Posts by Russell Brown
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Hard News: A Work of Advocacy, in reply to Peter Calder,
Oops. Argumentum ad hominem now. Sorry to have bothered you. Over and out.
That was unnecessary from Sacha. But you did open by slinging off at everyone else here ...
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Hard News: Dreaming of a world without evidence, in reply to Sacha,
I think you mean *total* absence.
I think there are studies showing that cannabis smoking has been a factor in lung disease, to take one example. Possibly also someone had some dropped on their head once.
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Hard News: A Work of Advocacy, in reply to Peter Calder,
Of course I wrote that. It was a question that I knew would be in readers’ minds so I asked it because I was interested in their answer to it. That’s what journalists do.
And that's what I'll be doing on our TV show. One of the reasons I wrote such a detailed review is that I didn't want there to be any sense of ambush when I did ask..
is not a sly attempt to imply that they are mine. (For the record, they are not and I rather specifically said so).
No, it wasn't. But my view is that police interest in some of the defendants at least was not unwarranted, and was not simply an attempt to quash popular dissent. I can't really go into any more detail than that. This does not invalidate the strong points the film makes.
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Hard News: A Work of Advocacy, in reply to BenWilson,
IIRC we even lost one of our main bloggers, Tze Ming, over the way the disputes went (at least partially).
She had departed before that, but she was unhappy, because she knows a number of people involved. We're all sweet now.
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Hard News: A Work of Advocacy, in reply to Peter Calder,
This discussion – like so many others on PA – is dispiritingly devoid of any underlying analysis of power.
Hey, thanks for reading anyway.
There seems to be some assumption here that the filmmakers should have adhered to BBC standards – never mind that our TV broadcasters don’t.
Would that be a bit like when you wrote this in your own story?
The microphone she thrusts towards him is plugged into King’s camera and I feel constrained to ask him whether he has crossed the invisible, but important, line between a documentarian and his subject.
In case it wasn’t clear, I thought the film was important and provocative. But I did have a problem with some elements of it – in particular the way Collins’ announcement was edited – and tried to explain those objections in some detail. You seem to be suggesting I should have overlooked that. I’m well aware that the news media have not met standards either, and said so.
I think John Darroch got what I was saying.
I have my own ideas about the nature of the police and the defendants' actions, and some of them do not flatter either side, but I’ve tried to steer clear of commenting on evidence to go before the court. But I guess I can link to this story, which relates to a defendant who doesn’t appear in the film, given that it’s still on Stuff. There may be a reasonable explanation, or even police malfeasance at play, but assuming there isn’t, activists who try and buy grenade launchers aren’t really my style.
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Hard News: The file-sharing bill, in reply to Sacha,
Apparently Labour’s craven behaviour over CERA and suchlike is *not* evidence that they have been following Pagani’s advice for the last 20 months while he has been Goff’s main comms advisor.
I think Pagani's stuff is extremely ropey, but I can also see the argument that Labour would be making a rod for its own back by voting against CERA. It would not have stopped the bill.
What Labour should do now is emphasise its Christchurch MPs' connection with the city -- Dalziel, Dyson and Burns have been impressive, and they're the ones who can credibly say "This is what we warned of, this is what our amendments were design to prevent. But the government doesn't care about what Christchurch people think about Christchurch. It doesn't know what it's doing."
In other words, make CERA a rod for National's own back.
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Hard News: A Work of Advocacy, in reply to B Jones,
I’m glad that in NZ, what they do these days is mainly scoping out dodgy factory farms with cameras and chaining themselves to things.
Heh. You realise John Darroch was that guy? That was pretty cool.
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Hard News: A Work of Advocacy, in reply to Matthew Poole,
From what I recall of things that revelation shits on a lot of the stories about how the cops leaked stuff to influence proceedings
Oh, I think the cops -- or some cops -- were certainly doing plenty of off-the-record briefing. The Dom Post's first front page on the raids had quite a lot spun their way. The film has a couple of obvious examples from TV news (step up Hadyn Jones). Funny thing was, the tips didn't always match: one Dom Post story had those arrested as "amateurs" while Jones said he'd been assured by "a security source" that these weren't just a few "fringe people".
But even at the time, there were two or three different theories as to where the affidavit itself came from -- including that it was a defence source.
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Ah I can tell you that my Someone Who Ought to Know was in fact Phil Kitchin, who obtained the police affidavit on which the Dom Post based its Operation 8 stories.
He asked me to note:
… that I would not have told you what’s in my earlier e-mail had I not cleared with my source or sources that their anonymity would not be jeopardised by my saying truthfully that the information I obtained did not come from police. Some of the defendants lawyers have known that for about a year or so.
Intriguing.
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Hard News: A Work of Advocacy, in reply to Gary Hutchings,
If it remains as a film festival release, its probably not going to be to much of a concern, but it it becomes a major topic of conversation/gets released as a public torrented/youtubed then I think it will be a major concern.
It the Q&A an audience member asked the directors: “Do you hope this film will influence the trial?”
I winced so hard I nearly fell off my seat.
Fortunately, by happy accident or design, they didn’t answer the question.