Posts by Alfie
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Back to the Sutton story... former CERA communications adviser Tina Nixon knows both parties and calls the resignation performance a "breathtaking PR snow job". She questions whether "people really think that a hug was what it was all about".
The woman at the centre of the incident had done more for the post-earthquake Christchurch community "than many people I know", Ms Nixon said.
She criticised the State Services Commission for its "useless" investigation into the claims, especially after the complainant had "jeopardised her career" by laying them in the first place. "I for one have no confidence in their ability to conduct any unbiased inquiry after today," said Ms Nixon.
There's a lot more to this story than is being told publicly.
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Speaker: David Fisher: The OIA arms race, in reply to Lucy Telfar Barnard,
My interest in the Labour Party just died a little further.
Same here I'm afraid. I don't know Andrew Little at all so this is only my gut feeling, but I was hoping Labour might choose someone intelligent and articulate with a sense of humour. Someone capable of giving Key a run for his money. While Mr Little doesn't immediately seem to offer any of those qualitites, I hope that time proves me wrong.
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Speaker: David Fisher: The OIA arms race, in reply to Joe Wylie,
Whatever the outcome, I think we can assume that the Press has finally seen the futility of pouring whatever nonsense Sutton’s minders issue them with into the void of his personality bypass.
I think that the Sutton case will be used in PR training courses for years to come as an example of just how to handle a sex scandal. By front-footing with their own, carefully crafted public mea culpa statement, the support team has effectively established "the facts" of the case in the court of public perception.
Pushing the 'Sweetie' comment combined with 'just an innocent hug' virtually guarantees a wave of support from "The world is far too PC" brigade. Without the victim's side of the story, journalists are constrained in what they can report. Thus the plethora of 'poor old tussle-haired Roger' reports in the MSM. They even wheeled out his mother-in-law to confirm that he's a good bloke, FFS.
Combine that with a confidential settlement which includes a watertight non-disclosure cause and it's job done! A textbook example of reputational protection.
I wonder how the victim feels about this public trivialisation of her complaint?
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Following his unsuccessful legal action against APN, Fairfax and MediaWorks to prevent publication of rawshark-sourced data, Slater has been ordered to pay $15,000 costs to the news organisations.
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Hard News: The Hager saga continues, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
...with fronds like this who needs enemies?
Love it Ian. ;-)
If I can get away from the 'Labour principles' spat (sorry guys, it's getting boring) and move the conversation back to the Hager saga, Andrew Geddis looks at various mysteries which John Key somehow has knowledge of. It's worth a read.
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Hard News: Dirty Politics, in reply to Marc C,
But his comment that he could not bother telling the police, because he is not absolutely certain, that is BS of the highest order.
Agreed. Key is aware that the Police are wasting a lot of man hours trying to track down the illusive rawshark. Surely he should try to convince his "source" that passing on the name to the cops would be appropriate for a good citizen?
In reality, if it's not total BS, it's probably 'Cam reckons it was Dotcom' or something equally pathetic and unbelievable.
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Russel Norman is thinking along exactly the same lines.
"The police spent 10 hours going through Nicky Hager's house because Nicky Hager supposedly knows who Rawshark is, well the Prime Minister is now on the public record saying he knows who Rawshark is. I would expect the police to be consistent and even handed and to raid the Prime Minister's house and his office to find out who Mr Key thinks Rawshark is."
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John Roughan has updated his Key hagiography with some startling news.
The Prime Minister believes he knows who hacked Whale Oil blogger Cameron Slater's computer and produced the source material for Nicky Hager's Dirty Politics, according to a new edition of a recently published biography of John Key.
In a new chapter in John Key: Portrait of a Prime Minister devoted to this year's election campaign, Mr Key is quoted as saying: "Someone phoned and told me who the hacker was, but other than having a look at this person, I thought, 'Oh well ... nothing will come of it. Life goes on'."
Mr Key did not divulge the name of the person to the biography's author, senior Herald editorial writer John Roughan. Asked yesterday whether the PM had referred the name to the police investigation into the stolen emails, a spokeswoman for Mr Key said that though he believed he knew who the hacker was, "he cannot be certain".
Is this just big noting? The Police and security services are all searching in vain for Rawshark who appears to have concealed his digital tracks well. Nobody has been arrested so who could possibly have this info and let it slip to Key. Was it a credible source or just a gut feeling from his good mate Cam Slater?
No doubt the Police will be raiding Key's house in the near future.
As an aside, the Where's Wally game continues.
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Hard News: TVNZ: Emptied out, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
... PBS and NPR are not owned or controlled by the US Government.
While PBS is not government owned Craig, they do receive $US445m in federal funding annually, although that is often under threat. For example in 2012 Mitt Romney declared that if he was elected he would eliminate all PBS funding. The concept of public broadcasting is not usually attractive to right wing governments.
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John Key faced more questioning on 'Dirty Politics' in parliament today. Luckily we can all sleep easily because Key assures us that "he has seen no evidence his staff behaved unprofessionally."
The operative phrase there is "seen no evidence". Eyes closed, eyes closed, can't see nuffin... moving right along.
When Winnie asked about "Jason Ede's services to the National Party while employed at the public's expense", Key replied:
"Where questions are appropriately asked they'll be appropriately answered".
WTF? Can our dear leader really get away with flat-out refusing to answer straight questions... again? What a farce.