Posts by Russell Brown
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Hard News: The First Draft, in reply to Carol Stewart,
Hilary, I don’t think it was a great interview either. Peter Griffin, here, has an astute commentary on the interview and how it could have, well, gone a bit better.
It wasn’t an affective interview, for sure. IMHO, it should never have been done.
But having watched it again, taking notes, my initial impression that Ring dodged one direct question after another was confirmed. He also interrupted Campbell’s questions at least twice to try and steer away from them. I do not even remotely agree that Ring is due an apology.
Had Campbell done the same thing with a politician or businessman – confronted him with his own published words – I suspect the response would have been quite different.
But sadly, half the country seems incapable of distinguishing Ken Ring from Santa Claus.
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Hard News: The First Draft, in reply to Emma Hart,
Hilary, he didn’t shout at people who believed in Ken Ring, either.
No. They were treated very gently.
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Hard News: The First Draft, in reply to Hilary Stace,
Carol – If you want to change people’s minds you first have to acknowledge that they have a right to their views. Telling anybody that what they believe is rubbish and that something else is ‘right’ is not much different from any fundamentalist approach. It is harder but more useful to listen to them and then work out what form of challenge would be most effective in getting them to move. John Campbell’s interview with ken Ring was an example of how not to do it.
Which would be fine if Ring was selling his stuff as religious belief, but he's not. He's selling it as science, to vulnerable people -- and that is wrong.
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Well, here’s something I didn’t expect when I wrote that post this morning:
John Campbell interviews Ken Ring.
It isn’t particularly effective television, because it isn’t the the kind of interview that can satisfactorily be conducted over a link. Campbell’s only way of trying to get Ring to stay on topic and answer his questions turns out to be shouting into the air outside the art gallery.
Twitter explodes with outraged citizens who would hear the Moon Man speak.
Brian Ewards goes ballistic, blazes out a blog post calling Campbell “egotistical, self-important, out of control, closed-minded, biased, unprofessional” and “a disgrace to the interviewer’s trade.”
A schoolgirl swiftly starts a Make John Campbell Publicly Apologize To Ken Ring Facebook group, where someone writes: “This is like Hitler interviewing a Jew.”
Sadly, I suspect this story will be picked up by other news media. The outrage is sort of amusing now, but I suspect I’ll be shouting at things by the end of the week. Sigh.
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OnPoint: On Price Gouging, in reply to Ben Winters,
Now petrol is more difficult than ice. But, really, can nobody anywhere solve the necessary problems at short notice? I wouldn’t bet on it. Even if in this particular case they can’t, the general proposition that higher prices encourage supply, in and outside a crisis, really shouldn’t be that hard to see.
What you're saying is that you'd like the reality to change so that your theory works ...
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OnPoint: On Price Gouging, in reply to Ben Winters,
What is so hard to believe about people who have mobile tankers using them in a crisis to buy petrol in Kaikoura or Ashburton or Dunedin and driving them into Christchurch? I don’t personally own one, but they exist. Is it really so hard to believe willing buyer cannot find willing seller in those places?
Find where, exactly? Not at branded service stations, one would think. Perhaps at the local primary school? How many people actually have mobile tankers? How many would wish to act in this way?
If it were so easy to just get in petrol from Ashburton, why wouldn’t the large companies who do that every day just, y’know, do that? Even if they could only do that tomorrow, rather than today, and your fantasy freelancer can do it half a day quicker, does that leave a viable window of opportunity for your freelancer to find customers willing to pay his price, and sell all his stock?
I’m glad you came along Ben, for the sake of argument. But your argument seems to exist solely on a Hayekian fantasy plane.
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Hard News: The First Draft, in reply to Sacha,
It’s far broader than those parties. Right from the top, it’s often just lip service (if you’ll excuse the expression) and when challenged, handwringing excuses based on resources (read: prioritisation).
I agree. But it does seem notable that it's actually happened here. I don't recall seeing it in coverage of disasters anywhere else -- or is that simply because I'm not seeing local TV broadcasts?
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Hard News: The First Draft, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
Oh, let me guess – murderous atavism that would make a Neanderthal blush for shame?
With a little racism thrown in just for laughs.
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Hard News: The First Draft, in reply to BenWilson,
I don’t know how it went after that, though
I clicked through to the post about the two looters who stole the generators. Unpleasant immediately.
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Hard News: The First Draft, in reply to giovanni tiso,
She did, but then you could argue that writing is also a potentially indelicate act.
And it was indelicate parts of her own account that made it so powerful.