Focusing on the issues
Monday, November 21st, 2011I know I’m straying from media law stuff again. Let’s call it general media ethics. But I’m staggered that we can have an election campaign without discussing the ideas in two recent and significant New Zealand books: Nicky Hager’s “Other People’s Wars”, which accuses successive governments of being much more deeply involved in the conflicts in Iraq […]
The worm returns
Monday, November 21st, 2011I see TV3 plan to use the worm again on tonight’s debate. Sigh. Here’s a column I wrote opposing the worm back in 2005. I think it still holds true.
Memo to John Key
Monday, November 21st, 2011Stop talking about Winston Peters. At all. The 5% of New Zealand who might vote for him are not amenable to rational persuasion. They vote for him if they are reminded about him because he is in the news.
Hosking lays down the law
Sunday, November 20th, 2011At the end of his interview about cuppagate on RNZ’s MediaWatch programme today, Mike Hosking tells us that I think I have a pretty good appreciation of privacy law in this country. If he means, he’s got a pretty good understanding of those laws, I think the rest of the interview demonstrates that he’s wrong. […]
Huh?
Sunday, November 20th, 2011Michael Laws, SST column today: And it counterpoints what all Kiwis know: that there exists a uniform inability within the Fourth Estate to understand proportion and excess. Michael Laws, on Talkback earlier this week: If I had a gun, I’d shoot them [teagate journalists] – because they have gone rabid and they may infect others… […]
Chief Electoral Officer: VFC claims are “factually incorrect, and misleading”
Friday, November 18th, 2011I see I’m not alone in my concern that the anti-MMP group Vote For Change’s campaign is misleading when it emphasises that the alternative voting systems “could work with 99 MPs”. Robert Peden, the Chief Electoral Office, has seen the need to put out a press release about it: “The Vote for Change organisation is […]
Contemptuous cuppa?
Friday, November 18th, 2011Is it a contempt of court to discuss cuppagate now that it’s heading to court? John Banks and Steven Joyce seem to be suggesting that now that the issue is heading to court they are somehow precluded from commenting. Wrong. It can be a contempt to cause prejudice to an upcoming trial – especially a […]
Dean reads the tea leaves
Friday, November 18th, 2011Dean Knight has posted on cuppagate. He’s particularly interested in the declaration application. He explains the hurdles faced by the applicant (judicial reluctance to grant declarations when issues are still in dispute and where criminal proceedings can sort things out), and says he thinks the judge should grant one anyway (to protect the integrity of […]
VFC press release even more misleading than their ad
Thursday, November 17th, 2011My complaint As I’ve mentioned, I complained to the Advertising Standards Authority against anti-MMP group Vote for Change’s advertising. I thought it was misleading. VFC changes its advertising Also, as I’ve mentioned, VFC fairly quickly changed its advertisting to address some of its misleading statements. In particular, it added an arrow on its diagram to […]
Sneaky devices 3
Thursday, November 17th, 2011The cameraman in the middle of cuppagate, Bradley Ambrose, is reportedly seeking a court declaration that he committed no crime because the recorded conversation wasn’t private. (That is, that the conversation did not occur in circumstances in which any party ought reasonably to expect that the communication may be intercepted by some other person not having the express […]
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