spin

Categories under spin

Herald: “we’ll dig our way out of this hole”

Written By: - Date published: 11:50 am, February 26th, 2009 - 4 comments

The Herald is again demonstrating its economic ignorance with its call for spending cuts in today’s editorial: Something has to give. If National will not postpone tax cuts due in April, it must trim some of the programmes it has inherited. The most costly of them, interest-free student loans, free childcare, KiwiSaver subsidies and the […]

Faking it

Written By: - Date published: 10:36 am, February 15th, 2009 - 24 comments

It’s a bit late but I thought I’d draw people’s attention to the work Pundit’s Tim Watkin has been doing on the government’s stimulus package. Or more rather the work he’s been doing on the government’s re-releasing of already approved spending under the guise of a stimulus package. Because the interesting truth is they’re faking […]

Govt’s ACC spin working

Written By: - Date published: 2:15 pm, December 5th, 2008 - 32 comments

We’ve covered the National/ACT government’s latest ACC beat-up extensively already. IB spelled out rather well here the techniques being used by the government to undermine ACC in order to create a sense of crisis and soften up the public for privatisation. And it pains me to say it, but it’s working. And it’s working well. […]

Spinbusting: the anchor-story

Written By: - Date published: 12:27 pm, December 4th, 2008 - 52 comments

There’s a lot of talk about the ACC budget deficit and National’s use of the issue to create an environment in which their privatisation scheme can roll with the minimum political fall-out. Any doubt I had that this was their plan evaporated this morning when I heard Nick Smith on RNZ moving the story along […]

Act lied and gets away with it

Written By: - Date published: 2:21 pm, November 30th, 2008 - 11 comments

At the Media Law Journal, Wellington based media lawyer Steven Price has been looking at the recent decisions of the Advertising Standards Complaint Board (a self-regulatory body) related to the election. There are a series of them and the decisions are weird. More importantly they are ineffectual in the great tradition of industry self-regulatory bodies. […]

All the facts

Written By: - Date published: 11:52 am, November 25th, 2008 - 81 comments

National’s David Farrar has been running a series for some time trying to paint NZ Labour as out of step with Labour Parties around the world when it comes to their attitude on tax cuts. His intention, of course, is to portray Labour as extreme left and his mates in National as centrist and middle […]

A break from the honeymoon

Written By: - Date published: 2:00 pm, November 18th, 2008 - 60 comments

While most of the big media are giving John Key his criticism-free honeymoon (“OMG! A solo mum! An Asian! And a gay chap!”) the good old ODT has seen through the centrist spin: Prime Minister-elect John Key showed a clear intention yesterday to move the National-led government more to the Right of the political spectrum […]

The Game

Written By: - Date published: 12:09 pm, November 18th, 2008 - 52 comments

The press gallery is ebullient at the moment and I can understand why. After years of having to analyse the same old government faces and drain the collective wisdom about political personalities to the point of seemingly-endless repetition they now have a new toy to play with. No more do these journalists have to search […]

Key reneges on PSA promise

Written By: - Date published: 2:13 pm, November 17th, 2008 - 24 comments

Well, just days after a high profile meeting with PSA head Brenda Pilott and a promise to engage with unions John Key has decided to exclude the PSA from his Task Force on the future of the public sector. The National/ACT government will instead appoint private sector consultants and private sector chairs to review government […]

Look! Over there!

Written By: - Date published: 7:53 pm, November 4th, 2008 - 40 comments

The latest secret tape has come out and it’s a classic example of the face of the National Party that John Key doesn’t want you to see. Pro-war and anti-Obama. National’s response? The classic “dirty tricks” misdirection. This is all about Labour apparently. Not that there’s any proof however. And not that it’s even likely […]

On moral mandates

Written By: - Date published: 7:01 am, October 26th, 2008 - 69 comments

So, let me get this straight. The Right says that the minor parties have to support a National-led government if National gets more votes than Labour. Even if a National government would go against everything a party stands for, even if it is a complete betrayal of the people who voted for them, minor parties […]

Here be dragons

Written By: - Date published: 10:02 pm, October 25th, 2008 - 20 comments

So, we can all make up dumb pictures and say ‘beware of many-headed monsters’. Let’s, instead, ask if National’s attack makes sense. First, any new government is going to need support from a number of parties. A Labour-led government is likely to be dependent on Labour, the Progressives, Greens, and the Maori Party (four parties). […]

Fact checkin’ – five-headed monsters

Written By: - Date published: 3:48 pm, October 24th, 2008 - 114 comments

The New Zealand Herald is, as usual, uncritically repeating John Key’s latest lines on the front page of its website. This time Key’s scaremongering that a Labour-led government would be a “five-headed monster”. Much better to go with a simple, straight-forward National government, says Key. It’s a pity we don’t have the resources for basic […]

Not a game

Written By: - Date published: 3:56 pm, October 17th, 2008 - 46 comments

National has a press release out blaming Labour for a supposed increase in assaults on police. Now, there are more people and more police than ever before, so all things being equal there will be more assaults, but it would be a concern if the rate of assaults had increased. In fact, the rate on […]

Trickle-down

Written By: - Date published: 11:22 am, October 12th, 2008 - 11 comments

A few thoughts from today’s Agenda: Questioned about why National would introduce another tax rebate, having endlessly criticised Working for Families because of its complexity, English says ‘we do, in the long term, want a simpler tax system’. So, be on notice, Working for Families is under threat from National – they would ‘eventualy, but […]

Liable to suffer

Written By: - Date published: 10:08 am, October 10th, 2008 - 17 comments

When confronted by media, both Key and English immediately described the secret agenda recording as “Pathetic”, despite being doorstepped in different cities. They, or Crosby|Textor, have obviously previously constructed a line. Just in case. All very good but the origin of pathetic (and pathos) is not quite what a lot of people would think: [Origin: […]

Speak no evil

Written By: - Date published: 10:32 am, October 9th, 2008 - 27 comments

Word around the traps is that this week Key and English have added veteran financial reporter Rod Oram to their list of journos they won’t speak to and Key has canceled his weekly chat with Wammo on Kiwi FM until after the election. This adds to Key striking Duncan Garner off his interview list after […]

Rhetoric vs reality

Written By: - Date published: 1:55 pm, October 2nd, 2008 - 25 comments

With expectations about National’s tax cuts justifably very high (thanks to National talking them up for nine years), National is suddenly trying to change course. John Key, who has promoted tax cuts as the solution to doctors’ strikes, the wage gap, and petrol prices along with every other issue facing this country, is now saying […]

Still nothing personal

Written By: - Date published: 8:33 am, September 29th, 2008 - 15 comments

National desperately wants to portray any criticism of John Key as a personal attack. Don’t be taken in. Look, PM is a powerful job. We need to have a thorough examination of anyone contesting for that role. As I’ve always said there are three legitimate questions that need to be answered what are their policies? […]

Nats’ ‘NZ sucks’ campaign continues

Written By: - Date published: 10:56 am, September 26th, 2008 - 39 comments

I remember the first time I met Simon Power, when he had just come into Parliament. He struck me as a man who would be a future leader of National and an excellent one at that – articulate, informed, and moderate. Oh, what he has let himself become over 9 years in opposition – just […]

Derailing the issue

Written By: - Date published: 11:30 pm, September 22nd, 2008 - 27 comments

National has released their statement about John Key’s shady dealings in Tranzrail shares and unsurprisingly it’s another attempt at misdirection. As I’ve said in the past, this is a tried and true Crosby Textor technique designed to take the heat out of a negative story by directing attention elsewhere until the story dies down. It […]

Nats relying on ignorance

Written By: - Date published: 12:43 pm, September 22nd, 2008 - 47 comments

It’s really easy to present misleading statistics. David Farrar shows how it’s done with a post on migration today. Note how his figures only go back to 2003. Why is that? Well, it just so happens that 2003 was the last low point in the migration cycle. So, if you show just the last five […]

Kerr shows how the Right lie to themselves

Written By: - Date published: 5:33 pm, September 21st, 2008 - 42 comments

The Business Roundtable held another in their series of forums on political issues targeted at young people on Thursday. The aim is obviously to get along the type of kid who goes to his (sorry for the gendering but they were 90% male) commerce classes in a suit that he can’t yet fill and give him an […]

Chutzpah

Written By: - Date published: 12:00 pm, September 16th, 2008 - 17 comments

When the EPMU released its investigation notes on Shawn Tan it was obvious that some right-wing bloggers would seize on the fact that Tan had been employed on a probationary agreement and stupidly claim that, therefore, the union was hypocritical for opposing National’s fire at will policy (which creates a 90 day no-rights period for […]

Disappointing

Written By: - Date published: 9:33 am, September 15th, 2008 - 79 comments

I just have to say, it’s incredibly disappointing that a simple prank, a google bomb, gets three newspaper articles and coverage on TV3 and when talkback radio suggests The Standard was tipped off on the election date that is an issue worth following up with the PM. But when John Key is quoted in a […]

Spin-busting: ‘Labour has no policy, either’

Written By: - Date published: 9:09 am, September 9th, 2008 - 45 comments

John Key is running a line that first emerged in the rightwing blogs a few months ago: ‘Labour doesn’t have any policy, either’. It was a moron’s line when it was on the blogs and Key has only taken it up in a desperate attempt to divert from National’s policy leaks.  It’s meant to be a response […]

Look. Over there!

Written By: - Date published: 3:26 pm, September 5th, 2008 - 49 comments

A friend has just rung to excitedly inform me that National’s conservation policy has now also been released by Trevor Mallard. That means there is officially a leak in the National Party caucus. I expect in the next hour or so the Nats are going to start their misdirection campaign and I expect it will […]

Granny beside herself as polls turn

Written By: - Date published: 11:50 am, September 5th, 2008 - 20 comments

As the polls start to turn on National – and a new poll out yesterday saying the Left working with the Maori Party would have the numbers why aren’t we surprised that Granny Herald’s ‘your views’ section today asks voters if they think the polls are accurate? Could they be more blatant in their concern […]

Dissection

Written By: - Date published: 1:13 pm, September 2nd, 2008 - 19 comments

OK, so there are limitless ways to mock the Nat’s ‘WW2 bombers flying to Chile’ billboard (send us yours to add to these ones) but I want to quickly examine it seriously as a piece of political argument. First, the premises: a) our taxes are high: No, they’re not. Tax as a percentage of GDP […]

Weak

Written By: - Date published: 3:35 pm, September 1st, 2008 - 101 comments

Perhaps I’ve overestimated the National Party’s PR machine. I mean I’ve seen them run their C/T strategy pretty well and, as much as I hate to admit it, Ansell’s billboards were pretty bloody good last time. But then I opened the PDF with their latest billboard on it. It’s busy, the message is confusing, and […]

ToryAid: Wastewatch (4)

Written By: - Date published: 10:54 am, September 1st, 2008 - 20 comments

Because National has abandoned its wastewatch website, we keep track of the ‘waste’ National has promised to cut to pay for those magical, mysterious, cure-all tax cuts. Here’s what they’ve said they will cut: 1) Embassy in Sweden – approx $3 million capital, $3 million operating (why it’s not waste) 2) Badges about Te Reo […]

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