Posts by Alison McCulloch

  • Hard News: Apple Music: Taking a dump on…,

    As one of those people who want it to "simply play [me] music", I'm really really loving Apple Music, I haz to say. Really enjoying the curated playlists, that keep getting better as I 'heart' more stuff...blasts from the past, plus previously undiscovered jazz, rock etc. I have no music collection to speak of, having never really made the time or taken the effort to gather one (that energy and those resources instead went into books)...but I love music. So this is perfect for me. (Just rediscovering Soul II Soul as I type... ahh, the late 80's)

    Since Feb 2008 • 6 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: Media Take: In the Eye of the…,

    I just watched the latest Media Take; thanks much for the piece by Toi about the police apology. I haven't seen the Operation 8 doco either, and will try to get a copy. The clip you included sure made clear the toxic role the news media played in the whole affair. I was trying to keep track of print media coverage of the "terror raids" at the time and wrote up a paper for PJR about it (made from a talk at a JEANZ conference in 2007). I was just horrified at the time at the incendiary (intended!) and credulous reporting, endless anonymous, even third-hand sources, and some of the editorials justifying this. So, the police apologised, but the news media never seems to have to look back and take stock of their own role, to learn anything from this, let alone, of course, to come close to apologising for what they, too, put so many people through. The 2007 reporting had the same 'feel' to it as the post 9/11 period and run-up to the 2003 Iraq invasion in the U.S. (and no doubt here, too)... a 'feel' I felt close up as I was working on the foreign desk at the NY Times at the time. Which was sort of the angle I took in the talk/PJR paper: i.e. the hysteria-driven "terrorism" reporting in the post-9/11 context NZ-style, where papers were unable to resist anonymous sourcing that would let them use 'terror' and 'napalm' on the same page; where Maori were the local version of those terrifying "others" (appreciating those subjected to the raids etc., were not all Maori, but nevertheless that "Maori" featured so heavily in the coverage) At the NYT there were a series of follow-up stories of a mea culpa nature, but here we seem to sail merrily on. Who, us? But we're the fourth estate, we were only reporting what we were told, the people have a right to know, etc. etc.

    Since Feb 2008 • 6 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: Te Reo Māori in schools:…,

    Thanks/ngā mihi for this, (and I'm enjoying Media Take). I'm now learning Te Reo and loving it madly. (Received none in school either!) I'm addicted to Korero Mai on Māori TV (why isn't it avail On Demand BTW, do you know?) and looking forward to watching Dora Mātāto and SpongeBob Tarau Porowhā. Hei konā.

    Since Feb 2008 • 6 posts Report Reply

  • OnPoint: What Andrew Geddis Said, But…,

    Oh wow. I can't keep up with all this steam-rollering. Thanks for this Keith. [Sits and stares pathetically at screen with mouth agape.]

    Since Feb 2008 • 6 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: Improving quality by cutting service,

    There's a v. funny critique of the sacking of sub-editors (aka copy editors in the U.S.) here:


    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/19/AR2008061902920.html

    Since Feb 2008 • 6 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: Media 7,

    That's excellent news. And glad it's coming in election year. I look forward to watching.

    Since Feb 2008 • 6 posts Report Reply