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Press Council finds against Herald over ponygate reporting

Written By: - Date published: 8:37 am, July 3rd, 2015 - 76 comments

The Press Council has ruled that Rachel Glucina and the Herald breached the requirement of independence contained in the Press Council’s principles.

An open letter to Andrew Little

Written By: - Date published: 6:08 pm, June 26th, 2015 - 433 comments

A respectful open letter to Andrew Little with suggestions for how to win the next election!

#Sheepgate – did National ask the Saudi Sheep Farmer to sue NZ?

Written By: - Date published: 8:36 am, June 24th, 2015 - 42 comments

It seems crazy but it appears that National may have asked the Saudi sheep farmer to sue New Zealand.  And John Key seems to be relaxed about facilitation payments aka bribes.

Polity: Reductio…

Written By: - Date published: 2:56 pm, June 22nd, 2015 - 29 comments

Rob Salmond at Polity: DPF and Chris Bishop have conspired to come up with a new canard-of-distraction de jour. Today’s trope: “Labour are the conversatives, National the progressives, and Labour is the party of No.”

The NRA is a terrorist organisation

Written By: - Date published: 8:50 am, June 20th, 2015 - 106 comments

In the land of the free and the brave the NRA is trying to say that the way to stop incidents such as the Charleston Church massacre is to have more guns.  And the right are trying to dispute the reality that the incident was caused by racism.

Enter Sandman

Written By: - Date published: 6:57 pm, June 18th, 2015 - 52 comments

Nathan Guy reckons he knows what killed hundreds of kiwi taxpayer funded lambs in the dodgy Saudi Arabian model farm. Believe it or not, this time it’s not Labour! No, it’s the Sanding of the Lambs.

Rachel Glucina leaves Herald and joins Mediaworks

Written By: - Date published: 5:38 pm, June 18th, 2015 - 27 comments

Rachel Glucina is off to Mediaworks to run a new digital entertainment platform.

Culprit for Nats’ housing fiasco located

Written By: - Date published: 10:39 am, June 16th, 2015 - 40 comments

You’ll never guess!

The third way according to Tony Blair

Written By: - Date published: 9:06 am, June 14th, 2015 - 70 comments

Supporters of Tony Blair’s third way and the need for Labour to be aspirational should reflect on recent reports of his huge wealth earned with taxpayer support while he has been engaged on official business.

Relationships Aotearoa to close today

Written By: - Date published: 8:50 am, June 9th, 2015 - 19 comments

Relationships Aotearoa is closing its doors today, as a result of ineptitude and indifference on the part of the Government.  Claimed safeguards are looking incredibly shaky.  Only three of the five organisations touted to take up the work are prepared to do so.  And MSD has caused upset to the Privacy Commissioner by misrepresenting his views.

We need to ACT on the innumeracy of MPs

Written By: - Date published: 11:08 am, June 6th, 2015 - 113 comments

After a mere 5 years, some numerically and legally challenged current and ex-MP have been demonstrating their inability to understand their Three Strikes stupidity. They seem to think that people who have probably been in court or banged up in prison for violent offences have had time to go to court three times. FFS: these dickheads need mandatory remedial maths.

Colmar Brunton poll

Written By: - Date published: 11:03 am, June 2nd, 2015 - 53 comments

I’ll cautiously call the previous Roy Morgan, which caused so much angst, an outlier.

Sheepgate

Written By: - Date published: 8:54 am, May 28th, 2015 - 103 comments

It has emerged that the New Zealand Government has paid money to a Saudi businessman allegedly to settle a legal dispute that does not exist but more probably to persuade the Saudi Government to enter into a free trade agreement.  Update – and maybe there was a threat of legal action but because of the actions of National, not Labour.

Crosby ‘most successful propogandist since Goebbels’ – Ken Livingston

Written By: - Date published: 2:00 pm, May 27th, 2015 - 57 comments

Ken Livingston talks about Lynton Crosby and neoliberalism.

Mortgagee sales

Written By: - Date published: 10:14 am, May 25th, 2015 - 21 comments

A marked drop in mortgagee sales recently. Good news?

The media and two child poverty policy releases

Written By: - Date published: 9:24 am, May 24th, 2015 - 60 comments

The media’s handling of Labours Best Start policy announcement in January of last year and its handling of National’s recent budget announcement of a $25 a week increase for beneficiary families provides an interesting contrast.

Owning the news agenda

Written By: - Date published: 8:20 am, May 24th, 2015 - 47 comments

He who pays the piper calls the tune. The killing of Campbell Live is just the latest example.

Young Labour and sex change ops

Written By: - Date published: 10:04 am, May 20th, 2015 - 274 comments

Young Labour has proposed that there is public funding for hormone replacement therapy and gender reassignment.  Jonathan Coleman described the proposal as “absolutely nuts” but it then emerged that there is already some public funding for this treatment.  And the media tried to suggest that some off the cuff comments by Labour MPs is evidence of division.

Climate “consultation” – Fix Our Future

Written By: - Date published: 8:16 am, May 19th, 2015 - 13 comments

The government is “consulting” we the people on New Zealand’s climate change target. You can use Generation Zero’s Fix Our Future site to make a submission. Do it!

Burning issues of the day

Written By: - Date published: 12:32 pm, May 18th, 2015 - 9 comments

flag-meeting

Are the left really angry?

Written By: - Date published: 10:14 am, May 17th, 2015 - 52 comments

The latest attacks on the left involves the right claiming that left activists are too angry and hurting labour’s chances in the UK as well as New Zealand.

Calling people names

Written By: - Date published: 9:22 am, May 14th, 2015 - 24 comments

Pulling ponytails and calling people names – I guess it’s true, the PM is 11 years old.

Angry Andy, Creepy Key

Written By: - Date published: 4:09 pm, May 13th, 2015 - 54 comments

Today’s social media lolz. There’s a difference between obvious attempts to astroturf a nickname and ones that have gone viral naturally.

UK media and the election

Written By: - Date published: 10:40 am, May 6th, 2015 - 42 comments

UK-media1

Polity: Hide / Farrar / Hooton: “Hey, look over there!

Written By: - Date published: 3:25 pm, May 4th, 2015 - 51 comments

“The shrillness of the “hey look over there!” narrative coming from the right-hand-side shows just how deep the embarrassment within National is at the Northland campaign and result.”

Numerical illiteracy at the Herald

Written By: - Date published: 1:21 pm, April 29th, 2015 - 46 comments

Today, we see a Herald ‘editor’ demonstrating exactly how useless they are at interpreting polls. They are saying that a poll where almost all of the sample was taken before the Ponygate story broke, indicates that it doesn’t matter much. To rub home just how stupid and out of touch the Herald editors were last week, it then whines about nasty social media. What can one say of these cloistered monks of  ‘journalism’… Plenty.

A Friend first, and a Boss second, probably an Entertainer third.

Written By: - Date published: 1:56 pm, April 26th, 2015 - 44 comments

“I’m a friendly guy that likes to interact with the public. I do like to have a bit of a laugh and I’m probably the most casual Prime Minister New Zealand has had.”

John Key’s week has turned from drama to farce. David Brent looks good next to this clown.

Caption Competition

Written By: - Date published: 1:00 pm, April 24th, 2015 - 114 comments

Keep it seemly!

Ten Bridges Too Far

Written By: - Date published: 7:15 am, April 17th, 2015 - 18 comments

With Crosby Textor by his side, John Key has since learned to employ all manner of specialist PR techniques including ad homs, blame-shifting, distraction,  use of Dirty Politics proxies to defuse the situation, and false equivalence, all woven together in an intricately performed semantic shuffle designed to  provide wiggle room for when he does get caught.

Our Iraq war policy explained

Written By: - Date published: 10:52 am, April 16th, 2015 - 32 comments

The government is doing a poor job at explaining our Iraq war policy, but never fear, we have the answers.

Geddis spanks Farrar

Written By: - Date published: 10:40 am, April 16th, 2015 - 30 comments

Andrew Geddis at Pundit on National’s spin on Bridges. Includes a pretty sticky moment for Nat spinster David Farrar. You will need to disinfect your brain.