Island Life: The resignation of Captain Worth
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On Nat Rad's Morning Report this morning those great political minds of the distant sexist past - Richards Prebble and Griffin - are claiming that Phil Goff is the only person blameworthy in all this!
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I caught the beginning of that, and the over-riding impression was that Worth had done nothing wrong, he wasn't used to r cut out for the political life, he was a captain of industry not used to having to double-check and think about his actions.
So that makes it all right then.
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It seems we can all breath easy. According to Sean Plunkett and his two Dicks - Griffin and Prebble - it is all Phill Goff's fault. In an interview which descended into a Fox News farce, apparently some Labour Party activist complaining about Dr. Worth "getting a bit fresh" is all Labour's fault. I don't even know where to begin with the stunning sexism of those men.
This scandal has been a perfect illustration of rightwing media commentators in damage control for their government. Plunkett, Prebble and Griffin would be more suitable to NewsTalk ZB that our flagbearer radio show. And Slater??? For fucks sake. And I imagine Paul Henry is only interested in how attractive the victim is.
National has come to power wityh a poor reputation amongst women voters. The reaction of their right wing cheerleaders shows us why.
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So Labour has a very interesting card to play - given that Goff provided evidence of "political appointments for favours" allegations privately to Key but they were deemed to be nothing? This has been confirmed as a separate incident and presuming it's a separate lady then they may have some very awkward questions for the PM.
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Oh but Gareth - there is nothing to see here! John Key is being decisive, Phill Goff is to blame.
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The Dom Post says he was offering board posts in return for favours.
A position for a position, so to speak.
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The two dicks - Beavis and Butthead as boomers.
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Nat Radio's Nine to Noon is now doing a National Party advertorial - Mathew Hooton is being interviewed about it all as if he is some independent analyst.
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Slater was introduced there as a national party spokesman,
Presumably nobody from National wanted to touch this with a barge pole. At least, I hope that is the case, because CS as a regular party spokesman is a train wreck of monumental proportions in the making.
Another note to National spokespeople types, making this Labour's fault is bizarre and really really won't play out well.
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From the NZ Herald today:
Also last night, Labour leader Phil Goff revealed that he approached Mr Key a month ago with a complaint about "inappropriate" behaviour by Dr Worth towards a woman.
"It was offers of political positions [on boards] with the underlying sense that Dr Worth was interested in the woman, shall I say, romantically," Mr Goff said.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10576305
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To give Hooton his due, as a younger man more in touch with the modern world he immediately gave to Kudos to Goff for not dumping his allegation on the government at, say, the budget.
eBut basically, we are being treated to an awesome display of the right wing commntariats complete stranglehold on opinion making at the moment. At the moment, if a cabinet minister was caught bending an alter boy over a pew Plunkett would give the church a hard time and Griffin, Prebble, Hooten and co would blame the Cardinal.
And John Armstrong would write a piece congratulating John Key on how he had put the Catholic Church in its place and enhanced his governments reputation.
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The two dicks - Beavis and Butthead as boomers.
loves it!
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It seems we can all breath easy. According to Sean Plunkett and his two Dicks - Griffin and Prebble - it is all Phill Goff's fault.
That discussion was a disgrace. An utter disgrace. A Wellington old-boys circle-jerk that should never have got to air in the first place.
Griffin wittered on about what an innocent soul his mate Worth was, Prebble was allowed to get away with characterising the matter Goff took to Key as Worth getting "a bit fresh" with a woman (WTF?) and they all agreed that John Key had handled things splendidly and the real villain of the piece was, er, Phil Goff.
While I think there are some risks in Goff talking to the press now, I think it's very clear that Goff acted in good faith in taking the original allegations to Key.
The most charitable assessment of Plunket's performance is that he may have been hungover.
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Well, being a pleb, I havent heard the rumors and allegations.....
But let's just go back a few pages to that accusation which we now know to be not related to Mr Worth's demise....
"The allegation, which was put to me by a second 'Watercare Whistleblower' was that it was Richard Worth's daughter, who three years ago had an uncontested contract working for Watercare for three months.
The potential conflict of interest here, (if the allegation is true), is that work on the legislative changes involving Watercare Services Ltd was carried out by the Department of Internal Affairs - for which Richard Worth WAS the Minister."
Let's see now...
IT WAS THREE YEARS AGO, when he was, you know, not the minister or even in the government....
How on earth could this have been related? Penny Bright appears not to be a bright penny?
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That discussion was a disgrace.
Yeah, I had to write to the producers just to calm the throbbing in my temporal veins. It made me feel thirty years older, several layers crustier, but it had to be done.
Plunket's become a joke.
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Close-Up really did make a balls-up of that, didn't they? From Cameron Slater, who looked like he wandered in from an audition for a Fast Times at Ridgemont High remake, to Therese Arseneau, who confessed at the outset to having "no inside information". She's a very good analyst of poll data and voting history but has never pretended to be a press gallery insider. Where were their political reporters? Campbell Live wiped the floor with them: good stuff from Duncan Garner and Colin Espiner who had actually spent the day covering the story.
The only saving grace: Sainsbury gave Slater's blog address as whaleoil.com, so at least the hundreds of thousands of viewers who want more of his valuable insight won't be able to find it.
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Even putting aside all the other stuff, Slater’s not really made for TV, is he?
And I loved Colin Espiner’s comment on the question of whether Worth would leave parliament gracefully: “Well, he does have a high sense of self-entitlement”.
BTW, call me cynical, but I wonder if one of the reasons if Goff did not make more of the allegations a month ago is that he wanted to drag Worth out for as long as possible. And I don’t see much wrong with that.
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Even putting aside all the other stuff, Slater’s not really made for TV, is he?
He has the perfect face for radio and the perfect voice for blogging. Lacks the brain for blogging, but them's the breaks.
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Close-Up really did make a balls-up of that, didn't they?
I think it is a chilling peek into how much journalists interview the internet these days.
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A face for radio, a voice for blogging and a brain for TV?
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And I imagine Paul Henry is only interested in how attractive the victim is.
And her facial hair.
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The Herald's Your Views section has a thread just put up on this, which will probably develop into a solid mass of WTF in a few hours' time.
I thought about clicking the next thread entitled "Should pregnant international students be able to give birth in NZ?", but given the YV lumpencommentariat's past form, I really don't think I want to do that.
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Nat Radio's Nine to Noon is now doing a National Party advertorial - Mathew Hooton is being interviewed about it all as if he is some independent analyst.
Um... they described Hooten as an ex-nat staffer. From memory there was even a slight aside about his slant. Hardly holding him up as an objective commentator.
And then he gave credit to Goff...
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3410,
For the record, that's not the first time Slater's been a Close Up guest.
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WARNING: Mental image may disturb.
What role did Richard Worth play in Christine Rankins new position?
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