Propaganda

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UK Conservative’s social media is remarkably similar to National’s social media

Written By: - Date published: 9:37 am, November 6th, 2019 - 31 comments

The British Conservative Party and the New Zealand National Party appear to be using very similar twitter strategies involving the setting of highly edited video to naff music and the making of patently ridiculous claims.

Elizabeth Warren on Facebook and the US presidential election

Written By: - Date published: 7:16 am, October 10th, 2019 - 72 comments

“They’re allowing Trump to spend over $1 million a week right now for ads on their platform—including ones that air the same lies that TV stations won’t.”

Fool me twice?

Written By: - Date published: 12:05 am, July 27th, 2019 - 29 comments

Boris Johnson’s ruthless purge of Cabinet and hard right shift looks like preparation for an early election.  Reminds me of 1984 at home, as a right wing coup is on the way. He lied his way to Brexit – will it work again?

Budget commentary

Written By: - Date published: 12:23 pm, May 31st, 2019 - 65 comments

Has New Zealand’s social media spent too much time on gocha politics and not enough on the substance of the wellbeing budget?

The Brady Papers

Written By: - Date published: 3:03 pm, May 10th, 2019 - 54 comments

Anne-Marie Brady submitted to yesterday’s Select Committee Inquiry into foreign interference in our elections, making copious reference to her “Magic Weapons” paper of 2017. She didn’t mention another paper which casts a much different light on her independence and purpose

WTF Free Speech coalition?

Written By: - Date published: 7:54 am, March 26th, 2019 - 564 comments

The Free Speech coalition has attacked the Chief Censor’s decision to rule the Christchurch Mosque killer’s manifesto as objectionable as an attack on free speech.  But the New Zealand Council for Civil Liberties has characterised the Censor’s decision as being entirely conventional.

More political interference on Huawei

Written By: - Date published: 4:00 pm, March 13th, 2019 - 24 comments

Here’s another one for the select committee reviewing foreign interference. Visitor from Britain Charlie Parton of the Royal United Services Institute was on Morning Report this morning telling us to avoid Huawei because they are Chinese and different from us. At least he does us a favour by making it clear the matter is political not technical.

Magicked-Up Weapons

Written By: - Date published: 10:30 pm, March 11th, 2019 - 116 comments

I’m glad Anne-Marie Brady will get the chance to present her “Magic Weapons” paper to the select committee examining the last election. At long last it might get given some proper critical examination, of its content as well as it provenance. In my opinion it reads like a long list of the blindingly obvious, mixed with a large dose of conspiracy theory. It certainly doesn’t show much sign of the sort of critical thinking one might expect from an academic.

What does the right have against Venezuela?

Written By: - Date published: 8:10 am, February 9th, 2019 - 131 comments

Simon Bridges has claimed that the Government is going to follow a “Venezuela model” in making much needed reform of the Polytechnic sector. But no one knows what he means.

Trump’s brilliant strategy to dismantle US dollar hegemony

Written By: - Date published: 5:05 pm, February 3rd, 2019 - 56 comments

Polymath economist Professor Michael Hudson’s latest article is a geopolitical panoramic masterpiece, sparked by outrage at a series of concurrent events on January 31 which he predicts means that 2019 will be the “year of global fracture.” Definitely worth a read.      

Chinese Herald changed Herald articles to be more China friendly

Written By: - Date published: 8:00 am, January 15th, 2019 - 70 comments

Stuff has reported that its opponent, the New Zealand Herald, has via its Chinese version amended stories to make them more acceptable to the Chinese Government.

Matt King goes full nut job

Written By: - Date published: 10:00 am, December 29th, 2018 - 77 comments

National MP Matt King has claimed that Stuff has been censoring comments that are critical of the Government and that an article expressing concerns about the run down of health infrastructure, the increase in child poverty, the use of private contractors to spy on us and the inability of NZTA to properly regulate WOF inspections is “left wing claptrap”.

The Taxpayers’ Union* responds to the Clark and Thompson spying fiasco

Written By: - Date published: 9:30 am, December 24th, 2018 - 9 comments

* not a real union.

Nutjobs and the UN Global Migration Pact

Written By: - Date published: 8:35 am, December 7th, 2018 - 137 comments

National and ACT have alleged that a United Nations Pact supported by New Zealand in 2016 will take away sovereign rights even though the pact itself says that it is not legally binding.

Media Thriving on its Own Shit.

Written By: - Date published: 1:25 pm, October 29th, 2018 - 24 comments

When purveyors of propaganda come to believe their own spin and start entertaining really quite idiotic conspiracy theories and abandoning any pretense of being in possession of rational thought, then we’ve got a problem.

Zionism: Protestant Tosh.

Written By: - Date published: 1:11 pm, October 3rd, 2018 - 30 comments

I’m willing to bet you probably didn’t know that.

Failed Estate – the ABC of Trust

Written By: - Date published: 2:30 pm, September 30th, 2018 - 7 comments

In Australia this week the Liberal Government has become embroiled in a scandal relating to political pressure being brought to sack the head of the ABC and one of its most senior reporters.  Failed estate has the details.

Will there be a Brexit?

Written By: - Date published: 11:37 am, September 19th, 2018 - 33 comments

In short, I think not.

Paranoia, Bullshit and Ordinary Lives.

Written By: - Date published: 11:40 am, September 14th, 2018 - 125 comments

It seems that for some, trashing out the lives of ordinary people is fine, because “Russia bad”. It’s not fine…

Is Politik a propaganda mouthpiece for the UK Embassy?

Written By: - Date published: 8:46 pm, September 8th, 2018 - 29 comments

In Politik’s 7 September issue we are told that Western diplomats in Wellington are surprised that Winston Peters has not accused Russia of the Skripal poisoning or joined some other countries in taking reprisals. Editor Richard Harman quotes a source to tell us that the British in particular were “pissed” at Peters’ response. Well dearie me. I’m with Winston, a wise old owl.

And the antisemites are…?

Written By: - Date published: 9:30 am, September 5th, 2018 - 65 comments

UK Labour adopted the IRHA definition of antisemitism in full, and…

Censorship

Written By: - Date published: 2:07 pm, August 23rd, 2018 - 13 comments

It seems that if you’re the right person, harbour the correct thoughts, have the right connections, and you don’t like whatever the political opinion, news or information that’s floating about is, then you can get it banned.

Finkelstein on Dame Hodge

Written By: - Date published: 10:39 am, August 18th, 2018 - 58 comments

“…if any – if any – of the rules that are now being implemented in the Labour Party have any meaning whatsoever… the first person who should be booted out of the Labour Party is Dame Hodge.” – Finkelstein.

About freedom of speech

Written By: - Date published: 9:44 am, August 12th, 2018 - 97 comments

Simon Wilson in the Herald neatly skewers suggestions that Donald Brash is a free speech warrior and raises important issues about the interplay between free speech and attacks on “political correctness” also known as tolerance and respect.

Propaganda Wars.

Written By: - Date published: 11:19 am, August 10th, 2018 - 30 comments

No-one reading this blog would willfully offer support to an ideology that’s killing people, right?

Auntie Beeb gets a well deserved skelping.

Written By: - Date published: 11:00 am, August 3rd, 2018 - 11 comments

Censorship kicked into touch.

Burning it Down.

Written By: - Date published: 9:40 am, August 2nd, 2018 - 8 comments

The BBC goes a bit ‘book burny’ on it.

Glenn Greenwald on…

Written By: - Date published: 11:53 am, July 19th, 2018 - 113 comments

Excerpts from Glenn Greenwald speaking on Democracy Now! (h/t Adrian Thornton)

There’s No Such Thing as Free Speech

Written By: - Date published: 6:48 pm, July 11th, 2018 - 186 comments

There’s never been Free Speech and that’s not actually much of a problem according to Te Reo Putake, who is no stranger to the downside of Saying Things.

And then there was….

Written By: - Date published: 12:08 pm, June 29th, 2018 - 38 comments

The aftermath of Douma chemical attacks and Skripal poisonings…

Flying Kites.

Written By: - Date published: 2:34 pm, June 26th, 2018 - 21 comments

If we can’t see the wood for the trees, shouldn’t we simply step back a bit and look again?

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