The right to free speech
This week has seen a number of examples where right wing and religious men have said stupid things and then had their statements defended on the basis that free speech should be protected.
duncan garner
Who is the white dude of the year?
Ben Torkington has proposed on twitter that there should be a white dude of the year competition. Who should be the inaugural winner of this esteemed competition and why?
NZ First: We could and should be doing better
NZ First chose to be inside Cabinet in a full coalition. I’d rather expected that they would choose to be in a confidence and supply agreement as they did with Labour back in 2005. That they decided to take the risk despite their previous experience with National is a stunning level of trust. But they work well with Labour.
Garner on National’s death rattle
Weekend pundits agree that the Joyce / English brazen lie about Labour’s budget is a disaster for the Nats. Duncan Garner pronounces National’s death rattle.
Garner on Nats’ brighter future fail
Duncan Garner reviews National’s record, and is not impressed: “Because the list of blind spots for National is too long. If this is success then our standards have slipped.”
Trying to wedge the Greens
The political right try it on every election year, in an attempt to sow a bit of discord. I expect this sort of obvious and clumsy wedge politics from Hooton and the like, but I was a bit surprised to see Duncan Garner having a go.
Watch Bill English lying through his teeth on housing
English is a less convincing liar than Key.
Listen to Nick Smith trying to defend fudged foreign ownership data
Anyone who believes the Nats’ figures needs to listen to yesterday’s interview – Why won’t Nick Smith answer this one simple question? Excellent work from Garner.
Garner – government “missing in action”
Duncan Garner reckons the government is “missing in action” on housing. Similar pieces could be written about poverty, pollution, the rising debt, carbon emissions, the use of NZ as a tax haven, etc.
Key’s land tax – too weak
Reaction to Key’s land tax has been luke warm at best, with strong calls for more effective action. Labour is promising “a ‘tidal wave’ of big housing reforms”…
Who is buying Canterbury water?
Billions of litres of Canterbury water are being sold off. Duncan Garner asks if Oravida is the buyer.
Garner on Key vs Clark
Attracting a fair bit of comment this morning – Duncan Garner on Key, Clark, and the nature of their legacies.
The responses to the Bain report leak
A review of some commentary about the leak of information from the Bain compensation claim report includes a comment from David Seymour which is surprisingly good.
Garner’s TPP rant rejected by the silent majority
Duncan Garner and the great Christmas beatup
In which Duncan Garner goes trolling with a great Christmas beatup, and gets taken to task for it.
Bread and circuses. Hold the bread.
Peter Lyons hits the nail on the head in Nothing but spin coming from our Government. Garner misses the point in National gets a case of the dreaded third-termitis.
By-elections are FPP
Paddy Gower and Duncan Garner don’t understand our electoral system: “that’s MMP”. By-elections are pure First Past the Post – and that’s why Andrew Little didn’t need to do a deal, and Northland doesn’t stink like Epsom.
Tax cuts – simple question simple answer
Duncan Garner asks – “when we’ve just borrowed $55b over 6 years how on earth are tax cuts suddenly affordable?”. Presumably it’s a rhetorical question…
This week’s Jonolist award goes to….
Jonolist award to Patrick Gower for slanted reporting of a non-poll result, continuing his anti-Cunliffe lines. Special mention to 3 News report on The Vote bovver boys, against affordable housing for those in need, forcing a “back-down” from Turei on lowering house prices. Need better MSM.
Truth no longer matters
A significant proportion of the media is now heavily invested in the narrative that David Shearer is about to be rolled as Labour leader. As Matt McCarten puts it today “Truth no longer matters” and “civil society is poorer for it”.
Much a coup about nothing
Apparently there was a coup in Labour last night. Missed it? So did Labour. Looks like what really happened was that someone played Garner / Gower. Perhaps the problem lies with relying on well-known Labour insider Cameron Slater as your source.
Not in the public interest
Some prominent “journalists” are working to undermine Labour and a possible Labour-Green government: one that could turn against the neoliberal scam that such “journalists” feed off. The left should take heart – the time has come to support the “public interest”, as outlined by Nicky Hager.
Open debate
Key has refused to include the leaders of minor parties in TV3 debates, and Goff has agreed to debate one on one. Another step towards “presidential” style politics that does not serve our country well.
Hello TV3 – can you count?
Is Duncan Garner just recycling headlines from last year?
Updated: Apology from TV3
Not a good look
I’m not going to take sides in the dispute between Brian Edwards and Duncan Garner over Garner’s targeting of Chris Carter. Edwards attacks Garner’s professionalism. Garner responds by attacking Edwards’ politics. The level of behaviour all round is unimpressive. The only one who comes out looking good is Margaret Bazley.
TV3’s Garner confirms vendetta against Carter
A few months ago Brian Edwards suggested that TV3’s chief political reporter Duncan Garner was on a personal vendetta against Chris Carter, an […]
Garner sez ‘take the fight to Key’
Phil Goff has put some good solid (if rather moderate) left-wing substance on the table in his pre-budget speech yesterday. Duncan Garner says that was the right move, but wonders if Labour now needs to focus on the questions surrounding John Key. Garner says in the wake of several questionable moves Key’s integrity is now on the line and Labour should exploit it.
Journos on the declining state of journalism
“Gov-Gen to attend PM’s funeral”. To me, it says a hell of a lot about the state of the media in this country that a sub-editor, or whoever they have writing headlines these days, does not know the difference between a president and a prime minister, and that no-one else at Stuff spotted the mistake before it went up.
Fox News – driven by conservative bullshit
Rachel Maddow has a look at exactly how much Fox News just makes stuff up and calls it news. It uses selectively edited stories like the ACORN ‘pimp’ story, the ‘climategate’ e-mails, and many other highly inaccurate ‘stories’, and promotes them for ratings.
In effect Fox News is the (un)official spin channel for conservative activists to peddle garbage entertainment on. Have a watch of Rachael as she tears the facade of conservative story telling apart.
Garner coy on accusations
The day after Zet’s post here on homophobic, imbalanced reporting by TV3’s Duncan Garner, Brian Edward’s wrote a scathing detailed deconstruction of Garner‘s […]
Nats’ homophobic dog-whistling continues
3News viewers were left wondering if Duncan Garner is still pissed after the long weekend tonight. Using material that has clearly come from Jason Ede in Key’s office Murray McCully, Garner played the message-bearer for National’s continuing attacks on Labour’s gay MPs. It makes me heave that Garner, one of the best journos in the country, should lower himself to become part of this dirty, homophobic campaign.
Garner: poor GST compo will cause backlash
Duncan Garner: “Key must get the compensation [for GST] right or there will be a backlash from voters” Problem is, you can’t get everyone to put some money in a bucket, give a large chunk of it to the rich and then compensate everyone else for what they put in with what is left. It can’t add up.
What is Whanau Ora? 2
Asked to explain his billion dollar policy Key says: “Whanau Ora is a way of saying we’re going to measure outcomes, instead of just inputs into a family to give greater flexibility to a third party private providerâ€. I take that to be a long way of saying “I don’t know what Whanau Ora isâ€.