Posts by Tom Semmens
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What a speech. What a pleasure to hear and watch. Obama is the best orator I have have ever seen. Imagine if we had a man who could talk like that, he’d win in a landslide.
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My only (rather sad) observation is that it retrospect it should have been obvious that Paula Bennett wouldn't have hesitated a nano-second before releasing the name of Mr. Ng's informant.
She is an authoritarian bully who preens when punishing and seeks revenge when crossed. She is truly one of the most vile people I think I have ever had the displeasure of seeing in action.
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Speaker: Key: Concession Not Recession, in reply to Geoff Lealand,
I don’t recall any particular consensus or party line from that time–just the usual mish-mash and diversity of views on the matter.
Oh please. Debate? I recall Russell Brown going off half-cocked and then behaving like a possum in denial about those headlights and the debate consisting of his loyal fanbase defending him by pouring scorn on anyone who dared questioned the party line. As in happens, in the wash we all now know who was right and who was wrong, and most of regulars around here were just plain wrong on this particular issue.
Hard News suffered a credibility blow from which it has never recovered - it is now largely a sporadic blog about media matters, generation x music nostalgia and advertorials for the Media 3 TV show. Russell Brown himself has said he wants and likes it that way now.
Of course, water under the bridge is water under the bridge. As far as I am concerned being wrong isn't a crime, but not learning from it is. I wonder how many people who regularly post here have learnt anything from being wrong over the Hobbit?
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I listened yesterday to the 4th Reith lecture given in Wellington by Niall Ferguson...
Ferguson has been the least impressive Rieth lecturer I can remember.
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Anyway, I thought about replying to Fran’s comment on the the Herald site, but it’s just getting unpleasant now.
What is Fran O’Sullivan so afraid of? She sounds like those shrill right wing idiots who campaign to keep al jazeera out of the U.S. lest it pollute the mainstream discourse with a contrary view.
I’ve never met the woman, but her Facebook, twitter and other personal comments paint her as a most unpleasant right wing bully.
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After pondering it a bit more, I think the Herald management should carry some of the blame. For relentless eighteen hour days you need two journalists, no matter what their age. Expecting youngsters to work an eighteen hour day for a week and produce anything decent is ridiculous, yet alone someone of Armstrong’s wheezy provenance.
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Reading John Armstrong -
...Few media representatives travelling with John Key would have got more than four or five hours’ sleep each night – probably less – because of the Prime Minister’s schedule, which ran from 6am (earlier if a flight was involved) until well into the evening. Days were spent clambering on and off buses in 35C heat and 100 per cent humidity...
It occured to me that he isn't a young - or even reasonably fit middle aged - man anymore. Maybe it is as simple as he just can't hack the pace on these big overseas assignments anymore. A younger journalist can get by on adrenaline and coffee and appreciate the awesomeness of seeing so many important world leaders. An old man cannot.
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The "new" Herald's "Our Network's Top Stories" links directly to the NZ Women's Weekly. Broadsheet trash in substance is now tabloid trash in form.
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THC RTD. Heard it here first. I predict young women would love it.
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Give away the news and sell the analysis? Thus, read for free the bare bones news about the Kiwi deaths in Afghanistan, pay to read the in-depth story and analysis by xyz.
It is the payment method has always struck me as clunky on practically every media site I have every been to, exhorting me to buy a subscription to their internet magazine when all I want to do is read their science writer every couple of weeks and make the odd smart alec comment under a nom-de-plume in their gaming section. This why I believe internet subscription models largely don’t work. Payment is a conscious parting with a whack of cash when you only want to read the bits you want and only when you have a bit of spare time, you are in the mood to comment, or it is of interest to you.
I am curious to know if anyone has ever tried a sort of trademe model – you deposit an amount of money and everytime you access “below the fold” for indepth news and analysis a deduction is made. Once your account has run out of money your attempt to access or comment takes you to the payment screen.
And how about everytime you comment you earn “comments money”, maybe 1 or 2c, which is credited to your account. Moderation would deal with comment spamming for “comments money” and “fines” could be imposed on users by moderators for bad behaviour. I have seen a site which used arbitrary points (and published a league table) to reward active members, and believe me it works. And active and engaged members are more likely to feel happy depositing $10 or $20 to keep up their habit, or to stay in the top 100 of the comments league table.