Laws unto himself
Friday, March 18th, 2011Michael Laws comes up with a brilliant, savage parody of what a deranged right-winger might think about the case of Arie Smith. Genius.
You’ve got to be joking
Wednesday, March 9th, 2011Okay, when you’re part of a trash-talking video barracking for Crawley Town in its upcoming fixture with Manchester United, it’s offensive to make airplane crashy dance gestures referencing the famous 1958 tragedy that killed eight Man United players. (Watch the plonker on the right). But it is surely not criminal. Or so I would have thought. But no, […]
God Loves Hate Speech
Thursday, March 3rd, 2011The vile Westboro Baptist Church, whose favoured method of proselytising is picketing funerals with signs like “God Hates Fags” and “Thank God For Dead Soldiers” has won its appeal in the United States Supreme Court against a $10 million damages award. The 8-1 majority said the speech was in a public forum, on a matter […]
The personal touch
Thursday, March 3rd, 2011The US Supreme Court might have decided that corporations have speech rights, but it has just ruled that (in the context of freedom of information, anyway) they don’t have privacy rights. Under the US federal Freedom of Information Act, information can be withheld if its disclosure “could reasonably be expected to consistitute an unwarranted invasion […]
The Wikileaks Papers
Tuesday, March 1st, 2011Who said this, and when? It’s time to quit making national heroes of those who steal public secrets and publish them in the newspaper? When whole filing cabinets can be stolen there can’t be orderly government any more. He’s offering aid and comfort to the enemy, putting himself above the President, Congress and the whole […]
OIA-rony
Tuesday, March 1st, 2011The Independent Police Conduct Commissioner has criticised the police for releasing files relating to the charges against Tony Veitch that he didn’t plead guilty to. She found that the police should have kept their promise to contact Veitch before releasing the 358 documents. And, in fact, they shouldn’t have released the documents at all. The […]
Churnalism exposed
Tuesday, March 1st, 2011Take a look at this fascinating website that calculates and graphically displays the amount of UK journalism taken directly from press releases. Hat-tip: Inforrm.
QuakePorn
Wednesday, February 23rd, 2011Yes, it’s helpful to the country to understand the gravity of the disaster in Christchurch. Yes, we should cut news crews some slack when they’ve got to edit on the hoof. Yes, most of the coverage I’ve seen on TVNZ and TV3 has been responsible. But I think the highlights packages of bleeding-head woman, bandage […]
Three cheers for the OIA and one for the government
Tuesday, February 22nd, 2011I’m not sure whether the government’s document dump about the BMWs came as a result of an Official Information Act request. (If it wasn’t, then someone should put in an OIA request just in case the government has decided to hold anything back. That’s what the Labour government did in its Corngate document release). Either way, though, the […]
Cancerous Daily Mail
Monday, February 21st, 2011Listening to Morning Report’s story this morning about a Daily Mail story on cancer, I was reminded of this astonishing catalogue of things that the Daily Mail has reported on as causes and cures of cancer. And of this lovely piss-take on the Daily Mail by Dan and Dan.
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