Archive for 2010|Yearly archive page

,

Forget Free Tibet: What About Free New Zealand?

In Rory MacKinnon on June 21, 2010 at 8:39 pm

http://img.scoop.co.nz/stories/images/1004/8587c7ec70f3e612dec0.jpegIf a week is a long time in politics, two years is practically geological. Following on from last week’s turnaround on foreshore and seabed legislation, it seems we have a new foreign policy on Tibet – and freedom of speech for that matter.

The last time Tibet came up in New Zealand politics was when Key declined to meet the Dalai Lama when he visited New Zealand last year. At the time reporters called Key out on a promise he’d made on the 2008 campaign trail that he’d do so, but Key replied that he simply “wouldn’t get a lot out of that particular meeting”.

That may be so – and it’s not like his predecessor was any less evasive – but Key’s apology is not just a backpedal on the issue of Tibetan annexation. It is also the latest in a string of diplomatic handwaving over clashes between Chinese officialdom and freedom of speech in New Zealand. Read the rest of this entry »

,

Just A Quick One: National circa 2004

In Rory MacKinnon on June 15, 2010 at 11:28 am

Golden Memories by garryknight.Oh, Rewa…

Now to a current problem that gets to the heart of today’s mismanagement of Treaty relations. Just after the closing of Parliament last year, when MPs couldn’t debate the issue, the Government released its proposals for dealing with the foreshore and seabed following a legal decision that overturned 125 years of settled law.

The simple option was to legislate to establish the Crown ownership that almost everyone believed already existed. Instead, the Government has come up with a convoluted notion called “public domain”. On the face of it, it sounds good. But it leaves room for much more than just limited recognition of “customary rights”, and in fact embodies vast powers, including the right to a Maori veto. Read the rest of this entry »

,

Bouquets And Brickbats: A Self-Indulgent Awards Post

In Rory MacKinnon on June 14, 2010 at 4:15 pm

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/46/173609429_f04f2a3342.jpgI’m unforgivably late to the party, but turns out some nice things were said about Media Darlings at last week’s AirNZ Best Blog Awards. While the tobacco fiasco was too recent to be eligible, judge and Tumeke! blogger Bomber Bradbury had this to say about our stuff from last year:

OOOOOOOOh they are sharp aren’t they? Very good demolition of ACT on campus, good chase on National’s support of VSM, and excellent post on academic freedom. If this is the future of our news rooms, things are not as bad as they seem.

Unfortunately his collaborator Tim Selwyn wasn’t quite so impressed:

Earnest, researched, sober – and being about tertiary education, very dull. Striking an almost neutral pose it reads more like a policy journal than a blog.

Oh well, you can’t win them all. Unless you’re Amanda Fisher, who was at the Actual Media Awards on Saturday and took home the prize for Best Student Journalism. Read the rest of this entry »

,

The Fog of War & Foggy Thinking: the Jerusalem Post on Gaza

In Rory MacKinnon on June 5, 2010 at 1:42 am

Looking through barbed wire as SPIRIT leaves the mouth of the port by freegazaorg.

I usually try to keep things local here at Media Darlings, but I want to make a special exception for the war of words triggered by the Israeli Defence Force’s raid on a humanitarian convoy this week.

This is not a political blog, so let me just say this in advance as a reporter: There was a well-publicised humanitarian aid convoy whose members included European legislators, former US diplomats, an international group of journalists and at one point a Holocaust survivor. The Shayetet went in with guns, nine people died, thirty were injured and now the IDF won’t return the journalists’ footage of what happened. Any authority which withholds evidence of a fatal incident is going to look incredibly suspect, IDF or otherwise.

Anyway.

Much of the Israeli hasbara, or PR offensive, has been absurd (the group I described above were supposedly arms smugglers and/or mercenaries) and often contradictory (said arms smugglers/mercenaries were attacking with kitchen knives rather than guns). But only one reporter I’ve seen so far has managed to report an absurdity as fact and then contradict it in the same article. Read the rest of this entry »

,

Editing The Herald – Badly: Yesterday’s Big Tobacco blunder

In Rory MacKinnon on May 25, 2010 at 2:26 pm


2008-01-26 (Editing a paper) - 31 by Nic's events. [UPDATE: The online disclaimer has now been amended. If anyone from the Herald's reading this, thankyou and please don't file my CV in the shredder]

There’s a famous saying attributed to Spanish-American philosopher George Santayana: “Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to look like bloody big chumps and confirm every negative perception of their industry”. Or something like that.

Anyway, shame on the New Zealand Herald. On Monday – the very same day they ran NZPA’s recap of the incredibly sketchy relationship between Imperial Tobacco and the Association of Community Retailers – they also ran an opinion piece by Roger Bull of the Association of Convenience Stores. You know, Glenn Inwood’s other pro-tobacco client. Read the rest of this entry »

,

Breaking The Habit: Imperial Tobacco comes clean, kind of

In Rory MacKinnon on May 21, 2010 at 1:57 pm

[UPDATE: In case you really don't feel like reading today, I'll be discussing the ACR and newsblogging in general with Colin Peacock on Radio NZ's Mediawatch this weekend. Tune in 9am or 10pm Sunday or look for the podcast here]

“The association does not have a relationship with tobacco companies, and nor did Stay Displays as far as I’m aware.” – Denielle Boulieris, Association of Community Retailers

“As far as I am aware, the Association does not get any funding from Imperial Tobacco. Glenn might with his hats; he might get paid by Imperial Tobacco, but that’s his business” – Richard Green, Association of Community Retailers

“Imperial Tobacco has not funded, or directly funded, the ACR” – Glenn Innwood, Omeka Communications

But it turns out Imperial Tobacco finally broke its silence at last fortnight’s Maori Affairs Select Committee hearing. Read the rest of this entry »

,

It’s The Economy, But Stupid: Bizarre Budget PR

In Rory MacKinnon on May 20, 2010 at 8:10 pm

polish.jpg Kiwi Turd polish picture by desertdog7788The last thing the internet needs is another Budget blog, but it’s always amusing when a current event is awkwardly shoehorned into a mostly pointless press release. Sometimes it’s an earnest attempt to catch a reporter’s eye with an otherwise weak news angle, other times it comes across as nothing more than a jaded intern mashing out another spiel so their boss hits the daily exposure quota.

In any case today’s post ranges from the tenuously topical to the breathtakingly cynical with my personal highlights from Thursday’s Budget blather:

DoC to develop cycleways and camp grounds

Cool, I guess. So, is that from DoC itself? Maybe an outdoor recreation group? Nope; apparently that’s the best thing Conservation Minister Kate Wilkinson had to say about her portfolio. Read the rest of this entry »

,

Policy Wonks, Wonky Policies: the Welfare Working Group

In Rory MacKinnon on May 12, 2010 at 10:40 am

http://dar2dream.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/tennieldumdee1.jpg?w=300&h=240

So there was a fair bit of reportage last week around the fact that Minister for Social Development Paula Bennett had appointed a sociologist named Peter Saunders to her Welfare Working Group, while citing the work of a completely different Peter Saunders in the House. Not different in the ‘Clark Gable moustache and eyepatch’ sense; more ‘diametrically opposed philosophies which should be readily apparent to anyone reading their work’. Lyndon Hood has a much, much funnier summary of the whole ordeal here, but what most media outlets seem to have overlooked is the sheer craziness that the Actual Peter Saunders is touting.

Again, Gordon Campbell has a much better summary than I can really offer, but the gist of it is that the Peter Saunders that Bennett intentionally appointed to the Welfare Working Group explicitly believes that poor people (like beneficiaries) are generally less intelligent than wealthier people and are therefore less deserving of training and education. No, really. Read the rest of this entry »

,

Seriously, who’s behind the Community Retailers?

In Rory MacKinnon on May 4, 2010 at 6:29 pm

Cigarettes by curran.kelleher.

[UPDATE: more skullduggery on Public Address, Soundbites from Richard Green and Glen Inwood on RNZ Morning Report]

Some interesting developments since yesterday: a brief response from the Association’s coordinator, a somewhat conflicting interview with Glenn Inwood and a very interesting poll of the ACR’s members. So let’s get cracking.

Dear Rory

Thank you for your email yesterday. I apologise for the late response, however, I was not in the office yesterday.

To answer your questions, the ACR is a trust, with retailers as trustees.

Your  calculations regarding the operational budget are incorrect. Some retailers have offered to pay above the $50 annual membership fee. There are more than 7000 independent retailers in New Zealand and we are currently in the process of a membership drive.

The association does not have a relationship with tobacco companies, and nor did Stay Displays as far as I’m aware. Read the rest of this entry »

,

The Association Of Community Retailers: A Smoking Gun

In Rory MacKinnon on May 3, 2010 at 7:50 pm

Cigarettes - I hate cigarettes, but it's so good. :) by jphilipg.

[UPDATE: Keith comes through with the goods again!]

It turns out I’m not the only one interested in this grassroots collective of mum-and-dad-tobacconists, with several people messaging and calling me with little tidbits of information. I also emailed the ACR twice to ask them directly, with no reply (despite their employees putting out a third press release today). But I just found out some very very interesting things, courtesy of Keith “Student Media Mafia” Ng.

Keith googled the PO Box listed on the Association of Community Retailers’ website and got back a bunch of articles about one Omeka Communications Ltd, who are still a registered company (although their website shut up shop in 2008).

According to the Companies Register, it just so happens that between 01 May – 16 July 2006 Omeka Communications was working out of the exact same offices ACR is using today. Read the rest of this entry »

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.