Hard News: Just Friday
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"John Haigh has been a rock to me, to us, a great mentor and a fantastic role model. He is part of the reason why I wanted to do law... you know, that man epitomises integrity and honesty."
No comment.
Just- no comment. -
But he lost his job as assistant police commissioner
Lost? No, he resigned to avoid a Police disciplinary hearing the next day. I recall that really pissing off Louise Nicholas at the time.
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On the topic of journalism, a small interjection - I think the author of this Herald article wins some kind of award for Most Inappropriate Metaphor. Just, what.
Lucy: The oeuvre of Ms. Carolyne Meng-Yee is a pretty strong argument for compulsory random workplace drug and alcohol testing. Because if this kind of diabetic coma-inducing cack is seeing print on the watch of sober people, we should all be afraid. Very afraid.
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3410,
Because if this kind of diabetic coma-inducing cack is seeing print on the watch of sober people, we should all be afraid. Very afraid.
Par for the course with that rag. Elsewhere today in the Herald:
On second thoughts, taking a stick to the [Film] commission is too good. [National's arts minister Chris] Finlayson should take them all out, line them up against the wall and shoot them.
And I don't mean with a camera.
Nice.
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The annoying thing is, the rest of Coddington's column is fair argument. That's not to say that I necessarily agree, but it's totally legit for a commentator to make that kind of case (and understandable from a libertarian). So why finish with such a cheap, dumb comment? Did she think the play on words around 'shot' would be funny?
I have a bit of time for opinion columnists making outlandish or poor taste comments now and then, but at least make them witty.
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They probably wouldn't be so cocky if they were suddenly faced with a miners' strike with cardigans.
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The annoying thing is, the rest of Coddington's column is fair argument.
As a New Zealander this sort of rampant parochial xenophobia makes me rather squirm with embarrassment though:
another $20,000 as initial funding for a documentary on that "well-known New Zealander" Robert Fisk. Eh? A British foreign correspondent - why can't the Poms pay?
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The annoying thing is, the rest of Coddington's column is fair argument. That's not to say that I necessarily agree . . .
It's a bit depressing that until her departure from parliament in 2005 Coddington was about the only opposition politician taking any kind of interest in the off-the-rails antics of the Film Commission.
Back in 2003 when former Commission CEO Ruth Harley appointed herself as a producer on Spooked, one of many NZFC-backed flops, it was Coddington who pointed out the glaring contradiction with the then Associate Minister for Arts and Culture Judith Tizard's statement that the Commission was not in the business of producing films.
National have shown practically no interest in taking an effective opposition role on arts matters, and Ruth Harley has gone on to accept an appointment from the sadly diminished federal Arts Minister Peter Garrett to head the recently formed Screen Australia. It's a huge irony that most media coverage of Harley's appointment has linked her name with the success of Peter Jackson, who has described her as a self-serving bureaucrat.
Apart from those within the industry such as John Barnett, it's only the otherwise irritating Coddington who'll speak out.
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3410,
Don't get me wrong; I'm no defender of the Film Commision. I'm just not cool with "leading" newspapers calling for political murders.
Tell you what, though; considering how pained Craig is whenever Trotter makes an analogy to murder, he's going to go nuts when he sees this. ;)
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Ah, mixed feelings on the OU speech being used to flog beer (disclaimer: I work for a competing ad agency). I feel that that speech is a part of my growing up in NZ and that it's been cheapened by using it in this way. OTOH, I'm sure it's now been taken to a far wider audience than it would have by any other means. Kind of like Steriogram Walkie Talkie Man being used on the iPod spot, only funnier.
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No mixed feelings here - travesty. Shit product, wasted cultural reference. Be surprised if it drives young uns to track down the rest of the speech.
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No mixed feelings here - travesty. Shit product, wasted cultural reference.
On the bright side, at least it doesn't fold, spindle and mutilate the language as much as the Harvey Keitel one. "When they said that Everest couldn't be conquered, you said no!"
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But does it have the cute background sideshow monkey counterpoint? :)
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"No on-air apology for McCarthy's essays"
[Networks Manager, John] Howson said he was absolutely certain McCarthy's errors were "not intentional at all".
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And speaking of cultural appropriation, here's hoping the return of the Goodnight Kiwi is handled well:
TVNZ marketing head Jason Paris said the move to bring back the pair was prompted by discussion about an appropriate Christmas message.
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Re: The Listener and Guardian articles that appear very similar...
While obviously, near-direct copying is a likely explanation....
Another less sinister, and yet also likely one, is that both journalists were paraphrasing and condensing the same source material.
It's a story about a medical expert and their discoveries.... they have presumably published or been interviewed, and this same story about the mother in the waiting room has probably been spouted as the beginning of the research hundreds of times all over the place?
Just a thought....
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Another less sinister, and yet also likely one, is that both journalists were paraphrasing and condensing the same source material.
When I was in high school our Latin teacher use to hammer us with homework, four translations per week and they were no picnic. So my best buddy and I used to halve the work, we'd do one each and then the off-duty guy would copy the work from the other before class. The trick naturally was to change just enough words not to get caught. That's exactly what the Boniface piece looked like to me at the time.
Except this was not a 100 word text that needed to be translated, it was a 200 pages-plus book to summarise. We could do a controlled experiment, get twelve PAS readers and ask them to summarise the contents in 300 words or less. I'm betting all of them would mention the central point that you can make Alzheimer's sufferers less distressed by co-operating with their fantasies, but I'd also bet they would all say it very differently. (As I have just now, for instance).
Although perhaps that's not really the point. The Guardian piece came out on August 2nd. Quite aside from anything else, Boniface MUST have read it before turning in her piece - or do you think the listener health columnist doesn't read the Guardian health columns? So even if she had decided to write about the book on her own, and had happened to write about it in the same words, then surely a nod to her colleague's piece piece would have been in order? But those are my assumptions as an academic, evidently journalists operate differently.
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I haven't read either article apart from what was excerpted here... so you've got more to go on than me.... (and I have no attachment to either the Listener or Ms Boniface to defend)...
I'm just saying that if you did that experiment..... 4 of the 12 might choose to include the "what was the kernel of realization that set you down this path" moment... and that those 4 might look a lot more like each-other than the others.
But you're probably right :)
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I'm pretty sure the Press will want to stop their paper version and stay with an online version that they can continually edit.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/thepress/4777829a24035.html
Online "Study finds gay men most at risk of HIV"
In print page A4 "Study finds gay men most at risk of HIV with one in 20 infected".Yip their headline was 1 in 20 gay men infected with HIV!
Reading a bit further on it was 1 in 20, 30-49yr old men who came from a group of 200 gay men who go to sexual health clinics, FFS.
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Reading a bit further on it was 1 in 20, 30-49yr old men who came from a group of 200 gay men who go to sexual health clinics, FFS.
If you ever run into someone quoting the stat that 20% of internet pornography is child pornography? That comes from a 1994 analysis of pictures posted to Usenet.
Analysing statistics around sex is always good for a laugh.
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My favourite quote about statistics (well, I have several);
"86% of all statistics are made up on the spot" (Vic Reeves)
"If one foot is in a bucket of ice water and the other is in a bucket of boiling water, on average, you can be quite comfortable" (anon)
"According to statistics, in 1998 there were 318,000 women in the UK who said they were engaged to be married and 218,000 men who said they were engaged to be married" (anon)
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At least they didn't engineer David to say "I can smell the beer on your breath"
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Tell you what, though; considering how pained Craig is whenever Trotter makes an analogy to murder, he's going to go nuts when he sees this. ;)
Too bloody right -- but I've got to agree with Steve Parks that it's a reasonable argument spoiled by rhetorical over-kill. Trotter comparing critics of Winston Peters to pack rapists or a lynch mob out to deal to the uppity nigger (or evil voters who didn't vote to his liking as misogynistic "suburban fascisti") is Ann Coulter-all-the-way-off-her-meds territory.
I obviously don't think the, by definition, speculative and enormously risky realm of film/television production is a core function of government. But if the Film Commission and NZ On Air aren't going to be abolished, then full public disclosure of exactly how they use public money isn't an optional extra. It's a fundamental baseline, and if people don't like that quid pro quo they've got a very simple choice -- secure funding from other sources that are only accountable to private investors.
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Ah, mixed feelings on the OU speech being used to flog beer (disclaimer: I work for a competing ad agency). I feel that that speech is a part of my growing up in NZ and that it's been cheapened by using it in this way.
Meh... I don't crack the patriotic wood many do around here over that speech, but it's rather funny watching those well known Kiwi actors (and cinematic psychos of choice when Christopher Walken is resting in his crypt) Harvey Keitel and Willem Dafoe giving the patriotic hummer.
But I sure do wish Prime would NOT run those damn Kiwibank ads (a bete noir of long standing with me) during The War -- it's a rather distasteful juxtaposition.
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Geoff: I have a greater than average number of legs.
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