Look! Over there!

Written By: IrishBill - Date published: 7:53 pm, November 4th, 2008 - 40 comments
Categories: same old national, spin - Tags:

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 to be Labour given how badly they usually handle this sort of thing.

I was pleased to see Duncan Garner didn’t fall for that misdirection and that he referred to it as a “line”. It was also interesting to see that Bill English refused an interview to explain himself (well not until the C|T crisis team make yet another flight across the ditch, I suspect).

Although Garner saw right through it I’ll be interested to see how other media react to National’s hackneyed “dirty tricks” line. Obviously Mike Williams’ cock-up won’t help but at the very least I would expect some kind of proof of Labour’s involvement in this to be provided by National before it’s accepted as gospel.

While they are at it they might be keen to ask for an explanation of the phrase “window dressing” in relation to the Iraq war. Because from here it seems National’s only answer to anything bad is to dress it up in spin and sell it to the “punters”? That’s certainly what they are trying to do with this.

40 comments on “Look! Over there! ”

Comments are now closed

Craig Ranapia 1

4 November 2008 at 8:01 pm

IirishBill:

Cui bono, dear boy. Of course Garner’s source could settle the question himself by ‘outing’ himself and making himself available for an on the record interview. Until then, it’s a little rich to bleat and moan about speculation about his identity.

Now, is there another neutron sparkler in the wings? They’re cheaper — and much more fun — than stinky, unsafe fireworks.
Baxter 2

4 November 2008 at 8:01 pm

So… the secret taper is kees keizer – whose mother is up to her eyeballs with the greens down south.

Hahahaha
Baxter 3

4 November 2008 at 8:02 pm

big fan of Lenin according to his old friends profile. class act

[lprent: This place is starting to look like the sewer at KB. Lift your standards or I’ll start giving people holidays from here. It is pretty evident who isn’t doing any constructive work for the election.]
higherstandard 4

4 November 2008 at 8:04 pm

Ha ha

National are pro-war and anti Obama ? – have you been smoking the same stuff that Mike Williams has ?
QoT 5

4 November 2008 at 8:08 pm

I wait with bated breath for the day that an interviewer actually follows up “What do you think about Mr English’s comments?” “Oh it’s a dirty trick waa waa” with “So Mr Key, are you alleging that the voice on the tape is not Mr English and that he has never made these comments?”
Leftie 6

4 November 2008 at 8:12 pm

If these guys do manage to form a Government after Saturday, they are going to be so easy to absolutely rip to pieces. One wrong move and cheese may turn to sour cream.

[lprent: This place is starting to look like the sewer at KB. Lift your standards or I’ll start giving people holidays from here. It is pretty evident who isn’t doing any constructive work for the election.]
Robin Grieve 7

4 November 2008 at 8:12 pm

Like a Warehouse fire cracker the secret tape another fizzzzzzzzzzzz.
Why did your labour mate go to so much trouble for so little?
What is this mole scared of?

Keep attacking National with your dirty tricks, it will ensure a National landslide.
I think this guys expenses should be counted against National’s election expenses because this last one, and any more are just giving National votes.

[lprent: This place is starting to look like the sewer at KB. Lift your standards or I’ll start giving people holidays from here. It is pretty evident who isn’t doing any constructive work for the election.]
Danny 8

4 November 2008 at 8:14 pm

Re the content: what exactly is English’s concern? That Obama will not be quick enough at going to war? wtf is that all about?

I think it is fair cop to have a go at the mystery taper. But, more importantly, we need to know exactly what English stands for on foreign policy, because that comment is just plain weird.
Ianmac 9

4 November 2008 at 8:14 pm

Craig said:”Of course Garner’s source could settle the question himself by â€˜outing’ himself and making himself available for an on the record interview.”
Glad that you have such a freedom of information attitude Craig. But would you apply it across the Board?
How about Hitchen’s source of information on Peters?
How about Key’s source of information that is used to smear Clark?
How about Key’s source of information that directly implicates Labour in the dirty tricks campaign to smear Key? (There must be some because he said there was, over and over and….)
How about Key’s source of information that proves that interest rates have more than doubled during the Clark years?
How about……
Doug 10

4 November 2008 at 8:15 pm

Labour trying hard to reach 25% of the vote Saturday night.
If you keep it up you will make it.
Danny 11

4 November 2008 at 8:18 pm

Robin Grieve, it is wishful thinking on your part to pretent these tapes are beneficial to National. But go right ahead.
Pat 12

4 November 2008 at 8:22 pm

Garner said on Radio Live that the Herald is outing the identity of the taper tomorrow.

Another misfire becomes another backfire.
Roflcopter 13

4 November 2008 at 8:26 pm

If the taper turns out to be some green party activist, as some people have suggested, then we’ve just found Liabour’s own exclusive brethren.
randal 14

4 November 2008 at 8:30 pm

So you tories still whistling in the dark to keep your spirits up
Labour is going to clean up
a) because they have the policies
and
b) because nobody trusts the swingeing deceit of the Natoinal Party
over this campaign it has become obvious to most new zealanders that there is something different about this campaign and the realisation has now become apparent that it is the sheer volume of malice and bile that National has put about
which would have been entirley unneccessary if their policy had been any good
but
it wasnt
so suck on that
Robinsod 15

4 November 2008 at 8:32 pm

But roflcopter – I thought the whole exclusive brethren thing was a beat-up? If the taper is outed I want to meet him and be the first to offer him a few top shelf whiskeys ‘cos he’s let us know what these ratbags are up to behind closed doors when nobody else would…
Janet 16

4 November 2008 at 8:55 pm

Another TV item interviewed Philip Field about funding for the Pacific party and asked whether he had funding from the Exclusive Brethren. He said he hoped he had.
bobo 17

4 November 2008 at 9:00 pm

Could this be an election of upsets or landslides?

Will Obama suffer from white fright and Winston scrape over 5%..
Jarvis Pink 18

4 November 2008 at 9:01 pm

“…whose mother is up to her eyeballs with the greens down south.”

Eek! More dirty tricks by those sons of South Island mothers who are up to their eyeballs with the Greens! It’s ACT for me then.
Paul Robeson 19

4 November 2008 at 9:06 pm

Well if the taper comes out and runs interviews and puts the story back about the Nats not being able to

a) control their own mouths let alone a government and
b) trust the country with their real views on a subject.

Why are their no Labour secret tapes of Michael Cullen talking about being in favour of far left positions?

answer: because he doesn’t hold them. The Nats front bench do hold far right positions, they just need to swallow dead fish and get hold of the offices of power to enact them.

The Iraq war was the right idea, but should have been sold to the public as an oil grab? Front up and tell us the truth. How dare you claim to want to be our finance minister, but not answer questions about your views?
Robinsod 20

4 November 2008 at 9:07 pm

Jarvis – I hear his second cousin is dating a guy who once was a member of ACT. Best you vote BIll and Ben… No wait a minute… I’ve just heard that Ben may once have met the taper’s grandmother while shopping in Ponsonby… Oh it’s all just so hard…
Max Call 21

4 November 2008 at 9:07 pm

it was interesting on the KB site for this same issue that my vote for ‘thumbs down’ on many of the abusive comments was (a few hours later) now showing as having 0 ‘thumbs down’ votes. When i try to register my thumbs down i get a message saying they have already received my vote from this IP address – if they have why are all the comments i gave a thumbs down to showing ‘0’ – does someone wipe these votes?
Paul Robeson 22

4 November 2008 at 9:08 pm

Oi Randal can you stop the dirty trick of using

a)

and

b)

to make your points. Don’t you know that this has been linked to the Labour party?

[lprent: This place is starting to look like the sewer at KB. Lift your standards or I’ll start giving people holidays]
randal 23

4 November 2008 at 9:19 pm

1. so you want me to mumble like JOhn Keys?
or
2. the tories arent clever enough to understand what an inferential chain of evidence is?
bobo 24

4 November 2008 at 9:49 pm

Isn’t there enough censorship in our mainstream media already than to start doing it here? Being a labour supporter myself it does seem as if the campaign wound up yesterday and the media will spend more time on the US elections than our own which plays perfectly into Nationals hands but these secret tapes arnt helping, who ever is releasing them, the public has become desensitized to them. Ban me if you wish…
lprent 25

4 November 2008 at 9:55 pm

bobo: My *long* experience has shown me that if we let these bloody stupid flame sessions get out of hand. then it means that the comments area gets unreadable.

Since I have to read the comments, I land heavily on people I think are heading in that direction. Because I (and the other moderators) are really busy we’ve let it slide fro a few days. Of course that just means that I’ll be more draconian now.

You’ll find it laid out in in our Policy
bobo 26

4 November 2008 at 10:00 pm

Fair enough I have noticed in the last few days more trolls commenting on here just trying to get a reaction.
Paul Robeson 27

4 November 2008 at 10:12 pm

randy- sorry a joke as I used the method myself c.9:06pm and then noticed you had used a similar technique in slicing the fish of the day.

got a cold and can’t drink coffee.
What!! 28

4 November 2008 at 10:20 pm

[lprent: Link-whoring from the puerile technical incompetent (people here will know of whom I speak) is something that I seldom allow.

In this case the pathetic little bugger is drawing inferences from what looks like self-referenced rumour, a photo, and a comment from 2003. Now that is really getting to be quite pathetic.

By that basis you could say that anyone is guilty by association. For instance having DPF in a bus with the puerile creep could lead to the inference that he also lies continuously (which I don’t believe) . If he had a photo, well a photo of Whale with anyone probably indicates that they are also a sleazeball.

For instance in the post that you referred to, Whale is outright lying about the funding for this site – I pay for it, organise it, and have always done so. In my informed opinion he has made up or inflated every story about this site and the people associated with it since it started.As far as I’m concerned, if Whale says something, then you have to start looking for the lie in what he says. The guy is the grossest smear artist on the blogs.

But I have no doubt that in his mind, everything he says is the truth… Ummm there is a word for that.

BTW: There was no need to shift identities. I ban people regardless of what their handle at the time]
Dylan 29

4 November 2008 at 10:44 pm

Hey, didn’t John Key recently compare himself to Obama?
Steve Withers 30

4 November 2008 at 11:30 pm

All the reports I saw or heard mentioned National believed Labour was behind it and most quoted John Key and the dirty tricks comment. No evidence whatever was produced to support the contention with respect to Labour.

I doubt Labour had anything to do with it. It feels to me like someone had the bright idea to see what would happen if they went trolling at the National Party conference……..and – my goodness- look what they found: Shifty Nats saying one thing privately and another publicly

Like looking for bees in a bee hive.
Ari 31

4 November 2008 at 11:48 pm

Hey Irishbill, (and other standardistas) you missed a word in the opening line of the fourth paragraph I think.

Although Garner saw right it

I think you’d probably want this to be: “Although Garner saw right through it,”

IrishBill: thanks Ari, I’ve fixed that now.
Jeannie 32

5 November 2008 at 12:10 am

LOL…..I swear Bill English is secretly working for a Labour victory.

The best news of the day? O’Reilly is selling the NZ Herald, Radio Network News, !ZB and half a dozen other radio stations, The Christchurch Press and all those little blue ribbon rags up and down the country. They have gone broke and belly up apparently to the tune of a billion or more in debts.

Whooo hoooo. Typical of National party supporters- wallowing in all the benefits but too stingy to put their hands in their pockets to support their own propaganda rags.

This should wipe the smirks from the pro-National lobby who hang about in here.

Got a slogan for this one boys? Envy? Tall poppy syndrome? Smear campaign? Dirty tricks? Nope none of these fit. How about, Herald bankrupted by Labour victory?
Jeannie 33

5 November 2008 at 12:11 am

LOL…..I swear Bill English is secretly working for a Labour victory.

The best news of the day? O’Reilly is selling the NZ Herald, Radio Network News, !ZB and half a dozen other radio stations, The Christchurch Press and all those little blue ribbon rags up and down the country. They have gone broke and belly up apparently to the tune of a billion or more in debts.

Whooo hoooo. Typical of National party supporters- wallowing in all the benefits but too stingy to put their hands in their pockets to support their own propaganda rags.

This should wipe the smirks from the pro-National lobby who hang about in here.

Got a slogan for this one boys? Envy? Tall poppy syndrome? Smear campaign? Dirty tricks? Nope none of these fit. How about, Herald Bankrupted by Labour victory?
Don 34

5 November 2008 at 9:31 am

Jeannie, O’Reilly doesn’t even own the Christchurch Press, so I’d be very surprised if he was selling it. Do try to get your facts right.
jo zinny 35

5 November 2008 at 11:56 am

Dylan,

John likes BO; Bill doesn’t. Simple, see!

Danny,

to explain how right your were with the “weird” word, let it be known how national’s conference this year had aussie dwellers cross the ditch to spell out the wonders of Reagan. That’s Ronald – the Wall – Reagan. President. B-movie star back before even kiwi Muldoon.. So.. yes, no longer bill and the nats, but reaganites, all.

bottom line: BO-philic John is a sort of national front for the neo-reaganites 🙂
jo zinny 36

5 November 2008 at 12:11 pm

Dylan,

John likes BO: Bill doesn’t. Simple. See!

Danny, lovely word “weird”. Explained yet again I think at the national’s conf this year when aussie dwellers crossed the ditch to tellem and spellem Reagan rubes. That’s Ronald Reagan, President, B-movie star way back and even before kiwi muldoon. Reaganâ€”fo’ reaganomics. Oh no, they canna have rogernomics the labour surrogateâ€”it’s gottabe reaganomics. See. 🙂

bottom line: john is a sort of national front for neo-reaganomics
Jeannie 37

5 November 2008 at 12:27 pm

Don: You are right. The following is a list of O’Reilly owned news media in NZ from Wikipedia.

The New Zealand Herald
Herald on Sunday
New Zealand Listener
Whangarei Northern Advocate
Rotorua Daily Post
Wairarapa Times-Age
Wanganui Chronicle
Oamaru Mail
Bay of Plenty area

Bay of Plenty Times
Bay News
Katikati Advertiser
Coastal News
Waihi Leader
Te Puke Times
TV Times
Country News

Christchurch area
The Star Canterbury
The Star Northern, Southern, Eastern and Western Community
North Canterbury News
Canterbury Times

APN Business Information Group
APN Education New Zealand
APN Digital Media
Australian Classifieds
Campus Review
Nursing Review
UBD
finda
Wises Maps
Sella
APN Data Online

Radio Network News (New Zealand)
Newstalk ZB
Classic Hits
Radio Sport
Hauraki
ZM
Viva
Coast
Flava

Radio Network News also has newswires to TVNZ and Yahoo Xtra.

Thanks Don! 🙂
jo zinny 38

5 November 2008 at 3:28 pm

oops! sorry about the double-up above..

the first one disappeared when I went through capcha, all I got was a copy of the encryption code, but no comment to look at. Figuring it had ethered I tried a repeat.. AND GOT ONE..
Sarah 39

7 November 2008 at 6:07 pm

Jeannie: “The following is a list of O’Reilly owned news media in NZ from Wikipedia.”

This election no matter which way it goes is a victory for Tony O’Reilly undemocratically influencing our elections via the mainstream media.

I looked INM ( Independent News Media ) up on Wikipedia. which says”

Concern has also been expressed about INM’s dominant role in the Irish press sector, its overall media power, its influence on politics, and the quality of its journalism.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independent_News_&_Media

We can safely say, O’reilly has also been dominant in the NZ press sector, we are concerned about his overall media power in NZ, his undemocratic influence on politics in NZ and the poor quality of his journalism.

Yelllowpack is how his journalism is referred to in this article. Yellowpack refers, according to a type of cheap budget packaging in the UK.