Posts by Sacha
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Hard News: About Arie, in reply to Steve Parks,
I didn't know (until reading this post) that one of the people concerned was autistic, or that he'd been assaulted, or that the theft was relatively minor.
If the Police did have some autism spectrum training recently, it will be interesting to hear why they so obviously did not apply it here.
It would have been a fraught time for them. I understand the need to be seen to be tough on looters early in the piece to prevent the public's heightened feelings leading to mob vigilante action. But that's undermined if the Police let their own emotions get in the way.
I don't know Arie or what he's like, but as an aspie I can imagine him not seeming to take the situation seriously when caught or even trying to continue with his fixation, and I guess that may have pissed off his arresters. He may have struggled and received a corrective elbow or knee in the face on the ground. Who knows.
However you'd think they would have realised at some stage during the process what was going on and found someone more suitable to parade for the cameras as the 'face of looting'. This story saddens me.
As for Lhaws, I'd expect nothing different. He's a detestable little man who won't change on his own. I welcome concerted action to remove his access to a pulpit that harms the community's understanding and moral development - and simply contravenes the privilege of a broadcasting license for his employers. Take his megaphone away.
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Hard News: About Arie, in reply to Kumara Republic,
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Hard News: About Arie, in reply to Kumara Republic,
And what became of the Mason Report? Was it ever put in practice?
Getting there - especially via the 'Blueprint'. Still huge challenges with resourcing services properly.
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And Drinnan has a story today that Sky has too little debt for the liking of the financial markets, and nothing useful to buy. Game over?
As free-to-air channels battle for survival, pay television giant Sky TV is headed for what market analyst Sarndra Urlich calls "an embarrassment of riches".
Urlich of First New Zealand Capital says Sky is under-leveraged with an inefficient balance sheet. Profits had boosted Sky's asset levels but there were no apparent acquisition targets and little prospect of a boost in dividends or a share buy-back.
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Don't think anyone has already linked to this Herald story about TVNZ's deliberate strategic shift towards pay tv.
Television New Zealand head of digital services Eric Kearley says the division is "here to make money" and the future is with pay TV.
"There has been a lot of talk about media revolutions but the real revolution has been the move from ad-funded television to pay. As a broadcaster if we do not get into pay we are kind of stuffed," said Kearley.
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The TVNZ strategy is if you can't beat Sky TV join it, after realising that it could not convince the National Government to amend its Sky-friendly policies.
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Freeview was once a free to air bulwark to slow Sky's growth. But it has a secondary role in TVNZ's digital strategy. Kearley says: "We still support Freeview - but we are not going to launch channels that we cannot make money from.
"We are a commercial organisation and shareholders have made that clear and we try to deliver dividends. That is non-negotiable.
"It has yet to be proven content would boost uptake for Freeview," he said.
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Hard News: The digital switch-off, in reply to giovanni tiso,
or with some facial hair and a bicycle; that would be acceptable also
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Hard News: The digital switch-off, in reply to Steve Withers,
Now the UK has a Tory government that is even MORE hostile to media not owned by a billionaire they can cozy up to
And some reckon their recent decision to bend over further might haunt them.
So Rupert Murdoch has got his way – again. Not for the first time, the politicians have bent over backwards to accommodate News Corporation's commercial ambitions. Not for the first time, all other voices have been roundly excluded from any say in the grubby little bargain that Britain's most powerful media tycoon has managed to strike with a government apparently so desperate for the great man's blessing that it's willing to bend the rules to smooth his path.
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When they find themselves alone at the polls in some distant election, with the Murdoch media ranged against them and their traditional media allies squeezed close to death by the power of monopoly, ministers will rue the day they allowed themselves to be bulldozed into cowardly submission.
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Muse: Film Socialism (or, How You'll…, in reply to Jackie Clark,
I am becoming distinctly anti-intellectual
though you still have a way to go before qualfiying as a member of the current cabinet
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Muse: Film Socialism (or, How You'll…, in reply to Geoff Lealand,
Illustrious Energy
Leon Narbey has a wonderful eye
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Architect Ian Athfield and planning consultant Dean Crystal discuss the rebuilding of Christchurch on RNZ Morning Report (streaming, 6 mins).
They mention low rise with quake isolators, and rethinking approaches other than the ground rectification measures proposed after September. Opportunities include shrinking the cbd and bringing parts of the university back into the centre.