Posts by Russell Brown
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Feed: Saints Preserve, in reply to Bart Janssen,
Some recipes for making olives edible call for soaking in lye! I still can’t figure out how anyone discovered they could be made edible.
Yeah. Lye seemed a bit bloody scary.
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I should note that the chutney experiment had another pleasing spin-off. At the suggestion of his producer, Pip Keane, I dropped off one of the jars to TV3 as a gift for raging chutney fiend John Campbell.
Although I did not expect it, he was so appreciative of the gesture that he returned it with some truly excellent preserved grapes, which I took a special dinner party at my friends’ place, where we enjoyed both with some melting slow-roasted pork shoulder.
Briefly, life was perfect.
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Just had a good conversation with Patrick Gower. Assuming that 2Talk hasn't failed to record the phone call, I'll write it up in some detail.
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Hard News: Poll Day 2: Queasy, in reply to Tom Semmens,
It isn’t just TV3. Here is Rob Salmond over at polity.co.nz catching out Audrey Young’s lazy use of Key as an unchallenged media commentator in the Herald.
Jesus. That's very, very poor. Audrey Young's usually better than that.
Really, it adds up to a press gallery that is completely besotted by John Key.
I think there's a case for saying that establishing a good relationship with key journalists is part of the job. One that Key's very good at -- you get the impression they basically like him -- and Cunliffe presently isn't.
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So, no story on the Collins resignation question, which I suppose isn't surprising given that One did the same question the night before.
I'm guessing also that the numbers weren't that spectacular and there's no show of her going anyway. Cunliffe's problem is that there's blood in the water now. The claiming of scalps is one of the most odious elements of political journalism, but it's a real thing.
I would also like to apologise for the mixed metaphors above.
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Hard News: Poll Day 2: Queasy, in reply to Pete George,
Both Key and Cunliffe do and say things that look bad and deserve to be reported as such. In the item being discussed here it mostly clobbered Cunliffe but I don’t think Key came across well either, selected snarky sneering clips of him are not a good look either.
Oh, come on. I think we can safely say that Cunliffe came off very, very badly and Key didn't.
To effectively address this I think the focus has to move away from political bias and concentrate on confronting poor news and poll coverage.
Which is what I think I've done in the post above.
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Hard News: Poll Day 2: Queasy, in reply to Tinakori,
I’m with Ruminator, Patrick Gower is a classic old-fashioned beat up artist, who’d sell his mother for a story that leads the bulletin and has him in the centre.
I'm trying not to push the bias line, not least because I'm mindful of how much I enjoyed Gower's barnstorming romp through the Oravida offices. He can get stories by actually reading the fine print and his recent interview with John Key was excellent.
But I am troubled by this framing of this question and I really think 3 News reporters have to stop using the Prime Minister to articulate their story angles, especially when the subject is Cunliffe. Key's great talent, as we say in the trade, but it's lazy and creepy.
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Hard News: Poll Day 2: Queasy, in reply to Andrew Geddis,
I was polled in this poll. On the basis of the questions asked me, he doesn’t.
There should, however, be a story along the lines of One News’ “should Collins resign over Oravida?” Because I was asked that!
Thanks. Can you shed any light on my questions above? Because Patrick doesn't seem inclined to.
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Reid declares "Our quality standards are open to the ultimate scrutiny!" at the top of its political polls page, but could take lessons from Colmar Brunton on transparency.
The one thing the page does tell us is that the "honesty" question is asked about the National and Labour leaders each time (along with others) but was highlighted for last night's story.
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Hard News: Poll Day 2: Queasy, in reply to MxDEJ,
That's not the question's fault. It's David Cunliffe's.
No, it's the question. "No" could mean a whole range of things. It's a bullshit polling question.
Compare to the One News question on Collins, where "yes" and "no" have decisive meanings.