Posts by Russell Brown
-
This just in!
Rick Ellis has resigned as CEO of TVNZ:
Mr Ellis will be leading a new Telstra division called Telstra Digital Media, as group managing director – Digital Media, with responsibility for Telstra’s Sensis, Bigpond, Trading Post and IPTV businesses, and Telstra’s partnership with Foxtel.
-
Hard News: A week being a long time in politics, in reply to Raymond A Francis,
Check the Trademe forums if you want to see what the people might think, now this could be an area of hotbed torisym but maybe not, certainly is where the little people hang out
I'm not sure whether it's fair to equate the population at large with the denizens of the Trade Me forums, who can be decent folk in one breath and kinda crazy in the next. I fondly recall reading there once a warning that I was "an extreme Marxist", which would certainly surprise the folk at The Standard.
And, given those forums' extensive history of flouting court orders, it's not where I'd be going for legal opinions.
-
Hard News: A week being a long time in politics, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
But here’s a completely fucking crazy idea: Perhaps a lot of people don’t give a shit about things that get us enlightened Public Address-reading types in a rapid boil of furious indignation?. Perhaps they should. Perhaps we need to calm down. More often, it may be a little of both.
You're running close to telling me what to think here, though. You may have to accept that I am sincerely very exercised about the past week's debacle.
-
Hard News: A week being a long time in politics, in reply to Lew Stoddart,
Precisely what every single Tory I know has been saying all week, with a substantial side-helping of “you should be ashamed of yourselves”. Bless.
Yes. I feel very told-off :-)
-
Hard News: A week being a long time in politics, in reply to Lew Stoddart,
the release of internal polling data (which is very unusual) in this way can be viewed as a form of moral suasion, a signal that <i>if</i> you care about this topic then you’re part of the minority, out of touch, obsessed with trivia and so on.
It does appear to me that some questions were designed with potential release in mind. Which is not improper, but is certainly interesting.
-
Hard News: A week being a long time in politics, in reply to merc,
Does Curio poll for anyone else?
They don't, and shouldn't, talk about their clients, but they did do some work Family First.
-
Rough recollections of National’s internal poll from my friend …
Initially a question along the lines of do you think ”things are going well at the moment?”
“If the election was held now who would your party vote be for?”
Followed by: “any chance you will change your mind before the election?”
Then questions about whether the following issues were best addressed by either “the National Party, the Labour Party, or another party” (these were the
only options)Then:
Which party has the best economic policies?
Which party will best “crack down on crime”
Which party has the best team behind its leader?
Which party has the best education policies?
Which party will be best for the health system?
Which party will be best for the environment?And a few more in that vein.
This also stood out:
“On a scale where 5 is the best, how would you rate the following
politicians?John Key
Bill English
Phil Goff”The questions about the teapot tapes came at the end of the poll, and
were roughly as follows:1. Should John Key have to answer questions about the so-called illegal tapes?
2. Should there be (paraphrase) much more media coverage
of this issue or far less coverage?3. Has the media handling of this issue been (paraphrase) trivial
and shallow or professional and thorough?Mostly pretty standard stuff, but there are one or two interesting quirks in there.
-
Hard News: A week being a long time in politics, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
And, with no desire to troll for a fight, I’d note Andrew Geddis is not assuming Bradley Ambrose will get the declaratory judgement that he wants – and which, I think it’s fair to say, many here assume is a no-brainer in his favour.
I think it’s worth a crack for Ambrose, but my advice is the same as what Geddis is saying – that he probably won’t get his declamatory judgement because the judge will probably decide it goes to matters of fact that are already the subject of a criminal investigation.
None of which means the recording can confidently be said to be illegal.
-
Hard News: Criminalising Journalism, in reply to Raymond A Francis,
I note Mr Goff also has memory lapses on past PM behavior, remember “corngate” and the term “little creep”
For sure. Clark sought to enlist and demonstrate the support of the public over the Corngate interview -- most notably by eagerly passing on the "little creep" comment.
She also pursued the matter via a Broadcasting Standards complaint, which was partially upheld the following year. But she never got the police involved in an election campaign.
-
Hard News: Criminalising Journalism, in reply to Paul Williams,
Russell’s argument about press freedoms).
I'm genuinely angry about this.
It is a terrible thing to be happening a week out from a general election for news organisations to be subjected to a police search -- which may well mean the seizure of some of their computers, with all the sensitive information on those -- because they covered a campaign news story.
The decision to make the complaint speaks of stupidity, entitlement, or both.