Posts by Russell Brown
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Hard News: Earning Confidence, in reply to Some Stats,
Of course, the results show no significant change in Labour’s support from last week. Indeed, only the change in the Internet Mana support is near being statistically significant.
Yes. I've been thinking about that.
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The Herald poll is up already. Labour slumps further. This is just getting cruel.
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Speaker: Election 2014: Mental Health Policies, in reply to George Darroch,
I work in an addictions organisation, and contrary to ACT’s statement, I know that the clients we work with value the free services they receive very much.
That was such a banal statement that responding to it almost amounts to unduly dignifying it. But yeah.
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Hard News: UPDATED: Media Take: Election…, in reply to Tom Semmens,
This song dates from 2013. It was dredged up as a counter-play by National (probably their research unit) and fed into a oh-to-willing media via Slater/Hooton/Farrar and Lusk. And yes, you also took the bait.
Must we continue with blindly accepting the right’s framing of issues?
Please try not to lecture me unless you know what you’re talking about.
The song dates to last year and the chorus further back than that.
But it was posted on Soundcloud two days ago, in the misguided belief that a bit of shock would get voting into young people’s minds. The National Party research unit didn't need to dredge it up. Tom posted it and Stuff noticed.
Perhaps it actually succeeded to some extent. There have been 16,000 plays and 187 reposts on Soundcloud in two days. But it was politically naive to give the usual suspects something so tasty to act out their outrage on.
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Hard News: Earning Confidence, in reply to Timmy H,
Is the main debate being streamed at all? I’m in the US at the mo so also hopefully not geoblocked.
Yes. Not geoblocked and available here.
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Hard News: Earning Confidence, in reply to Andrew Geddis,
That would be an upset, given that Chris Tremain is quitting Parliament at this election! National’s candidate for Napier is Wayne Walford (which is, apparently, a real name!)
Yup, Wayne v Garth. I've already fixed that one.
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Hard News: UPDATED: Media Take: Election…, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
And an even bigger part of it is the Electoral Commission is there not to be “fair” but to apply the law, even if it’s a bit of a flustercluck, in the world as it is.
To be fair the the Commission, its main job is running free and fair elections, which it seems to do very well. Assessing, satire and speech, not so much.
And the fact that its only power if it suspects infringing material is to pass the matter on to the police is seems less than ideal. If Jono and Ben are an indication, the police will busy themselves with more important things until the six-month time limit expires. But speech is chilled in the interim.
As others have noted, we should be grateful to Watson for doing what the Commission stubbornly refuses to do -- seeking the view of the courts.
Any one seriously want to suggest there would be a different reaction if the track was called Silent T rather than Planet Key? Seriously?
Who'd bother, right now? But if Cunliffe had been PM for six years, long enough to make a bunch of unpopular decisions and piss people off, it's not unlikely someone would write an unhappy song about him.
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Hard News: UPDATED: Media Take: Election…, in reply to Rob Stowell,
If you unpack it, there’s no credible connection between these things (thus no campaign), and not much you could credibly call a ‘smear’. If we don’t unpack it, it becomes a central part of the election narrative.
Yes. The usual suspects were very keen yesterday to link 'Kill the PM' to Kim Dotcom. The fact that Tom Scott has frequently expressed his contempt for Dotcom was no impediment.
They must have been unable to believe their luck when Tom gave them exactly what they needed yesterday.
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Hard News: UPDATED: Media Take: Election…, in reply to nzlemming,
I’m not sure if Ebony were left or right, but “Big Norm” was hardly complimentary to Norman Kirk PM (even if he did wish them luck).
My memory is that the song was very much seen as affectionate.
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Hard News: UPDATED: Media Take: Election…, in reply to Steve Barnes,
Any takers on that? I still can’t find any evidence of the Commission rattling any cages on the Right. Could it be they are clean as the proverbial whistle or is their boss glowering in their direction?.
Part of it may be that there are hardly any right-wing musicians and artists and those who are aren't currently movement to anger.