Posts by Russell Brown
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Hard News: Crossing the line into idle bigotry, in reply to Kyle Matthews,
Sadly he’s been on our screens with “Would I lie to you” on TV3 for several months now.
I'm not clear on what his contractual situation is with TV3, but I assume any buying out of his contract would be occasion for a shitstorm.
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Hard News: Crossing the line into idle bigotry, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
With the appointment of Don Brash yes-man Richard Long (the long-time Dom editor, not the newscaster) to the TVNZ board, it’s quite plausible Paul Henry will be returning to our screens.
I’m going to regret asking this, but would you care to show your working for that conclusion, Red? It’s actually a non-trivial allegation you’re making there, so at least make an argument instead of an assertion.
Long is joining the board, Henry is in negotiations to to return to a hosting role. I don't think the two things are connected.
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Hard News: Crossing the line into idle bigotry, in reply to Scott Chris,
Yeah but it only operates at the margins of society
By which you mean, on the op-ed page of a major daily newspaper?
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Hard News: Why did Stephen die?, in reply to Tristan,
To which I say that’s precisely why you don’t cross the line because when police stick their bloody size 12 shoes in without knowing whats going on there are real consequences and real people get hurt.
I wonder if they'd worked out that this might end up being a repeat of the Chris Fowlie debacle. Fowlie was found not guilty of cannabis possession by a judge who said:
“On the state of evidence before me my mind is not persuaded beyond reasonable doubt that the Officers were minded to search solely by reason of detecting a smell of cannabis emanating from the Defendant. Nor am I satisfied that it has been proven beyond reasonable doubt that proper advice pursuant to the Bill of Rights Act was given to the Defendant before the search was undertaken. In those circumstances, the search has not been shown to be lawful and the evidence derived from it should not be admitted. On the facts therefore I do not find the charge to be proved.”
Greg O'Connor had a lot to say about that one too. He really hates police officers being subject to the law.
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Hard News: Crossing the line into idle bigotry, in reply to Angus Robertson,
The Times should do no such thing – its an opinion piece.
Which purports to present fact. The word "opinion" is not a magic incantation that fixes that. The Press Council has made it clear in decisions on drivel emitted by Paul Holmes and Michael Laws, that even opinion pieces should have regard to fact.
More to the point, the Waikato Times has voluntarily made itself subject to the findings of the Press Council and enjoys a certain stature as a consequence. It doesn't get to pick and choose once it has signed up.
If this does get to the Press Council, the worst that can happen is that the Times would be required, in line with the commitment it has chosen to make, to publish the council's decision.
The part of Anjum's request I have mixed feelings about is that the column be removed from the website. I'm generally keener on annotating such tosh with links to a rebuttal, but that's between Anjum and the editor for the time being.
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Hard News: Friday Music: Hyper than the rest, in reply to Robert Catto,
So, it’s a broken link / redirect fail issue, rather than a territory one…
Oh! Usually these things redirect. I'll go and get that thing.
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A very good essay for The Daily Beast by Shehrbano Taseer, whose father was killed this year by extremists:
What the attack on Malala makes clear is that this is really a battle over education. A repressive mindset has been allowed to flourish in Pakistan because of the madrassa system set up by power-hungry clerics. It’s a deeply rooted indoctrination, and it sickens me to see ancient religious traditions undermined by a harsher form of religion barely a generation old. These madrassa, or religious schools headed by clerics, are the breeding ground of Islamic radicalism. The clerics don’t teach critical thinking. Instead, they disseminate hate. These clerics are raising merchants of hatred who believe in a very right-wing and radical Islam, to hail people like Osama bin Laden and Mumtaz Qadri as heroes. They train children how to use guns and bombs, and how not to live but to die.
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Hard News: Friday Music: Hyper than the rest, in reply to Dave Patrick,
Can we post The Audience embedded tracks as well? I tried to do one but in the preview it didn’t really work.
We share a developer, so yeah. We could do that. Leave it with me.
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Hard News: The Righteous Humour, in reply to David Hood,
Well, Nate Silver has described himself as basically a libertarian/ Mitt Romney kind of guy personally (though choosing not to vote because of his profession), it is just he is primary a quantitative analysis kind of guy
And yet I've seen him characterised as a "liberal commentator" more than once. That's what being reality-based gets ya.
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I'm happy to say that you can see Tracey discussing the election and its media manifestations on Media3 tomorrow, 10.25am on TV3.