Written By: - Date published: 7:53 am, October 21st, 2008 - 56 comments
Categories: Media -
Tags: 'new zealand sucks' campaign
Colin James has a column in today’s Herald in which he lays out the difference between perception and reality in New Zealand politics. In it he goes through seven points: crime, healthcare, education, the treaty, immigration, poverty and social engineering and points out that in nearly every case Labour has taken action and in each case they have copped flack and the public have perceived they haven’t done enough. I’d recommend you read the linked story but here’s an example of what he’s talking about:
Four, Treaty of Waitangi settlements and Maori wellbeing. Michael Cullen has rung up deals on claims like an icecream vendor on a hot day and dumped barrels of money into benefits and other assistance.
Yet the Maori Party claims Labour is anti-Maori and flirts with National and Chris Finlayson, one of National’s sharpest minds, insists he will “speed up” settlements if minister. Really?
Interestingly each of the points James covers has been a target of the New Zealand Sucks campaign National and its proxies have been running for several years now and in every instance the NZ Sucks talking points have been repeated by the mainstream media verbatim despite the facts not supporting them.
Disappointingly, James finishes his piece with the claim the reason people don’t have a sense of the real situation has something to do with the economy. What that is isn’t clear nor is the reason this has has been happening for a lot longer than the economy has been an issue. As he puts it:
It’s a matter of belonging and feeling you or your children can make good. Too many now don’t. That is at the heart of this election.
I’m sorry, Colin, but I think if you want the real reason the public’s perception doesn’t match the facts I’d recommend you look a bit closer to home.
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Scoopit!
hs, Stop hiding behind your kids. Your kids were not in any way criticised, you were.
And you mean implying rather then inferring.
Daveski
Watch out for those witches – especially as Halloween looms.
Ive always loved it how the DomPost/ Star Times always make it obvious in the title of Chris Trotters Columns “From the Left” or words to that effect. Where as Richard (Nats Hollow men strategist) Long’s articles are always titled “The Long View” as if to make the ridiculous claim that hes the objective one. What tripe.
I can’t believe that tories continue to call the media ‘the liberal media’ where nowadays it is much easier to find blatant right wing bias in the media. For example lead at the frontline by Fairfax Media….. who I suspect one of these days will alter their name of Fairfax by replacing the ‘airfa’ with a big ‘O’ and taking on the repititive slogan of ‘Fair and Balanced analysis’ a la a certain news giant in the USA…..
Pascal
Fair enough – I just hope you and Matthew don’t have any kids because they’ll suffer some very odd ideological indoctrination.
Infer and imply are synonyms the last time I looked.
Then I guess you are about as good at using a thesaurus as you are at constructing analogies.
My mistake English never has been my strong suit.
Helen implied that John shouts at his family in the confines of his house ……. happy now ?
HS – “infer” is what the listener/reader does “imply” is what the speaker/writer does. Thus I may infer something you implied but I cannot infer something to you…
Cap: “hardest hostesses”. Oh yeah!
“I just hope you and Matthew don’t have any kids because they’ll suffer some very odd ideological indoctrination.”
The same as at least a third of our population. Are you trying to give us a repeat of Brash’s ‘mainstream New Zealanders” comment? Think about how well that worked out.
HS, you just said to leave kids out of this. Same doesn’t apply to you obviously. An equivalent statement coming from me after that would be “I just hope you don’t have any kids because they’ll be hypocritical and intolerant wankers.”
So maybe you might want to rethink your approach, there’s a difference between talking about how you treat other people, and what other people are like.
I realise it wasn’t the best comment, but I thought you, HS, were one of the few who would be able to understand it, and wouldn’t stoop to this level in response (you know that by pretending it’s a cheap shot is a cheap shot in itself, as PB and Felix have pointed out). It seems I was mistaken, so I’m sorry, for what it’s worth. But feel free to get off your high horse – it was a sling in your direction, not at any one else. If you want to see duplicitous, take a look at your comment in response.
MP
Apology accepted and back at you.
Sod
Thanks for the lesson – Are you sure you’re not a closet tory this sexual proclivity combined with your dalliance with ashcroft would make you a prime candidate, all we need now is you in a cross dressing scandal with a few football players and you’d be a shoe in for either the house of Lords or the British conservative party
captcha (Archer piqued)… he he
Janet – thanks for the tip! If there is life on the other side, I’m doomed. I wonder whether there’s blogs and other activities for the damned?
Dave – perhaps you are in hell and your punishment is to comment on the std for all of eternity ?
And right in his article is the reason why
repressive is completely the wrong word there and gives an impression that is, IMO, totally different than what he means given the context. By using the word repressive he draws a parallel with our government and, say, Robert Mugabe’s government rather than the truth that the present Labour government has been the toughest on law and order in this country for decades.
HS – indeed. Although I expect it is hell for the true believers here who have to wade through my prose
Are you sure you’re not a closet tory
Bro – I ask my self the same question sometimes – especially in light of the fact I seem to be getting balder and fatter every day…
Sod are you David Farrar ?
No. I’m a lot taller than him.
Fair – I could have accused you of being that B Spondre but that would have been just plain offensive.
HS: Have you got that sentence back to front. ” Is David……?”
“Apology accepted and back at you.”
Ditto. Let’s all be friends again. Maybe your punishment will be to engender a few liberal-leftie brats! Not sure what I’ll get…
Ditto. Let’s all be friends again. Maybe your punishment will be to engender a few liberal-leftie brats! Not sure what I’ll get
after you make millions out of selling over-valued stock, they will be stuck-up spoon feed right wing poofs, going to private schools and been 1 in 5 illiterate rich sods getting hand-outs from the parent for the rest of their boring lifes
hs,
“…your punishment is to comment on the std…”
You had me quite baffled for a bit with “std”. Heh.
Also, if think ‘sod has done you a service by arming you with the correct use of the words “imply” and “infer”, think again. He’s just cursed you to endure the grating sound of other people misusing them.