Tag Archive for 'herald'

“NZ Herald Staff” dribble

Published
by
lprent
on November 20, 2008
in fuckwits, media and news
. 26 Comments

Bomber over at Tumeke has pointed out a stupid news story about the blogosphere from the Granny Herald. It either shows a selective bias, or someone reporting on something that they don’t understand at more than a superficial level.

From the Herald staff…

The Blogosphere has made much of the “popular Westie” Paula Bennett’s new job in its initial analysis of John Key’s cabinet announced yesterday.

From bomber..

I love this ‘story’ by the Herald, they do a story about the ‘blogosphere’ reaction to Paula Bennett – to my shock they didn’t look at Tumeke…

…instead the Herald goes to the two most right wing blogs on the blogosphere, the Fox news online Kiwiblogh and the appalling whale oil…

Ok, so I thought that bomber was probably over-reacting. But no he isn’t, the blogs looked at were Colin Espiners blog, Kiwiblog (yeah - dog-whistles for the nat’s), and Whaleoil (aka national’s smear unit). The latter two are so associated with National that it is difficult to see them as anything more than sock-puppets for National PR. You’d have thought that a balanced report on the blogosphere reaction would have included some reaction from a range of blogs. Like the lefty or green blogs for instance - just for a bit of balance.

I don’t have time to read many blogs, but the reaction on most blogs has not that favourable about the cabinet lineup. We haven’t done explicit posts on the details of the micro-fauna of NACT + MP cabinet. However there is a lot of comment both in the posts and inside the comments. For instance a lot of the 100+ comments on this post were not exactly complimentary about the cabinet choices. Bomber of course did Paula Bennett – the perfect patsy which probably accurately sums up the reaction of the left to putting a first time minister in charge of the social welfare budget. There are certainly enough links to it.

But hey, the “NZ Herald Staff” probably read Kiwiblog and watch Fox news. Fed exclusively on a PR drip-feed, they probably consider that ill-considered knee-jerk reactions are ‘analysis’. More likely they’re too damn lazy to read below the headlines of posts of the blogosphere.

Personally, I’d suggest that people simply stop buying the Herald. It is becoming a rag with low value news content and the reporters are starting to look like they’re dribbling on their bibs.

Drawing your attention

Published
by
Steve Pierson
on October 4, 2008
in activism, media and youtube
. 18 Comments

Malcolm Evans, award-winning former Herald cartoonist, is bloody good at what he does - insightful, well-drawn, concerned with the big issues, and always on the side of the underdog. His leftwing views made for a difficult relationship with the Herald’s editors. In 2005, they ‘accidentally’ published a cartoon in which he criticised the Israeli occupation of Palestine. The resulting uproar from David Zwartz et al gave Herald the excuse to get rid of him. Here’s a youube video about his work, featuring many cartoons the Herald refused to publish:

If you’ve ever got a cartoon you want to give to The Standard, Malcolm, flick us an email.

 

Even Granny’s patience can wear thin

Published
by
Steve Pierson
on May 26, 2008
in election 2008, media, national, slippery and tax
. 40 Comments

With a loving smack that would have brought a smile to Bob McCoskrie’s face, the Herald’s editorial today rebukes John Key in the strongest terms it can.

Now that the Budget is behind us, the National Party has less excuse for indecision on most of the important economic issues facing the country at the coming election. As late as eight days ago finance spokesman Bill English could not answer a question as basic as whether National would keep the top tax tier, 39c in the dollar.

Of course, it’s patently ridiculous to think that the most serious economic problem facing New Zealand is the 39 cent tax bracket (off the top of my head: climate change, peak oil, food miles, low wages, water, the missing generation of trades people from the 1990s when National scrapped apprenticeships, the coming retirement of the boomers and subsequent housing market collapse) but, at least, the Herald is finally challenging Key to get serious about what he would do in government.

It goes on to dismiss the ‘tax cuts don’t lead to revenue cuts because people work harder’ argument as the wishful thinking.

If National promises to abolish the 39c rate, and realign the top personal rate to the company tax rate, it will claim that lower rates will keep high earners in New Zealand and improve their incentives to work, resulting in no loss of tax revenue. Conservative governments have seen their Budgets turn to grief on this belief.

New Zealanders are already among the most employed and longest-working people in the world - tax cuts won’t make them more so. But, being the Herald, the answer it finds is not ‘don’t cut the tax’ it’s ‘cut spending too’

the party will need to stick its neck out on expenditure cuts, too. It is not sufficient to say, as Mr Key did the other day, “National will direct spending away from low-quality programmes that push up inflation towards frontline services like doctors, nurses, teachers and police.” That sort of double-speak fools nobody. We need to hear serious policy soon.

The Herald’s campaign platform would be less tax on high incomes funded by cutting government spending. That’s a wealth transfer from the poor to the rich, but at least it is a platform. Key is trying to get into government without one, and even his most ardent allies are getting sick of it.

[incidentally, the Herald says our tax system with higher tax in higher brackets is “progressive in Labour terms”. It’s progressive in mathematical terms; it’s not a values judgement, it’s a numerical reality]

Telling porkies

Published
by
Steve Pierson
on May 22, 2008
in economy, education, election 2008, environment, families, health, housing, media, national and same old national
. 42 Comments

The Herald and National have started attacking every piece of government spending as pork-barrelling. Here’s some of what they’re calling ‘wasteful, needless spending’:

$750 million of new health spending ($160 million for elective services) -Pork
$700 million for Fast Forward Fund, food and pastoral sector research -Pork
$665 million to buy the national rail operations - Pork
$446 million for community organisations - Pork
$171.6 million in operational funding to schools - Pork
$164.2 million for cervical cancer immunisation -Pork
$150 million a year to keep young people in school or training until 18 - Pork
$72.1 million over 10 years to clean up Rotorua lakes - Pork
$46.5 million for home-based support for injured people - Pork
$35 million for a shared-equity pilot scheme for homebuyers - Pork
$22.4 million over four years for state house insulation - Pork

Of course, none of this is pork: it is money going where is is needed, not for electoral gain. No doubt there are legitimate targets out there (Winston Peters’ $9m subsidy for the racing industry springs to mind), but what National and the Herald are doing here is running a radical right-wing argument whereby every piece of spending, from R&D research to insulating homes for the poor, is a waste of money. National’s education spokesperson Anne Tolley even came out yesterday and attacked more money for kids’ education as ‘pork’.

So what does this all mean? If National says it’s pork, they obviously wouldn’t spend it themselves. So, we begin to see what a National government would do:

No more money for health. No money for R&D. No flood protection. No money for transport. No insulation for the poor. No more money for education. No money for search and rescue. No cancer immunisation. No lakes cleanup. No hand-up for young home buyers.

But, of course, plenty of real pork - huge tax cuts for the rich.

Herald gets it right

Published
by
IrishBill
on May 20, 2008
in election 2008 and media
. 41 Comments

Good to see the New Zealand Herald is starting a campaign to let us know the policy cost of National’s likely massive tax cut programme.

Amongst the list of things National could drop to put money into the pockets of a few are:

  • $700 million for Fast Forward Fund investing in food and pastoral sector research.
  • $150 million a year on educational changes to keep young people in school or training until they are 18.
  • $72.1 million over 10 years to clean up Rotorua lakes
  • $8.4 million over two years for Search and Rescue.
  • $22.4 million over four years for state house insulation.
  • $164.2 million over five years for a cervical cancer immunisation programme.
  • $46.5 million over four years to providers of home-based support for injured people.

And as the Herald’s list shows all Key has promised is broadband (with no detail) a small amount of money for solar hotwater heating and bootcamps. Oh and a tax cuts package that will “follow the outline” of their 2005 policy.

Granny is showing us the real choice this election: a party that wants to increase research and productivity, keep the poor warm, have a properly funded Search and Rescue, vaccinate half our population against a particularly nasty form of cancer and make sure if you’re injured you can get decent home care. Or a party that wants to pour money into the pockets of the top 14% of earners. Your choice.

It’s alright when he does it

Published
by
Steve Pierson
on May 7, 2008
in assets, john key and media
. 64 Comments

A reader sent us this letter to the Herald’s editor, which the Herald has refused to print.

When the government moved to block the sale of Auckland Airport to the Canadian Pension Fund, the Herald’s editorial proclaimed that anyone who didn’t want foreign ownership of our strategic assets was xenophobic.

Yesterday, John Key played the xenophobic line in opposing the buyback of Toll when he said “Labour has been prepared to deliver the Australian shareholders of Toll a quarter of a billion dollar windfall at the expense of struggling New Zealand taxpayers”.

Will we now see an editorial condemning Key for appealing to xenophobia?

I thought not.

Guess we can’t expect better from the Herald’s editorial line. Which is a shame, because they have some really good reporters.

Key went out of his way to inject the xenophobic angle in other media too. On TV3, he said ‘…they’ve given this windfall to the shareholders.., Australian shareholders, of Toll…’. He’d obviously been told by his media advisors to put that angle in his lines and when he forgot it he backtracked.

[PS. Confusion reigns in National. In the press release quoted above John Key is called “Party Deputy Leader”]

[Update: The Nats have obviously taken note and have corrected the press release to "Party Leader" (shouldn't that be 'co-leader'?). Happy to help out fellas and if you're ever looking for some policy advice, you know where to come.]