Posts by Craig Ranapia
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Hard News: Aiming for the feet, in reply to Sacha,
spelling
Sorry about that - my internal spell check needs another coffee. :)
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Hard News: Growing up in public, in reply to Bart Janssen,
In the spirit of Damian’s recent post, I think the majority of the coverage of Cave Creek and the Christchurch Quake showed that “getting good footage” and not-being-an-arsemonkey aren’t mutually exclusive states. The latter in particular was a profile in grace and sensitivity under extreme pressure our media can, and should, be proud of.
I won’t be linking to the Daily Mail’s trash stories claiming Lorde wore a “bondage bra” at her concert that night. Fucking weirdo creeps.
So, Lorde not only really sucks at being a potty-mouth social media "diva," but she's also not quite got the hang of tabloid-trolling stage couture? Damn it, girl, even your fail is full o' win! :)
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Hard News: Aiming for the feet, in reply to Keir Leslie,
So so dumb to be manipulated by Tova O’Brien into phrasing it the way he did though.
Oh, balls. Sorry, but I get as terse about that as Kiwiboggers ranting about poor Hekia Parata being “manipulated” by the evil media into arias of incomprehensible edu-crat gibberish. If you’re a minister of the Crown or party spokesman who can’t clearly articulate matters of policy and handle press interviews, perhaps Tova O’Brien isn’t the problem.
As Russell put it:
Clark should never have ventured on this issue without having a considered answer to the bloody obvious question of what we might do about getting these companies to pay their fair share of tax.
Exactly - a considered answer reflecting his party's policy on a hideously complicated issue. How hard would it have been to say: "Of course, Labour believes everyone should pay their fair share -- from ordinary working families to the biggest multinational corporation. That's the Labour way, and we will be announcing a considered policy closer to the election."
Instead, Clark came up with a mouth fart Revenue Minister Todd McClay would have been mocked relentlessly for around here, and quite rightly so.
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Hard News: Aiming for the feet, in reply to BenWilson,
I’m pretty sure the key message that most non-wonks will have got is “Labour is promising more money for babies” and details of how much more are lost in the wash.
Possibly. Then again, plenty of non-wonks may also have seen the guy who very seriously would like to be the Prime Minister this time next year having to "clarify" his own policy. Plenty of folks didn't like Labour going into the '99 election with a clear and unambiguous policy to raise the top tax rate, but the pretty obvious reason why the "Labour's secret tax-and-spend agenda" attack lines didn't get any traction is because there was nothing secret about it. The entire Labour Party -- from Clark and Cullen on down -- were absolutely on-message from the moment the policy was announced.
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Hard News: Aiming for the feet, in reply to Peter Darlington,
Even little things like the scheduling clash with the Grammy’s where surely a large part of the electorate they’d like to be engaged only had eyes for the Staples Centre.
I’ll grant that, but regardless it was still a heavily covered political story in an election year. And like it or not (and I generally don’t) the press are going to be parsing every word Cunliffe and Key say for something that can be presented as a “flip-flop” or a credibility fail. Arguing whether it’s fair, days and weeks after the fact, practically speaking, is beside the point.
A line worthy of Karl Rove that would have been delivered at the first opportunity if not this one. Definite strategy to attack opponents for your own weaknesses. Those Transrail eyes..
Well, Sasha, I’d respond that snark cuts both ways. Labour’s been quite happy to relentlessly paint this government as all spin, no substance and enough bullshit to double New Zealand’s mushroom production. As Cameron Brewer has discovered, when you start making character a political issue you better make damn sure that mud pie wasn’t sent via boomerang.
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Because, frankly, making a statement about how many families would be covered by the baby bonus that is contradicted by the policy paper you’ve posted on the internet is just too dumb to be a cunning plan.
But what’s even harder to explain is why this happened in your first major set-piece speech of an election year – surely that’s something where every syllable has been drafted to near-death and every conceivable attack line anticipated and refuted?
Something else that gob-smacked me about this is that Cunliffe isn't a complete numpty and proved to be a competent, articulate finance spokesman under Goff. I can't see how he didn't anticipate this.
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Hard News: Growing up in public, in reply to Dylan Reeve,
Ultimately it likely in the future to get worse for Lorde. I hope she finds a good way of dealing with it to keep herself comfortable and safe while still managing to stay in touch with who she is.
Yeah, but I think it all comes down to something Jodie Foster always say when asked why she ended up going to Yale rather than rehab -- surround yourself with people who see you as a human being rather than a commodity, and give you space to have a life not just a career.
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What’s on the video isn’t that bad
I take your point, as far as it goes, but FFS... it was bad enough. If I'd had just come off a long-haul flight after the most crazy and intense week of my life, and quite possibly wanting to throw up and sleep for a week instead of doing a near sold-out gig that night? I wouldn't have posted (and promptly deleted) a few mildly snarky tweets, I'd have twatted someone.
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Hard News: Friday Music: Starting Early, in reply to Russell Brown,
To be fair, Hosking’s been pretty consistent on the privacy of others’ families too. But his reporter might have benefited from a chill pill.
Exactly - and I should have made that a lot clearer. Whatever else I'd say against Hosking (and I've got a lot) he's not only been "pretty consistent" but upfront about how your attitudes change when you and your family are on the receiving end of media intrustion.
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Cracker: How Media Made me a Bad Person., in reply to Russell Brown,
On the other hand, the subsequent decision to stake the paper on a demand for Brown’s resignation was silly. He didn’t, they couldn’t make him and they ended up looking spiteful and desperate in pursuing it.
And one thing that got lost in the shuffle: The Herald was perfectly happy to go large with allegations that Brown exerted grossly improper influence to get his mistress a job at the Auckland City Art Gallery. Well, I know a few people at the ACAG who aren’t holding their breaths waiting for an equally prominent correction of that slur against the institution’s integrity. And sorry, Damien, I’m not going to be nice about The Herald’s habit of attacking people on page one, and burying the retraction well inside the paper and below the fold – if it happens at all.
Also, I guess I'm terribly hard on The Herald for one very simple reason. The Herald is an effective monopoly player in this country's largest media market. So, yeah, I don't cut them a lot of slack, because there isn't exactly an Option B.