Posts by Russell Brown
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Hard News: Everybody's Machiavelli, in reply to Dylan Reeve,
Did their relationship affect the reference he gave her? Probably not given that it was passed through his staff, he’s hardly likely to have embellished beyond what would have been reasonable based on their professional relationship and work.
Nonetheless, it appears that the council is now to conduct a formal investigation into that aspect of the story.
The thing that strikes me is the counterfactual. If he had refused to provide a reference because of their sexual relationship, and thus hampered her career, that would start to look a bit like sexual harassment.
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Hard News: Everybody's Machiavelli, in reply to Keir Leslie,
What? Look, until a week ago no one even knew this affair was happening. If it’s been damaging Brown’s work performance, no one could tell. Seriously, this isn’t an issue about Brown’s work performance unless you’re already committed to it being an issue.
Absolutely. I think Simon Wilson's Metro story made Brown's effectiveness pretty clear. The only councillor to make adverse comment has been Dick Quax, whose hostility towards Brown and half his fellow councillors is pretty much a constant.
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Hard News: Everybody's Machiavelli, in reply to Kyle MacDonald,
Stating the obvious:
Isn’t pastoral care of your sources one of the cornerstones of good ethical journalism?It absolutely is.
Cook, on the other hand, wrote a post this morning basically throwing his source under a bus. Ugh.
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Hard News: Everybody's Machiavelli, in reply to Raymond A Francis,
I don’t see anybody coming out looking better than they did at the start.
Saying the Right or the Left are worse is laughable as both sides are spinning like demented topsWhich is what you accused me of on Twitter when I noted Cook’s horrible record with sources. I think that concern has been amply borne out.
Len Brown’s wife by saying nothing, had my sympathy and now my respect
And his daughters, who spoke up for him, don’t?
I am interested in what the women of the Left feel about the “demonising” of the other woman involved,
We have had her past dragged up and quite nasty spin on her motivesCan we be clear here that this was two adults in a wholly consensual relationship? One of whom chose, for whatever reason, to publicly depict that relationship in the most humiliating terms possible?
How was it anything but inevitable that her past actions would come into when the story kicked off the way it did?
And as for her “handlers’ ghastly
Quite.
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Hard News: Everybody's Machiavelli, in reply to Steven Peters,
As I am sure he is aware himself, being Mayor of AK is 24/7 – there is no ‘personal’ time – unless you make YOUR OWN PRIVATE PLACE and time available for it. If he acknowledges that this is his where transgression lies, all would be forgiven, at least from this fallen soul.
I think he's made it pretty clear he regrets that. But we should be clear that most of this does seem to have occurred in private places.
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Hmmm. Brown provided a favourable job reference for Chuang when she applied for a job at Auckland Art Gallery.
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Hard News: Everybody's Machiavelli, in reply to Steven Peters,
No doubt about it. It is a coterie of right-wing conspirators who are responsible for His Worships libido, and its exercise upon his mistress in the Mayoral Chambers, Ngati Whatua room, and who knows which other public spaces (with or without chains).
Well, no. I don't believe anyone has claimed that.
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Hard News: Everybody's Machiavelli, in reply to Cam Slater,
Stephen Cook is not being paid, and frankly all these conspiracy theories and justifications from the left about Brown’s actions are disgusting.
So he’s doing it for free? How come?
Irrespective of that why does Russell always come down to payment…did he work on Media 3 for nothing? of course not.
Um, no, clearly not. But it was hardly a mystery who paid me.
You guys were donkey deep in salivating over Richard Worth,
This is quickly becoming a pretty popular meme, so it’s worth dispelling. In Worth’s case:
- The story broke as a consequence of a criminal complaint on the part of one of the women who encountered Worth. The Prime MInister acknowledged it was a complaint of a sexual nature, and it was that which prompted his sacking as a minister.
- Worth allegedly harassed another woman and, she said, offered her a taxpayer-funded job in return for sex.
- The Prime Minister also acknowledged there had been complaints about Worth’s behaviour around still other women.
- Worth was at the time already under pressure as a consequence of what looked like significant conflicts of interest in his actions as a minister, including having the taxpayer fund a trip to China on which he had promoted a private company.
This was all reported at the time. Hope this clears things up.
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Oh, wow.
Chuang was was pressured into dishing on Brown by a member of Palino’s campaign team.
Slater also appears to have been fabricating his accounts of what she thought about Brown.
Next question. Ask Stephen Cook if he has been paid for the Len Brown story. And by whom. Freelancers don’t usually work for free.
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Hard News: The non-binary council, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
Oh, and seriously media folks, give the “eww, old man fucked a young chick” Pecksniffing a rest.
I've been surprised at how so many people have banged on about the "age difference". She's 32, for goodness sake.
Otoh, I think it was pretty poor judgement to be doing it in the Ngati Whatua room.