blues I should not be taking stones into that particular glasshouse.
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To be fair, rodgerd, Prebble may have been discussing that alternate reality where we had a bunch of [ageing, poorly specced, ex-Taiwanese] trophy-F16s on hand to protect us from unorthodox flour delivery mechanisms.
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I can now exclusively reveal that I did not go to the cricket at all, and in not going to the cricket I did not have with me a nuclear weapon of mass destruction. Ground security completely failed to identify this potential threat. WHAT DOES THIS PORTEND FOR THE RUGBY WORLD CUP.
As I am sure that any real terrorists, carrying a real weapons of mass destruction, and actually going to the cricket, would have been treated similarly leniently, I am appalled. -
even the Star Times is obliged to tuck away at the bottom of the page the news that, in fact, "intelligence operations aimed at identifying threats to the World Cup are well underway" and a security steering group will be led from the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet.
Seems to me that there could be an interesting story here. Unfortunately it's struggling to get out from behind the "ZOMG TEH TERRORISTS WILL KILL US ALL!!!11!!1" headlines.
If there is a threat to the RWC, where does it come from? Inside NZ? Outside?
If it's outside, how are they (THEM!) going to get here? The vast majority of 'external threats' who are fanatical and indoctrinated enough to carry out an attack are going to have big problems slipping under the radar and getting into NZ. But questions about our border security could certainly be asked.
Let's assume, for the sake of argument, that they get into the country. Now, you can't easily slip through customs with WMD's in your pants, so they'll almost certainly have to source something locally. I'd guess this is almost impossible, but again, that's a question it might be nice to have an answer to. How easy is it to pick up a couple of pounds of, for example, mining dynamite?
Moving on to internal: how credible is an internal threat? Well, my guess (and it is a guess) would be that any internal fanatics would, in a place like NZ, stand out like the proverbial balls on a bulldog. The only thing like it that we've had recently has been that bunch in the Ureweras, and I really dont find it credible that they'd actually be dumb enough to try something horrifically spectacular at a match or a game. You have a be a lot more indoctrinated to ge tto that level, and that makes you easier to spot and deal with.
I'd much rather read a sober, detailed analysis along those lines than some sort of semi-hysterical nonsense based on pulp-sport style pranks. But maybe that's just me.
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Well, given that the top speed of a Skyhawk was only 100 km/h higher than the top speed of a 737, and the Skyhawk would have to scramble from Ohakea to Auckland or Wellington, it seems unlikely it could even do that.
And even if it could, shooting down the flour-bombing plane would have caused too much collateral damage.
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Much as I don't have a great deal of respect for Marshall's work I do have some admiration for his tenacity. At the ripe old age of 18 he was stirring the pile and getting himself noticed.
I agree, actually. I like him and I appreciate the fact that he's unusual. And he's brought in some good scoops for the Fairfax Sunday papers in the past couple of years.
Unfortunately, this story is just stupid. But he does appear to have had a grown-up on the job with him and the approval of an acting editor.
He may grow up one day and show some of his intelligence but I fear he is just another Wishart in the making.
Please ... no.
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Enemies of the stadia...
If there is a threat to the RWC, where does it come from? Inside NZ? Outside?
I'd be worried about those re-energised Soccer
(sorry, Football) fans... now they've had a taste of the
big time there'll be no stopping them!
I can see them marching round Mt Eden
all singing in unison - pitch perfect - ala Jericho!
...and of course there is always the clear and present danger of the Southern Skinheads...
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look forward with interest to Marshall's long awaited expose on the Dihydrogenmonoxide trade.
We've been there, done that - have the OIA request :-P
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Jonathan is going to grow up into Bill Ralston.
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To be fair, rodgerd, Prebble may have been discussing that alternate reality where we had a bunch of [ageing, poorly specced, ex-Taiwanese] trophy-F16s on hand to protect us from unorthodox flour delivery mechanisms.
Or that people in the stadium were sufficiently imaginative to worry, because they didn't know which part of the anti-apartheid pool the pilots inhabited HART or Umkhoto we Siwze.
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Russell, this is a classic case of the SST not understanding context; at the moment Eden Park is not considered a potential target (of any kind, I presume) so has minimal security. When the Cup is underway, well, let's see them try again.
On the contrary, I'm sure they understood the distinction precisely. They wouldn't have attempted a stunt like this if they didn't think they could get away with it-why waste all that time they could otherwise spend drinking? That's why "stings" like this are the worst kind of reporting-we only hear about the ones that work, so reporters make damn sure that their little performances always work.
Jonathan is going to grow up into Bill Ralston.
Or another Bomber.
Did you know you were at the house that was filmed at, Friday ? :)
I lived across the road from that house on Crummer Rd as a student. In one shot, you could see clear into my bedroom window. I used to enjoy being woken up by the singing of the church services in the house next door, too.
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Unfortunately, this story is just stupid. But he does appear to have had a grown-up on the job with him and the approval of an acting editor.
Oh, Jeebus... so did the Operation Leaf FUBAR and I'm still trying to figure out how nobody at the SST lost their job over that.
Much as I don't have a great deal of respect for Marshall's work I do have some admiration for his tenacity
Steve: Sincere kudos for bringing more Christian charity to the subject of the Egregious Mr. Marshall that I can muster. But I'd prefer to respect someone like Mr. Philip Kitchen whose bulldog-like tenacity had lead to many stories with demonstrable NEWS VALUE over the years.
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