Granny Herald tries to de-legitimise political opposition, again

Written By: - Date published: 7:42 am, October 15th, 2013 - 36 comments
Categories: business - Tags: , ,

Yesterday, the Greens illustrated the size of the gambling concessions in the SkyCity deal with a to-scale cardboard display in Aotea Square. The visually striking move got extensive coverage on Breakfast yesterday and a rather, odd, story in the Herald, which chose to focus on the cost of the protest. What was that, presumably, outrageous cost? $3,000.

I have a few questions for the Herald about its article (and some best-guess answers)

Wait, so it was funded out of the pre-set annual Parliamentary Services budget that political parties get based on their size and which can be used for the likes of staff costs, polling, and promoting party positions, and this doesn’t add a cent to what the Greens will spend in the year? Thieves!

How are opposition parties meant to do their job if they can’t legitimately spend their budgets on legitimate activities without the Herald getting its panties in a twist? Opposition parties should be not seen and not heard, now let me get back to staring loving at this 2007 portrait of John Key… oh, John what have they done to you, my sweet, sweet love?

What did the Government spend on negotiating the SkyCity deal? Who cares, they’re not an opposition party doing its job of bringing attention to government policies that it opposes; once elected, the government is a dictatorship that shall not be questioned.

How does the cost of the protest compare to the cost of the social harm of the SkyCity deal? Fuck you, that’s how it compares.

Why would a newspaper choose to focus on the minute cost of a protest against a major corporate in its home-town, and a major advertiser in said newspaper? Because journalism.

PS. to young Isaac Davison’s credit, there’s a few clues in the article that he was pressured into taking this line by the paper’s bosses and he didn’t want to – the cost angle is mentioned in the opening sentence but doesn’t get elaborated on until the second-to-last paragraph, and he slips a lot of info on the content of the protest in between. Still it’s clear that the article has been written with the purpose of  trying to de-legitimise valid political opposition by spurious arguments on (tiny) costs. AAnd that’s just par for the course from the Herald, which has run whole articles whining about the $9 million asset sales referendum but barely mentioned the $124 million spent on the sales so far

36 comments on “Granny Herald tries to de-legitimise political opposition, again ”

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  1. Penny Bright 1
    15 October 2013 at 8:02 am

    What about the increased risk of MONEY-LAUNDERING with the shonky Sky City deal?

    Is Sky City effectively a ‘money-laundering’ FACTORY?

    More jobs for organised criminals and money-launderers?

    More on this later – have a politically DYNAMITE OIA reply from OFCANZ….

    Penny Bright

  2. BM 2
    15 October 2013 at 8:14 am

    Free 400 million dollar convention center vs a couple of 100 pokies machines.

    Think we all know who’s the winner is here.

    • vto 2.1
      15 October 2013 at 8:19 am

      Yep, people do. That is why they are protesting about it dipster.

      • BM 2.1.1
        15 October 2013 at 8:22 am

        Who’s protesting?
        A couple of greenies sucking off the taxpayer tit != protest.

        Everyone I’ve spoken to, reckons it’s a superb deal.

        • vto 2.1.1.1
          15 October 2013 at 8:27 am

          Everyone you’ve spoken to? hahahahahahaha, you are a funny cretin

        • ghostwhowalksnz 2.1.1.2
          15 October 2013 at 8:58 am

          Have you read the fine print where the taxpayer is liable for any ‘cost overuns’

          As well it seems to be the ratepayer who will stump up for an anual subsidy for promotion costs

        • lprent 2.1.1.3
          15 October 2013 at 9:14 am

          Everyone I’ve spoken to, reckons it’s a superb deal.

          I suppose it is when you don’t live in the city that has to put up with the consequences..

          **fail**

        • Draco T Bastard 2.1.1.4
          15 October 2013 at 9:49 am

          That would be you, your shadow and you?

        • Tracey 2.1.1.5
          15 October 2013 at 1:50 pm

          funny every aucklander i have spoken to doesnt.

        • Crunchtime 2.1.1.6
          15 October 2013 at 3:31 pm

          The Nats are sucking off the taxpayer tit and shitting gold bricks to big corporates.

          A “superb deal” that shifts all liability to the taxpayer and makes the taxpayer responsible for SkyCity continuing to be profitable for the next 35 years?? That’s a big scam, SkyCity are creaming it at gambler’s expense and shifting all responsibility to the taxpayer, and the bloody Nats are signing an agreement that 30+ years of successive governments are locked in to their shonky deal.

        • Matthew Whitehead 2.1.1.7
          16 October 2013 at 6:35 pm

          I love how the Greens spending their parliamentary budget on democracy and protest is somehow considered wasteful to wingnuts, but “political consultants” and marketers that National hires are somehow OK, lol.

          If you’re upset that the Greens’ political strategy is more effective than yours, I recommend you get your party to learn a thing or two from them. 😛

    • felix 2.2
      15 October 2013 at 9:00 am

      “Free”?

      You fucking moron, it’s going to be owned by sky city. They’re not giving it to us. They’re building themselves a convention centre.

      We just get to pay for it.

    • lprent 2.3
      15 October 2013 at 9:15 am

      Think we all know who’s the winner is here.

      Sky city’s owners? Do you hold any sky shares?

  3. Observer (Tokoroa) 3
    15 October 2013 at 8:29 am

    Thanks Eddie. I had not heard of the Greens excellent street Gambling Graphic. Well done.

    The Herald is going to go all the way down the gutter with John Key. That’s that. The once proud paper will be promoting Auckland City with a super casino (gambling den) a Brothel staffed by by the low class shagging Aucklander daughters, and a convention centre the running costs of which will be paid for endlessly – not by Sky – but by Auckland City mugs.

    Who needs this dirty one eyed fiction sheet … the decrepit Herald?

  4. Observer (Tokoroa) 4
    15 October 2013 at 9:08 am

    Thanks Toad.

    You know, it is so hard to work out why a City which has the talent to produce a Street Graphic of
    this quality has to cohabit with low life thinkers such as Key – and an old suppurating news rag.

    Auckland should try to reach for the sky – even a little bit.

  5. fender 5
    15 October 2013 at 9:28 am

    There’s no waste of money in this rather novel protest, I’m sure that when The Green Party have finished with these boxes they will donate them to the National Party for their exit move from the Beehive after next years election.

    The Herald should be asking John Palino how much it cost for his TV ad’s, the same ad’s I had to endure despite living on the Kapiti coast, some 600km away from Auckland!

  6. MaxDC 6
    15 October 2013 at 9:38 am

    The Hurr Old strikes again

  7. Ad 7
    15 October 2013 at 9:48 am

    Good hit from the Greens.

    But to link it to MickeySavage’s discussion on the role of a good progressive site, it’s time we started to presume that this and like minded sites will increasingly challenge and beat NZHerald as the predominant media. I think people will shortly prefer a discourse-dominant site with a sprinkling of news, rather than the other way round.

    What are NZHerald’s aggregate hits now tracking at?

  8. Martin 8
    15 October 2013 at 9:48 am

    Who owns the Herald?
    what are their corporate interests?
    do they have investment in gambling or
    just toadying up a corrupt tory government?

    • Draco T Bastard 8.1
      15 October 2013 at 9:56 am

      Who owns the Herald?

      APN

      what are their corporate interests?

      Money and profit.

      do they have investment in gambling or just toadying up a corrupt tory government?

      Both?

  9. Tracey 9
    15 October 2013 at 1:54 pm

    The Herald is over the road from the casino… perhaps half their jounos have gambling addictions and cant wait for more pokies?

    I currently live with one of the only 2000 or so gamblers who have banned themselves from casinos. MOST gamblers dont admit it, and dont ban themselves from casinos. The person living with me goes to a gambling group meeting each week. Of the 12 people in that particular group only my friend is on a ban list. YOU have to put YOURSELF on a ban list, someone else cannot do it, as I understand it… Gmabling is insidious and invisible. Many people dont know they are living with a gambler until the bank calls.

    They dont get the DT’s, they dont have a secret stash of drugs or booze at work….

  10. appleboy 10
    15 October 2013 at 2:40 pm

    BM says “Everyone I’ve spoken to, reckons it’s a superb deal”.

    Right wing friends , a right wing mother, and the mirror hardly count as “everyone”.

    Use your brain. Why would a casino build a convention centre at a cost of $400 million? Because they earn far more than in profits from the deal. simple.

    Hey why not get breweries to build hospitals if the deal on tax is right for them. Why let let pornographers build parks if we just ease a feew restrictions. Tobacco companies build schools anyone? As long as we get some infra structure who cares that they do better in the long run financially …and who cares about social responsibility. Not a right winger like BM. Caring about anyone else is just not in your DNA ius it? Nats just don’t give a shit about anyone else. Nice for you to display your utterly facile personality traits so boldly…now fuck off.

  11. peterlepaysan 11
    15 October 2013 at 9:50 pm

    Key would like to pretend that he is a New Zealander so that he can visit it occasionally from his home in Hawaii.

    That is why he is trying to turn NZ (starting with Auckland and Christchurch) into Wall Street and Hollywood). Eventually we will be annexed as American Hawaii (SW). Then he will be at home,as well.

    Granny Herald would love us to become yet another state of the USA.

    Watch Key turn Rotorua into “VEGAS” and Granny Herald clap.

  12. Sable 12
    16 October 2013 at 9:05 am

    The Herald’s a joke. I tired right wing rag like the Dominion Post that appeals to fat old businessmen as they head the to the office for another days worth of punishing the worker drones who pay for their mistresses, Audi’s and Viagra.

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