The Killing Moon
TV3 have sacked two judges on X Factor NZ, while Jeremy Clarkson is more popular than ever. When is TV going to pull the plug on itself?
Media
internet
International travel perks for the people who got us into this mess?
The blogosphere leads the way in breaking a story about yet another sack of cash for MPs …
New site – Evening Report
Selwyn Manning has set up and will edit a new site (eveningreport.nz). Nice to see another progressive net news and current affairs site being set up. It will be interesting to see how this one develops. But there is a lot of room for different media in the net space.
Protecting our Freedom
UK PM David Cameron thinks freedom will be enhanced by monitoring everything – something we used to call totalitarianism. We need more encryption and to make sure the internet is built for the people, not the data-miners – be they our security agencies, criminal gangs, or facebook.
The Hypocrisy of Hate
You’d think that with all the WW1 commemorations going on at the moment it would make us more vigilant about our freedom and security, not sleep-walking towards another Holy Crusade (in the name of the God of Money and Father of Fossil Fuels), seduced by slick liars and the gods of commercialism and greed.
Free speech and surveillance online
A long, fascinating piece by Glenn Greenwald on The Intercept this morning.
Top MP tweeters ….?
Claire Trevett in the NZ Herald has an article on her chosen top MP tweeters, now that Judith Collins has vacated her (alleged) position as “Minister of Twitter” Not quite my list of top tweeters… and yours?
NZ Media and blogs vs blogs
Snippets from a detailed and interesting report on the ownership of NZ media, media trends and issues, and the role of blogs post dirty politics. One major quibble – not all blogs are created equal, no more than all TV is game shows, than all radio is talkback, or than all websites are porn.
Textses
rOb somewhat scooped me, but here’s my twitter round-up of the reaction to the PM’s office releasing the texts last night.
Interwebbing
I was just having a look through the connections between this site and others (and contemplating how to increase it). I thought others might also be interested.
#JohnKeyHistory
Apparently the New Zealand Wars were just another Rugby analogy to John Key.
Facebook censoring pages critical of John Key?
A facebook group called “John Key has let down New Zealand” has just been closed for violations of the user agreement. This group had 16.000 members and was one of the most active political facebook pages in NZ.
Defamation on the net
Stephen Price wrote on an interesting Appeal court decision that relates to blogging and defamation. The decision seems to leave a considerable amount of room for lawyers to continue to explore. But it effectively lays out some guidelines about site responsibilities.
The circle is complete
From “There’s no ambiguity. No middle ground. I’m right. He’s wrong”
to
“[Snowden] may well be right” in just 4 days. Impressive.
Nastiest election ever?
Is this the nastiest election ever? The wit and wisdom of Twitter on this and other matters…
The enablers
Under pressure from Glenn Greenwald’s revelations, John Key, using various smoke screens, is starting to reveal his complicity in working with the GCSB & its 5 Eyes partners, to extend the scope of their spying. Could the Southern Cross Cable Network not have known their systems had been tapped? Update: Statement by Southern Cross Cables
Nat two track strategy – March to Sept
Nicky Hager has exposed the two track strategy of the Whale Oil, Kiwiblog, Nat smear machine. Why is it allowed to continue?
The extent of public interest hacking?
Last year, there was a major hack, in which data from some GCSB staff, parliamentary staff, police, & others were copied & stored in various places globally. Surveillance technologies can be used by both state agencies and its critics. Update: Some 2013 history & Anonymous
Vid of Nicky Hager talk tonight, Waikato
Nicky Hager’s talk at the University of Waikato was very well attended. It was livestreamed. A video of it is now available online,
Slater’s bid- fail!
TV3 News reports Slater’s bid to gag the media has failed. High Court decision is that media can report on previously published material, & material they already have. doesn’t apply to previously published material. Rawshark had already given remaining material to the media and departed. [Updated]
‘Dirty Politics’ symposium, streaming today
The University of Otago had a symposium on Nicky Hager’s Dirty Politics book now. The event has ended but video on youtube: Interviews with Hager, speakers, panel.
Whaledump twitter account suspended
Whaledump’s account on Twitter has been suspended.
Someone is trying to lock the stable door after the horse has bolted.
Update: @Whaledump2 is providing more dumps and No Right Turn & lprent comment on it.
Labour’s broadcasting policy: public service TV-RNZ
Labour’s broadcasting policy includes setting up a new public service TV channel, to be located with RNZ, incorporating RNZ values. The Greens are open to the idea. NZ First has a similar policy. Laila Harre makes some good points about public broadcasting and industrial relations. [Update: RNZ report; video clip added]
From Twitter
All your trashing the SFO connections. h/t DebsHancock
‘Malevolent males’, ‘Mistress Collins’ & a ‘free press’
Dirty Politics shows the need for a reformation of our media, broadcasting and related online content. It’s about democracy. Lucy lawless agrees. Laila Harre and Colin Craig have been added to the line up for Sunday’s Broadcasting Debate in Auckland.
60 tweeps to follow this election
Bryce Edwards had his go at a list of the top 100 tweeters to follow this election, but with only 24 women making […]
Another catchy tune
Another music vid that John Key and the Electoral Commission won’t like…
Dancing on the grave of Hollywood and the reformation of the music industry
During every revolution there will be winners and losers, change can mean pain for some, especially for the bloodsucking leaches & parasites, that […]
Mary Poppins on a minimum wage!
Mary Poppins quitting because she isn’t being paid enough to survive on in the magical nanny trade. I guess the peasants just aren’t prepared to starve as blindly as they did in the service of their ‘betters’ as they did in Edwardian era.
It is also quite funny…
Public broadcasting: an election issue
It has become very clear in the run up to this year’s election that we need better broadcasting and news media coverage of politics. The Campaign for Better Broadcasting has organised a series of public debates (with MPs) throughout Aoteatora, beginning this Friday in Dunedin.
NRT: GCHQ’s bag of dirty tricks
The UK intelligence agency GCHQ has developed sophisticated tools to manipulate online polls, spam targets with SMS messages, track people by impersonating spammers and monitor social media postings, according to newly-published documents leaked by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.
NRT: Hoist by her own petard?
One should defend the right of a politician and anyone else to be a complete dork on the net. Even Judith Collins doesn’t need two years in jail for lying to a reporter about another reporter or tweeting bullying abusive rubbish. However many would see Collins’ tweets as “part of the cut and thrust between politicians and journalists”, and they’d be right. But the fact that they would be illegal under her law shows just how awful that law is
NRT: A committee of fuckwits
The Justice and Electoral Committee has reported back on the Harmful Digital Communications Bill. The bill attempts to outlaw “harmful digital communications” – defined as anything causing “serious emotional distress” – and imposes a regime of court orders, takedown notices, and criminal penalties. The latter would effectively reintroduce the offence of criminal libel – but only on the internet. Some sad old fuckwits in Parliament are scared of us and scared of our future.
Imperator Fish: Let’s shut down the internet
There appears to have been a hiatus in the flood of posts today. Perhaps it is because of the wise words of Imperator Fish pausing the world as they consider his wise words… And those of Speaker Carter (who appears to have a problem with most current culture).
“Twitter sent to the Privileges Committee”
Today David Carter made a speech to the House about his considering of the complaints, resulting in him deciding to refer the issue to the Privileges Committee. The over-riding consideration should be, do the rules and procedures serve the people and democratic processes?
Marama Davidson: candidate for Tāmaki Makaurau
Marama Davidson, is on the Green Party list & is a candidate for the Tāmaki Makaurau seat. Davidson is a really promising up-coming politician. She is committed to working for people, communities, the environment, democratic process, & strongly supports wahine, Māori & young people.