Posts by Russell Brown
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And meanwhile, the Herald runs this weird "balance" column featuring the respective views of Chris de Freitas and Keith Hunter.
Presumably, it's related to Chris Barton's thoughtful story on de Freitas and the limits of academic freedom.
Because it's not like de Freitas hasn't already had acres of space in the Herald.
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Hard News: Science: it's complicated, in reply to nzlemming,
That’s a metric crapload of ground to cover. Are you doing an extended show?
Yes: it's an hour long with breaks. Which does not alter the fact that it is indeed a metric crapload of ground to cover.
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Hard News: The scandal that keeps on giving, in reply to Hebe,
What a traumatic event in every way for you and the sister.
And it was a show day! I had to rush back across the road, have a shower and go in and record Media7. That went fine, though. What I do recall is stepping out of the shower, picking up the clothes I'd been wearing and my stomach suddenly heaving at the awful smell.
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Hard News: The scandal that keeps on giving, in reply to Hebe,
For what it's worth, junkies often OD after they've been clean on and off for a while rather than staying consistently wasted. That's because their tolerance goes with a bit of clean time, they relapse back into using the same amount and because their tolerance is gone, they OD.
That what happened to my neighbour a couple of years ago: in hospital for two months, came home, baked, shot up -- and was dead before anyone realised he was back.
Unfortunately, he died with his oven on full-blast. It was pretty nasty by the time he was discovered three days later. And his Doberman was shut in the lounge. I helped his sister look for his car keys after the body was removed and the smell of death and dog shit is not a good memory.
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Hard News: The scandal that keeps on giving, in reply to Danielle,
I honestly thought she would be like Keith Richards and go on forever. I spend a lot of time looking at him in wonderment, thinking ‘how is that guy still alive?’ But I suppose he remained pretty prolific even throughout the smack years, while Winehouse… wasn’t. It makes a difference.
Probably the big difference was that Amy Winehouse’s drug and alcohol problems were rooted in her bipolar depression. They were suppressing that dysfunction. It’s harder to break free of drug an alcohol dependence in that situation.
Also, crack. Heroin addicts, if they can avoid an overdose death or a blood-borne disease, do generally function, especially if they’re wealthy enough to afford their smack without doing crime. Crackheads, not so much.
And she was in a scene where drugs and alcohol are endlessly available, often for free. Pete Doherty is alive, but there’s a trail of human wreckage and dead drug-buddies behind him.
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Speaker: This is your National Library, in reply to Stephen Judd,
Am I the only person whose brain immediately supplied the followup: This is your National Library on drugs
That phrase did drift through my head, actually.
I should also point out that the feature picture on the home page is Alexander Turnbull, chillin' with some homies in the parlour.
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Hard News: The scandal that keeps on giving, in reply to Bart Janssen,
So telling the truth is a “strategy” – how … quaint
The thing about that story is that -- according to two of his former executives -- it was a strategy he did not follow when appearing before the committee. He is screwed.
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Also, Matthew and I have to stop agreeing like this.
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Hard News: The scandal that keeps on giving, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
But say the biggest story The Torygraph has broken in years was six-figure chequebook journalism? Do you think it's credible to say "yes, it was a legitimate story in the public interest" and still have serious ethical qualms about journalists and editors paying for stories?
Read the Heather Brooke column in the original post. She nails it when she points out that a market only develops for information when it's not public.
And, yes, it seems to be generally accepted that the Telegraph paid an insider for the MPs' expenses data. It shouldn't have had to happen that way, but I think there's a very obvious public interest in the story.
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Hard News: The scandal that keeps on giving, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
But I still stand by my finding it deliciously ironic that Ed Milibrand’s chief spin doctor came straight from the Evil Empire.
Also ironic:. That unnamed friends of the Conservative Party hired a team of private detectives this year to dig into Baldwin's private life.
They basically went for a tit-for-tat for Coulson, and it doesn't appear that they've been able to find anything much. Given what we know about Coulson, Baldwin is basically a misdirection.