Posts by Russell Brown
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Hard News: Budget 2018: The broadcasting…, in reply to Sacha,
Curran remains optimistic and says she has been instructed by Robertson to prepare a clear business case for the money that public media needs. “We are going to truly look at what long term funding is needed,” she said.
And the final paragraph that follows:
“This will be a serious piece of work which I don’t think has ever been done before. We will make this happen.”
I think Mark's wrong on some counts – NZ On Air isn't really looking to profit from RNZ's misfortune – but I think it's clear that Curran hasn't been able to present a coherent business case. And RNZ and NZ On Air can't go around her.
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I wouldn’t sheet home the whole thing to Curran, and I gather she fought even for the rubbish deal she got.
Frankly, one of the big issues here – apart from the continued mystery about who gets what – is the one-year window, when almost all other Budget commitments span four years. Neither NZ On Air or RNZ – and really no responsible organisation – can strategise on that basis.
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Well, the public broadcasting element of the Budget has become even more of a shambles.
After campaigning on and continuing to talk up a $38m boost to be shared between RNZ and NZ On Air, the government has come up with only $15m in the budget – and still can't say what the split might be. That will be left to the broadcast working group.
So RNZ, which has been very clear about what its most urgent needs are, still can't plan anything. This really is rubbish.
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Hard News: Budget 2018: The final tick, in reply to Geoff Lealand,
I think the claim that there is some kind of stand-off between RNZ and Claire Curran (most recently promulgated by The Spinoff) is without any foundation.
I hope you're right. She certainly hasn't done the organisation any favours in the past six months.
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Hard News: The remarkable rise of…, in reply to Katharine Moody,
A highly recommended read;
Yeah, this dangerous dispensationalist Christian craziness has been present in successive Republican administrations since Reagan. But it does seem even more dangerous with Trump in office.
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And a hell of a story from Ronan farrow.
He interviewed the government official who leaked the Cohen SARs – who says he did so because he was alarmed that they'd disappeared from a federal database where they should have been.
It starts to look less like leaking as such and more like whistleblowing. Far out.
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And today … Trump’s compulsory financial disclosure confirms that he did pay Cohen back, and chose to leave that information out of last year’s disclosure.
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Hard News: The remarkable rise of…, in reply to nzlemming,
More ramifications in the WaPo Russia-linked company that hired Michael Cohen registered alt-right websites during election
Whoa.
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Hard News: Loops and Diamonds, in reply to Bart Janssen,
I don’t necessarily believe the number should be 25 kph but I do think it’s reasonable to expect e-bikes on bike paths to be going a “reasonable speed”. Figuring out how to achieve a legislation that will achieve that might be fun since the definition of reasonable is variable and subjective.
Yeah, and a lot of it comes down to just not being a dick. There are some quite long stretches of the northwestern with good visibility and no entrances, and it really is quite fun (and handy if you're running late) to stretch out on those. Whistling past groups of pedestrians at 30-40k is, on the other hand, dickish.
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Hard News: Loops and Diamonds, in reply to Joe Wylie,
20 kgs sounds awfully high just for the electricals. Even the heavier “Dutch-style” bikes are under 30 kgs total minus panniers, with sportier models at around 60% of that weight.
Yeah, the extra wear is also to do with the additional force. It can mess up the wheels if you're unlucky.