Written By: - Date published: 10:06 am, December 9th, 2011 - 24 comments
I have a theory that the Herald employs Shelley Bridgeman et al as columnists only because, while a relatively small team of monkeys on typewriters could spit out much more cogent and insightful pieces well within deadline, the price of bananas these days makes it more economical to fill the space between ads with whatever dross these ‘writers’ throw-up. But, I have an alternative that benefits everyone.
Written By: - Date published: 10:26 am, May 15th, 2011 - 38 comments
The minor party debate on Q+A was very interesting. Rahui Katene was self-contradictory and vague, like the Maori Party always is. Peter Dunne was pathetic. Roger Douglas slammed the government’s borrowing as did Russel Norman, who pointed out the other three had all voted for National’s debt-increasing tax cuts for the rich.
Written By: - Date published: 9:28 am, April 16th, 2011 - 66 comments
I don’t read Garth George columns. Life’s too short eh? But I could hardly miss this one, with its bizarre anti-China quote plastered on the front page of The Herald.
Written By: - Date published: 7:23 am, January 21st, 2011 - 151 comments
It’s always so wonderful to load up Granny Herald and see some wealthy late middle-aged grump (I’m picking this one is John Roughan) taking a swipe at the poor in the editorial. Today, Granny says we can’t afford to give mums more paid leave or more Working for Families for young kids. Hmm. But we can still afford those tax cuts for the rich?
Written By: - Date published: 10:57 am, January 10th, 2011 - 34 comments
Our guest poster writes about a letter he had published in the Herald recently. A clever wee missive, it started ‘helpful’ in tone but had a sting in the tail on the inaction of Key’s do nothing government in the face of recession, unemployment, and peak oil. The Herald cut off the sting leaving a ‘pro-Key’ letter. What are they up to?
Written By: - Date published: 2:47 pm, January 6th, 2011 - 29 comments
Over recent years the anonymous editorials in the NZ Herald have become increasingly variable. Some have been written by authors who I’d disagree with their ideas, but who clearly have examined the topic in enough depth to be able to argue for and against alternate ideas to arrive at their editorial judgments. Then there are others that have clearly been written by authors with little understanding of the topic and are simply coded dog-whistles unworthy of the editorial page. I have a look at one of the latter.
Written By: - Date published: 11:19 pm, December 18th, 2010 - 69 comments
It must be coming up to election year, because whenever I load Granny Herald there’s some ludicrous attack on Labour or love-piece on Key. The Herald on Sunday has some Wikileaks cables and the ones they’ve chosen to pre-release supposedly shows Labour was willing to give up the anti-nuke law but didn’t to win votes. They show no such thing. [Updated]
Written By: - Date published: 6:38 am, November 9th, 2010 - 25 comments
The Herald just accused Key of “blood on his hands” for failing to act on alcohol abuse. That’s an extraordinary rebuke. It far exceeds anything I can call from that pulpit directed at Helen Clark. John Key just lost another big chunk off his Teflon coating.
Written By: - Date published: 8:37 pm, October 24th, 2010 - 10 comments
Former ACT MP Deborah Coddington isn’t a journo anymore. Shot her reputation with the infamous ‘Asian Angst’ piece. Just does opinion pieces now. Strange, then, to see her by-line on 2 Herald articles attempting to vindicate disgraced conflict of interest judge Bill Wilson. Turns out her husband was Wilson’s lawyer.
Written By: - Date published: 9:28 am, September 16th, 2010 - 9 comments
Two more Supercity polls. Brown ahead 29% v 17% in a Horizon poll. Herald’s Digipoll has it closer – 29.8% v 27.8%. Brown still ahead. Naturally, the Herald calls it too close to call. Looks like the Right’s plan for an Auckland coup is coming unstuck. Guess they’re lucky Labour and the Greens supported their nation-wide coup instead.
Written By: - Date published: 10:26 am, September 6th, 2010 - 70 comments
It’s the stomach-churning way that some on the Right have decided to try to use the earthquake for political advantage by deifying Bob Parker. Even Parker himself looked sick when Paul Henry compared him to Rudi Giuliani. Update: Farrar, Whaleoil, Henry, and Matthew Hooton are trying to spread a lie that Anderton said only an earthquake could stop him winning the election. Danyl has the truth.
Written By: - Date published: 5:12 pm, September 5th, 2010 - 35 comments
After every emergency come the media articles that accuse the civil defence system of failing. This time the well-known emergency relief experts at the Herald were criticising within a day. Well, the Herald can go f*ck itself. I take my hat off to all the public servants who did their jobs with skill and dedication. The public services responded swiftly to get the situation under control and get people the help and information they needed.
Written By: - Date published: 1:46 pm, August 22nd, 2010 - 59 comments
We’ve heard stories about the, to quote the Herald, “depth” of Heather Roy’s relationship with her former senior advisor Dr Simon Ewing-Jarvie for some time. But this isn’t Whaleoil and adults’ personal lives are their own. What’s surprising is that the Right have decided to use it against her.
The threat in today’s Herald is clear: If she doesn’t toe the line, her family life is not out of bounds.
Written By: - Date published: 9:38 am, July 31st, 2010 - 16 comments
I know that The Herald likes to campaign for the Right, but surely this overdose of sucking up to “Banksie” sets new records?
Written By: - Date published: 11:45 pm, July 8th, 2010 - 62 comments
Newspaper and magazine readerships continue to plummet despite the end of the recession. The biggest falls are the major newspapers. The Herald has shed 92,000 readers since 2005. The Sunday-Star Times lost 90,000 readers (15%!) last year alone. It’s got to the point where they literally can’t give the SST away.
Written By: - Date published: 8:34 am, July 8th, 2010 - 28 comments
The Herald has a headline article on John Keys “Party Central”. But their cartoon really said it all. The question is:- How many ‘good’ ideas does it take before John Key manages to get one to actually work?
Written By: - Date published: 1:40 pm, June 19th, 2010 - 23 comments
My new poll shows Len Brown will get 90% of the vote. Even though the survey is unscientific and consisted of a self-selected group most of whom think like me, it provides an interesting take on the two weeks of intense political and media scrutiny of Mr Brown’s credit card expenses.
Written By: - Date published: 12:27 pm, June 18th, 2010 - 27 comments
The Herald will be disappointed. Over the last two weeks it has been a willing soldier in John Bank’s smear campaign against Len Brown. It’s a desperate last ditch strategy by the right as it faces defeat. And it’s not working. Even the Herald’s on online poll still has Brown beating Banks.
Written By: - Date published: 11:35 am, May 17th, 2010 - 32 comments
There are several myths about the coming tax swap that have a surprising amount of currency. The biggest is that this tax swap will boost growth. It won’t and the Tax Working Group never said it would. What it will do is increase inequality with massive tax cuts for the elite funded by higher GST and rents for working Kiwis. That’s not by accident or inevitable – it’s by design.
Written By: - Date published: 10:28 am, May 12th, 2010 - 7 comments
The Herald editorial is rightly damning of the government’s lacklustre approach to science funding. The ‘new’ money is a trickle, barely replacing last year’s cuts. A crucial difference between Labour and National has always been that Labour invests in the long-term success of the country while National makes short-term wealth grabs for the ruling elite.
Written By: - Date published: 11:28 am, April 24th, 2010 - 7 comments
I’m not usually envious of Sydney, but they have a newspaper that actually researches the issues that matter to their local audience.
The Sydney Morning Herald has been researching transport issues in their city. If newspapers are to survive the transition into the networked era, they’re going to have to relearn how to focus on local issues. Otherwise why would we pay the pay-wall for material we can get elsewhere?
Written By: - Date published: 8:27 am, March 25th, 2010 - 6 comments
When pressed very very hard, Rodney Hide described the set up costs of the Government’s Supercity as “minuscule” even though he couldn’t put a number on it. Now, we have some a number on what “minuscule” is in Hide’s book. The Auckland City Council alone faces a $34 million bill to establish the Supercity.
Written By: - Date published: 11:29 am, March 20th, 2010 - 2 comments
The Herald has a editorial lambasting John Key about claiming this week that they were ‘hysterical’ writing about the plans to mine the conservation lands, and that there were no such plans. Later in the week, the government launched a probe to find out who leaked cabinet documents about mining the conservation lands. The irony of the two actions appears to have escaped John Key who appears more clueless than ever.
Written By: - Date published: 3:57 pm, March 6th, 2010 - 11 comments
Come on Granny Herald. You’re almost there…
Written By: - Date published: 11:50 am, February 19th, 2010 - 1 comment
Guess what? Editing the Herald is back for the new year and it’s as sharp as ever.
The Herald is still full of casual idiocy, incredible stuff ups (like the headline that went to print on page 3 as “HeadXXX”), and the bizarreness of Garth George.
EtH skewers it all brilliantly.
Written By: - Date published: 8:40 am, February 4th, 2010 - 76 comments
Does anyone else think it’s a coincidence that Granny Herald has tried to start a meaningless debate over the national flag – ’11 of 18 Order of NZ members support change!’ wow-wee – just as the wheels come off a flagship National policy? Nah. Me neither.
Written By: - Date published: 5:29 pm, January 3rd, 2010 - 11 comments
John Banks is steadily dropping away from a possibility of gaining the Auckland super-city mayoralty. A Herald online poll has John Banks falling to third in preference behind Steven Tindall – who has not even declared that he is interested or would run. Len Brown is far higher in preference. Self-selecting online polls are about …
Written By: - Date published: 7:01 am, December 17th, 2009 - 120 comments
Another disgraceful Herald editorial recently: Teachers must learn to obey Govt’s orders Three years ago, when the National Party announced its plan to make all primary schools test pupils’ ability in reading, writing and mathematics, teachers were scornful. … The union, in league with the Principals Federation, says the standards are being rushed … Mrs …
Written By: - Date published: 12:25 pm, December 16th, 2009 - 25 comments
James at Editing teh Herald has started the Golden Garth awards aimed at rewarding the recipients at the Granny. You should all get over there and suggest candidates. I’m puzzling on it myself because there are so many good candidates. I’m aware that some think that the Dom Post is worse than the Granny, but …
Written By: - Date published: 1:52 pm, December 2nd, 2009 - 31 comments
felix in comments points out in his usual sarcastic style about the media response on Don Brash’s 2025 Taskforce report. For example, consider this online poll (tvnz): What do you think of Don Brash’s 2025 Taskforce financial report? It’s too radical It’s about right It doesn’t go far enough All the questions imply some degree …
Written By: - Date published: 9:33 pm, November 21st, 2009 - 15 comments
What a strange little editorial in the Herald today. It’s a typical spin piece that tries to frame John Key’s shoddy behaviour in not meeting the Dalai Lama, despite his promise that he would, as a good thing. The title shows just how willing, desperate even, some are to interpret everything Key does positively – “At …
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