Posts by Craig Ranapia
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
Hard News: Everybody's Machiavelli, in reply to Dylan Reeve,
The details in that aren’t very salacious though. Art gallery contacted mayor’s office and got reference from them – not specifically the mayor himself? Presumably it can’t have been too unreasonable a situation for it not to raise issues within the office?
Good grief... I hope it would be standard operating procedure in local government to check references thoroughly, for rather obvious reasons. *cough* Maori Television, John Davy *cough* But here we go again with a lot of sizzling sin-nuendo, and no steak to be seen.
-
Hard News: Everybody's Machiavelli, in reply to Rob Stowell,
Perhaps
No perhaps about it, Rob. Hereabouts we can pine for a Guardian of our own, pronounce old media dead (if only it would stop roaming the countryside crying for nummy brains to eat) and find new ways to call Cameron Slater a leaky bag of rancid douche.
But here’s one irrefutable reality: New Zealand’s largest media market is directly served by ONE daily newspaper that is influential with people who couldn’t find Cameron Slater’s blog with a flashlight and a full hazmat team.
So yeah, I think it’s important we hold Shayne Currie (and his opposite numbers at Fairfax, and the TV and radio networks) fully accountable for what they do on their watch because it really does matter. And it’s not going to change any time soon.
Doesn’t mean I’m saying Whaleoil and his merry band of ethical pygmies should be held accountable for their sleaze, but let’s stop pretending the “mainstream” media are passive bystanders. They’re not, and we’ve got to stop allowing them to write themselves free passes.
No doubt about it. It is a coterie of right-wing conspirators who are responsible for His Worships libido
What a load of foofy-tosh. Can't speak for the rest of the VRWC, but I still fail to see what genuine public interest is being served. As I've said elsewhere, hard evidence that Len Brown has done anything illegal or unethical has been conspicuous by its absence. Which is the same position I took when certain sections of the left were wanking themselves into a conspiratorial froth over Don Brash's private and consensual sexual activities outside the bounds of matrimony. (Oh and I'll save you all some Google time. I still believe Bill Clinton should have been impeached -- for perjury, which is a crime, not adultery, which isn't.)
I really don't know how our self-appointed media moralists would have survived the Second World War. The American President was a serial adulterer and the Prime Minister of Great Britain was a undiagnosed manic-depressive, and semi-permanently pissed to boot. History seems to have decided they did their jobs pretty well.
-
Oh bless, just been rung by a tele-marketer pimping subscriptions to a certain daily newspaper. Thankfully, I didn't bite clean through my tongue...
-
I don’t think it’s at all controversial to observe that Aucklanders deserve better than the kind of shit we’ve seen revealed in the past two days – or, indeed, the past 10 years.
What does seem to be the elephant in the room is that while we’re all busy heaping (well-deserved) ordure on Cameron Slater, where’s the hate for the allegedly “responsible” mainstream media that could have shut down this story by refusing to give it any play?
Well, in the case of the New Zealand Herald, run a spectacularly disingenuous Rudman column where the organ-grinder screams that the monkey had rabies.
The Slater family failed to defeat Len Brown by masterminding John Palino’s campaign in last week’s mayoral election, so now we have a dirty blow beneath the belt.
Former National Party president and Palino campaign manager John Slater couldn’t topple the Mayor fairly, now his son, Cameron, is trying to humiliate him out of office.
Cameron Slater seems to have forgotten what century he’s living in.
I can only hope Rudman and Shayne Currie had the decency to blush and retch a little while putting that column to bed. I know someone's going to call me a Tory distract-troll for saying this, but I think Aucklanders are also entitled to expect a LOT better from their only daily newspaper, and we really need to hold the likes of Currie and Tim Murphy to full account for their editorial (lack of) judgement.
-
Hard News: The non-binary council, in reply to Keir Leslie,
This “it was taxpayer time” stuff is just petty.
Well, far be it from me to hold the media to tiresome journalistic standards, but if there’s any actual evidence that Brown did anything illegal or unethical I’ve not stumbled over it. (Fun Fact: adultery isn’t a criminal offence in this country. It's also a stone one or two high profile media types I could, but won't, name shouldn't be throwing around from the back of a moral high horse. )
Oh, and seriously media folks, give the “eww, old man fucked a young chick” Pecksniffing a rest. Or come around here, so me and my 27-year-older partner can take turns smacking you ageist fucks upside the head like the shit-filled piñatas your are.
-
Hard News: The non-binary council, in reply to DexterX,
It is interesting that a security guard at the Edge venue was fired for having sex on the job and Len has done precisely that.
Dexter: Perhaps we could keep this forum slightly above the level of the New Zealand Herald and avoid elevating allegation and innuendo to the level of established fact?
-
Hard News: The non-binary council, in reply to Ethan Tucker,
Perhaps instead of worrying about online voting a simpler solution would be to survey every candidate before the next local elections and ask them ‘are you a current or former member of any political party, and if so, name them’.
"Are you now, or have you ever been a member of..." doesn't have the most fortunate history there, Ethan. And you bet your arse I wouldn't answer any such question.
First, anyone who couldn't figure out my political views are on the center-right within seconds just isn't paying attention. Nor is it hard to find out that for a long period in the 90's, I wasn't only a member of the National Party but a small-time provincial officeholder in the Young Nats.
Now, if you please, you can decided that makes me an electoral Typhoid Mary. The secret ballot is a wonderful thing. But the presumption of bad faith really offends me -- I can take a piss without a permission slip from National Party HQ, just as being an out gay man and a Catholic, doesn't mean I'm a Manchurian candidate for the Vatican or this "homosexual agenda" I hear so much about if I stand for local government.
If they were up-front and stated their party loyalties it would make voting decisions much easier.
Really? I voted for Ann Hartley fully aware that she was a former Labour MP. (Even did a bit of legwork for Jonathan Coleman's campaign in the election she lost her seat.) Despite that hideous character flaw (and our differences on a fair number of issues), I did so because, IMNSHO, she was a decent and effective councillor. Shame not enough voters agreed with me, but that's how elections work.
-
It’s daft to say that Brown did not get a mandate from this election.
Oh of course he fucking did, and frankly the Herald needs to ixnay the concern-trolling about turn out at an election they didn't deign to take slightly more seriously than One Direction stalkers and what Ri-Ri does between gigs.
What can be said is that Brown has lost two key members of his inner circle: Hartley and Richard Northey, who not only chaired important “committees of the whole” on council, but met weekly with the mayor to discuss strategy.
I'd like to apologise on behalf of the Shore for tipping Hartley off council in favour of Chris Darby -- who in a decent world would have made himself unelectable with this opportunistic race-based pandering in Devonport.
-
Which is a libel to Wikileaks and the work they had carried out for many years. And the fact that you can make that sort of statement as fact is why I worry about the sort of article Russell has written here.
Oh, fuck off Don.
If Wikileaks has never published documents containing unredacted personal information from Wesley Snipes' social security number to the identities of whistleblowers and sources in the then they've got be bang to rights, and I look forward to hearing from WIkiLeaks lawyers.
But gee, I'm going to be in some damn good company including Rusbridger himself.
And I make zero apologies for holding in utter contempt those whose support for Wikileaks justified the identification and villification of two women who dared lay sexual assault complaints against Julian Assange. "Cult of Wikileaks" is about as nice as I'm willing to get with those people.Now I think it would be wise to just agree to disagree and move along, before I lose my rag and say something genuinely actionable.
-
Hard News: Who Guards the Guardian?, in reply to Russell Brown,
Which is not, I feel obliged to note, the reasoning he actually offered himself.
And the idea going around in certain quarters that Rusbridger (silent H, Ian :) ), was going to crumple at the first hint of an injunction if Greenwald didn't insist? It's a long read, but I'd warmly recommend reading Rusbridger's 2011 Anthony Sampson Memorial lecture: 'The long, slow road to libel reform', which also contains some thoughtful reflections that "the public interest" isn't quite as clearly defined as the "publish it all, and let God sort it out" Cult of Wikileaks would have you believe.
I don't agree with everything he said, but it's irrational to suggest he hasn't thought deeply about the ethical complexities of what he publishes, or is easily monstered by corporate/political special interest.
Last ←Newer Page 1 … 112 113 114 115 116 … 1235 Older→ First