Posts by InternationalObserver

Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First

  • Hard News: The Soap Opera,

    the

    Since Jun 2007 • 909 posts Report

  • Hard News: Go Webstock,

    On the drugs v alky debate. We know the impact of alky but drugs are every evolving, the potency of weed etc.

    Alky has its potency clearly labelled & drugs don't so there is a higher inherent risk with drugs.

    I'll start listening once there is a similar potency measure for Party Pills, Weed etc posted on the side of the packaging.

    Er, but wasn't that exactly the point of the Social Tonics Association? [And lets take a moment to giggle at that name]. They are all in favour of regulation and labeling the BZP content. Like alcohol, party pills is a profitable business, and they don't want to kill their customers.

    Anderton's position seems to be 'it's too late to shut the barn door on Alcohol, but we've still got time with Party Pills'. He may be right, but it alienates young people who like party pills, and consider the distinction hypocritical.

    Whilst there's more money in P, I don't doubt that the dealers are stockpiling BZP based pills for sale (at inflated prices) after they become illegal. And I bet those pills will have 1000mgs of BZP.

    I can't help feeling it 'Alcohol Prohibition' all over again, and it might be better to tax and regulate, rather than ban.

    Since Jun 2007 • 909 posts Report

  • Hard News: The Soap Opera,

    Yeah, I came in on the back of that TV1 story and thought "Omigod, not them too?" but since I didn't see the whole thing I was loathe to comment. I did wonder tho' whether it was the story they ran in the 6pm bulletin (which I didn't see - I was watching 3) or whether they re-jigged that story in light of the story TV3 ran in their 6pm bulletin.

    And if they both ran it then I'm guessing both reporters (Tsei included) fell victim (to put it charitably) to the PR dept of the World Cocktail Championship who flew in these 'friends of Paris'.

    Since Jun 2007 • 909 posts Report

  • Hard News: The Soap Opera,

    the breakfast jocks on The Rock were slagging it off as a news story. Gotta say, if even breakfast Rock jocks are criticising a story's newsworthiness...

    heh heh

    and worser still: The Rock is owned by the same company that owns TV3!!

    There was a clunker on Breakfast on TV1 this morninng with a reporter repeatedly saying Hubbard (not Banks) had announced last night that if elected Mayor he would not spend ratepayers money on an Eden Park upgrade. But it was Banks who actually said it

    BTW - written before the stabbing death in 'Auckland's upmarket' Herne Bay was this interview with Young Sid, published in the Sunday Star Times last Sunday.

    "My solo album is a window onto my community. I just talk about what I've seen in South Auckland. Growing up, my mother was an alcoholic, my father was a drug dealer. We went through some hard shit.

    "As for the violence, I report on it rather than glorify it. A lot of young people feel safer if they carry weapons where I'm from. People go to a party, a fight starts and suddenly those weapons come out. Back in the day, people used their hands, one-on-one, and you might walk away with just a black eye. Nowadays, it might end up with somebody stabbed to death."

    Since Jun 2007 • 909 posts Report

  • Hard News: The Soap Opera,

    So does punctuation make it alright?
    The word [is] used 4 times & not all direct quotes.

    I'm sure that's just the fuddy duddy ol' DomPost who probably didn't understand the guy was saying Niggaz (not 'niggers').
    Also from the Stuff/DomPost story:

    Ethan described his friend [as] a "big friendly beast" who got into no more trouble than anyone else and was not usually the type to get into fights.

    So it was a bad night then? The alleged killer also allegedly stabbed someone else earlier that night. Allegedly.

    "He said he was going to get jumped by heaps of niggers".

    Yeah, stabbing someone's bro' (allegedly) tends to bring a negative reaction.

    all of them in the group were very drunk that night

    drunk on Party Pills? C'mon Jim Anderton, lets fast-track that legislation before more teens are killed by Party Pills.

    Since Jun 2007 • 909 posts Report

  • Speaker: Mixing it up, with stats like,

    HEY, RB!!
    Any chance you can put some sort of icon on the RWC threads so those of us not interested can save a few finger clicks (thereby delaying RSI another day)??

    Righto, as you were ... blog away you rugby heads! : )

    Since Jun 2007 • 909 posts Report

  • Hard News: The Soap Opera,

    I know it's shooting fish in a barrel, but someone at TV3 "News" needs to be smacked hard on the head with a frying pan: the third or fourth item in this evening's news was some crap about whether Paris Hilton might like an NZer for a boyfriend.

    It was based entirely on a contrived interview with two of her mates in Queenstown. Leanne Malcolm made speculative suggestions and they both gave vague, non-comittal answers. The two friends also seemed uncomfortable about discussing Hilton, one wanting to talk about whatever it is in Queenstown she's there for.

    If it was the "fluff" peice at the end, well, I could've lived with it. But that early? No way.

    It was cheap, stupid and irrelevant.

    I've quoted your whole post because I agree with every word. I was so incensed last night I was thinking of making a formal complaint to BSA (something I've never done before). As you point out, the whole story was concocted out of leading questions by the interviewer. As soon as the story finished I rewound it so I could watch it again - I thought I'd missed something, but no, Paris Hilton did not actually say she wanted a kiwi boyfriend as 3NEWS boldly stated!!
    The reason I'm so incensed is that this is the type of blatant dumbing down of the news that leads us into PR-handout journalism. Which leads us into wars and waterfront rugby stadiums because no-one in the press is willing to challenge the handout.
    The other reason I'm so incensed is that this makes me feel really stoopid for switching to 3NEWS all those years ago. Back then they took the lead against TVNZ's formulaic reporting, but I guess I can switch back just as easily.

    Leanne Malcolm's always struck me as a reasonably on-to-it journo, so I was puzzled by the inane questions.

    Methinks she has been seduced by the Queenstown lifestyle. I believe she works freelance, covering stories (outside of ChCh and Dundedin) as they arise.

    thoughts on the most viewed list:

    The results are also skewed by ten people reading only one of the 'serious' stories and five people reading all ten 'gossip' stories.

    9) Your say: Disney star in nude scandal

    At the risk of negating my outrage above: I googled this 'star's' name last week when the story broke on the web. Hopefully she will have made all her tweenage fans think twice about taking a nudie pic of yourself and sending it to your boyfriend. (Zac, you bastard, I __know it got out because you couldn't help but show it to one of your bro's)__ What's weird is that even sans clothes she still looks like Disney's wholesome girl next door for whom butter wouldn't melt in her mouth.

    Since Jun 2007 • 909 posts Report

  • Hard News: The Soap Opera,

    NZ On Air funded it from their Innovation fund (but it still had to screen first on TV to stay inside the Broadcasting Act).

    You mean they played jiggery pokery with their own rules in order to pay for something some ppl might have considered bollocks?

    now screening again on C4 in conventional 30 min blocks -- and rating much better*.

    You mean, like, a TV episode? Which is what NZOA was set up to fund?

    So how did this success/failure (choose your spin) lead to the decision to fund programming for cellphones and youTube? Is this not another example of where bureaucracies create work for themselves in order to continue to feed at the trough?

    *can anyone define/quantify "better"?

    Since Jun 2007 • 909 posts Report

  • Radiation: Medium blog whisperer,

    oh ... I thought maybe you'd update with highlights for Tuesday - Saturday.

    oh well: Letterman tonite supposedly features Flight of the Conchords (but that's not the first time Prime have said this, and then it wasn't)

    Since Jun 2007 • 909 posts Report

  • Hard News: The Soap Opera,

    While living in Australia, I used to watch ...

    __Whatever Happened To...?
    __ (the aussie version, not fronted by Paul Holmes).
    How much NZOA funding did Julie Christie get for this 'kiwi programming'? 1.2million? 1.5 million? How much money will she have left over after flying in the Ingham Twins, paying Paul's salary, and paying TVNZ for all that archive footage?

    Whatever will NZOA think of next? Funding programming specificly for cellphones? Didn't Vodafone already do that? And wasn't it a ratings loser when rebroadcast on C4?

    Imagine if they funded the news?

    Since Jun 2007 • 909 posts Report

Last ←Newer Page 1 54 55 56 57 58 91 Older→ First