The clean man
Has anyone else noticed John Key’s absence from the media in the last few days? I finally clicked to it while listening to […]
Media
Silence those media lambs
Media bleating about Labour’s ‘personal attacks’ is getting tiresome. Some journalists seem to forget from one election to the next that an important […]
Turnoff
UPDATE: Thanks to commenter T-Rex for reversing the cartoon to show workers taking a disastrous right turn. Far too much time on your […]
Hit and miss
Let’s look at some of the issues National has hit and run on. They were all you heard from the Nats for a […]
Broadcasting policy broadly outlined
National’s Jonathan Coleman has announced a bullet-point excuse for a broadcasting policy. Essentially, it adopts the status quo but moves TVNZ charter funding […]
The Girl Effect
Learn more at thegirleffect.org
Introducing 08wire
Well, as promised 08wire launched today – “The Smartest Political Fun in the Galaxy.’ After you’ve joined their Facebook group check out their first […]
Who are National’s moles?
The information being leaked to Nicky Hager is obviously coming from well-placed sources inside National The idea of hacking is farcical (Lyndon Hood […]
Democracy under attack
Ruth Laugesen’s got a piece in the SST today entitled “How National’s spin doctors operate“. She points out that Crosby/Textor’s methods, contrary to […]
Video: The Century of the Self
Hager’s Crosby/Textor revelations and the ensuing debate reminded me of this four party BBC documentary by Adam Curtis: The Century of the Self. Embedded […]
The making of some (commercial) magic
As usual we’ve been running the hot political stories this week but I, for one, need a breather. And what better way to […]
The Standard Week: June 27-July 4
A big week in politics. The rail system is back in public ownership as KiwiRail, Nicky Hager exposed Brand Key as a Crosby […]
Mr Key, where is your ‘positive, ambitious campaign’?
In four separate interviews this week, John Key used more or less exactly the same line to divert from questions on his use of Crosby/Textor: […]
One door closes, another opens
A shame to hear that our mates at blogblog have called it quits for now but a delight to see that our friends […]
Real John vs Brand Key
Let’s go back to the heart of this story: it is not about push-polling or whatever, this is about how Brand Key has […]
What’s the future for Brand Key?
Crosby/Textor, an outfit renowned for its anti-democratic, secretive practices, has built the public image of John Key (Brand Key) from the ground up. […]
Crosby/Textor Spin Bingo
John Key has his round of five interviews tomorrow morning (Breakfast, Sunrise, ZB, KiwiFM, bFM) and will undoubtedly face questions on his use […]
Reminder: Drinking Liberally Auckland
Remember that Drinking Liberally Auckland is having its inaugural session tomorrow with David Slack. Note it in your schedules and tell your left-leaning […]
Crosby Textor spin the use of Crosby Textor
I wish some journo would ask Key whether Crosby/Textor helped him with lines on how to handle questions about his using them – […]
Fairfax milks the cash cow
It was bound to happen. The Herald did it about a year ago and now Fairfax is following suit. Getting rid of subeditors […]
Same old National. Same old spin.
Former National Party MP Marilyn Waring wrote in the introduction to The Hollow Men: I must admit to a sense of anticipated despair […]
Brand Key shows a contempt for ordinary Kiwis
It comes as no surprise that Brand Key has been a Crosby/Textor project from Day 1. The hit and run, the bait and […]
Nat response to C/T scandal right from C/T playbook
There’s a standard formula that Crosby/Textor has its clients use when damaging information comes out. a) refuse to engage. The most senior public […]
Busted
Nicky Hager’s piece in today’s Sunday Star Times has confirmed what we all suspected: Crosby Textor are the creators of Brand Key. For […]
Geek’s view
On the odd occasion I have time to read outside of the confines of The Standard and its ever increasing brawl of entertaining […]
Misdirection
There’s a technique that sits at the heart of conjuring tricks called misdirection the act of drawing attention away from the trick itself. […]
Key’s principled stand
A good cartoon by Mike Moreu this morning about Key’s confusing stance on the smacking referendum. Though of course, as a_y_b pointed out […]
Standard Week: 20-27 June 2008
Three events this week epitomised the benefits of nine years of centre-left government: the continuing fall in benefit numbers, the Government’s moves to […]
Leadership: What’s nice got to do with it?
An interesting article in the Washington Post poses the question: “You thought our presidential candidates were nice guys, regular guys, guys with whom […]
Cake and eat it
I’ve noticed a new trend in the right’s spin lately (apart from their wholesale theft of campaign scripts) – the ‘have your cake […]
Enlightening debate
In Parliament yesterday: Anderton: “Has the Minister received any reports on how many National Party members it takes to change a light bulb?” Cullen: […]
Neuro-Liberalism
George Lakoff has a new book out. You might remember him from such books as “Moral Politics” and “Don’t Think of an Elephant”. […]
Deja vu
I was having a look through some old campaign PR yesterday and found this gem: It seems John Key ripped off more than […]
Blog reader survey
Dear Blog Reader, My name is Andrew Cushen, and I am conducting a survey of New Zealand Political Blog Readers. This survey is part […]
Reflected by the internet
Clayton Cubitt (friend of one of the editors of BoingBoing) has recently visited NZ. He’s posted some fantastic visual material to his tumblr […]
Contrast
National has been going on about the number of comms staff at the Ministry of Social Development. Rather than ask ‘what do these […]