Posts by Russell Brown
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It's interesting reading the Herald's Saturday pundits.
Fran O'Sullivan seems almost horrified by the whole affair and urges Cunliffe to dismiss the idea of resignation:
Similarly, the resignation calls Cunliffe faced after the Herald broke the story that the Labour leader had signed off a letter on behalf of Liu bordered on risible.
That letter was clearly a pro forma note written by his staffers. There was no element of special pleading. It's no wonder he had forgotten it. It should not have sparked a Gotcha call from political journalists.
John Roughan praises Cunliffe:
David Cunliffe is no slouch. I admired his refusal to apologise for the Donghua Liu letter this week. He had no need to do so - forgetting a routine letter written 11 years ago and failing to find a record of it is perfectly understandable. His repeated denials that he had even known or helped Liu was forgiveable.
It was delicious irony after Cunliffe had made the most of Maurice Williamson's letter to the police on behalf of the same business immigrant and political donor, but no more than that.
Many a politician, including Key, would have apologised and got out of it. Not Cunliffe. It is rare in politics and public relations these days to see somebody stand his ground.
John Armstrong continues to fulminate, confusingly. He says both that a leadership challenge was the "obvious question" and implies that such "speculation" was "far-fetched", in the same column.
And in the news pages, Savage finally gets Liu on record, confirming the $15,000 he paid for a book signed by Helen Clark in 2007.
Labour's inability to find any record of this substantial donation seems of greater concern than Cunliffe's office failing to find the Liu letter.
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Hard News: Friday Music: F**kYouTube, in reply to Simon Grigg,
without further comment …
Mr Grigg, your possession of old and potentially embarrassing photos of the rest of us may be of some concern ...
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Hard News: Friday Music: F**kYouTube, in reply to Simon Grigg,
Damn. Meant to highlight that today. My brain is cluttered to the max. Next week ...
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Hard News: The Letter, in reply to Sofie Bribiesca,
Doubt it, but Espiner seems to be salivating :) And TV3 are speculating on the speculating whilst Gower is traipsing around with Key and Tova O’Brian (?) is trying to look important.
I questioned Duncan Garner about this when he spoke at the last Wintec Press Club. Quite a few gallery journalists get very excited by the sight of a wounded beast -- but will often wave through the foibles of politicians they perceive as being strong and popular.
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Hard News: The Letter, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
This article has a great timeline on Mr Woodhouse’s ongoing battle with sequential reality:
So that's a barefaced lie, then.
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Hard News: Friday Music: F**kYouTube, in reply to bob daktari,
Weirdly or not… Youtube has over the past 18 months become a whole lot more user friendly for labels and artists down here and I assume globally
Which is why what's happening now is such a retrograde step. They're undoing all the progress, it seems to me.
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Hard News: Friday Music: F**kYouTube, in reply to Grant McDougall,
More than a couple of times over the years someone’s tried to post a Headless Chickens’ clip on their F/b page, only for it to be denied because it’s “not available in this country” or “the artist has not given their permission” or some such.
This is an artefact of the buyback of Flying Nun from Warner Music. As part of the deal, Warners retained distribution of the catalogue. Warners is also the only one of the "big three" to not have long since reached a Content ID agreement with YouTube, so stuff it claims is generally blocked on request. It seems this can only be resolved by Flying Nun communicating with Warners on a case-by-case basis.
I'll see if Ben Howe can swing by with a fuller explanation, but that's the situation as I understand it.
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Hard News: Friday Music: F**kYouTube, in reply to bob daktari,
As in what rate is being offered and does it differ from that the majors have signed up for… and you know the other important details needed before one can make an informed decision as to if they truly are evil or just misunderstood on this count – as much as I am inclined to rage against the machine by default and side with the indies so far its been a very one sided story.
Fair point. But neither side has released the numbers they're haggling over, so it's hard to tell. The fact that Beggars Group is rejecting the deal seems significant though.
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Hard News: A win for Jai and Jim, in reply to Kumara Republic,
Finally, my folks acknowledge that I’m on the spectrum, after they dusted off my old Plunket book.
Oh, that is good news. Nice one.
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Hard News: The Letter, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
Back on this planet, people gossip in Wellington too.
This seems unusually pervasive partisan gossip and the fact that some of it apparently comes from information obtained with the powers of a ministerial office is a bit creepy.