None so blind as those who invent their own reality

Written By: - Date published: 7:12 am, October 23rd, 2013 - 93 comments
Categories: john key, slippery - Tags:

Is the Prime Minister John Key who claims to know what Labour has supposedly said in secret talks with SkyCity (talks that Cunliffe denies have happened) because it’s ‘all over town’ the same Prime Minister John Key who couldn’t be bothered to read a police report on one of his ministers who is now going to be tried for the offences investigated in said report? Asking for a friend.

93 comments on “None so blind as those who invent their own reality ”

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  1. amirite 1
    23 October 2013 at 7:31 am

    The same PM who didn’t know he had TranzRail shares, who’forgot’ that he has been regularly meeting with his mate Ian Fletcher, whom he later employed as a GCSB boss; ‘didn’t know’ that one of the richest men in NZ, Kim Dotcom, lived in his own electorate and has been sought after by USA authorities, etc etc etc…It’s amazing how easily he can memorise unsubstantiated gossip, isn’t it?

    • ghostwhowalksnz 1.1
      23 October 2013 at 7:59 am

      John Banks is running a master class on the art of what you know and what you forget

    • Morrissey 1.2
      23 October 2013 at 9:38 am

      The same PM who didn’t know he had TranzRail shares, who’forgot’ that he has been regularly meeting with his mate Ian Fletcher, whom he later employed as a GCSB boss; ‘didn’t know’ that one of the richest men in NZ, Kim Dotcom, lived in his own electorate and has been sought after by USA authorities, etc etc etc…

      Key also “couldn’t remember” whether or not he supported apartheid football in 1981.

      • Draco T Bastard 1.2.1
        23 October 2013 at 11:15 am

        While remembering that he was on the edge of his seat as John Walker made the finish line in the 1976 Olympics.

  2. deWithiel 2
    23 October 2013 at 7:45 am

    Meanwhile back in MSM lalaland, the New Zealand Herald headlines its editorial inability to understand (or perhaps its disinclination to report) David Cunliffe’s unequivocal statement that there has been ‘no undertaking with SkyCity’: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11144472. Pathetic.

    • Nicolas 2.1
      23 October 2013 at 8:29 am

      I read that article and, honestly, did not think they misrepresented Cunliffe’s statement. Yes, he said no deal had been struck between SkyCity and the Party, but he also did NOT take a clear position like that taken by Metiria and the Greens.

      She made it clear that the Green Party, if given the chance, would repeal the deal and impose stricter regulations around gambling. Cunliffe, on the other hand, basically said what doesn’t need to be said. Parliament is our supreme law-making body and that won’t change under his watch. How revolutionary, huh?

      No offense, but it is actually a bit pathetic when people continue to overstate the “right-wingness” of the NZ Herald. I’ve heard heaps of people also refer to our MSM as too “Lefty”. I wonder who’s right?

      • Tat Loo 2.1.1
        23 October 2013 at 8:37 am

        No offense, but it is actually a bit pathetic when people continue to overstate the “right-wingness” of the NZ Herald. I’ve heard heaps of people also refer to our MSM as too “Lefty”. I wonder who’s right?

        The main source of revenue for papers like the New Zealand Herald are major corporate advertisers pitching wares at the upper middle class and wealthy. Not at the unemployed and underprivileged.

        So of course the NZ Herald pitches right wing with a bias towards the moneyed side of town, it only makes business sense for them to do so, sprinkled with the occasional token Lefty contribution.

        Cunliffe, on the other hand, basically said what doesn’t need to be said. Parliament is our supreme law-making body and that won’t change under his watch. How revolutionary, huh?

        Judging by your non-chalance, it seems like you don’t understand the true implications of what he is saying. Don’t worry, other people will.

        • Tat Loo 2.1.1.1
          23 October 2013 at 8:46 am

          TV3 interview with David Cunliffe on Skycity issue, and MP payrises.

          http://www.3news.co.nz/Cunliffe-hedges-bets-on-SkyCity-deal/tabid/1607/articleID/318403/Default.aspx

          Firm, calm responses – the government has a sovereign responsibility to govern in the public interest and to regulate gambling harm. Nice one DC.

          • King Kong 2.1.1.1.1
            23 October 2013 at 12:40 pm

            Now we know who you are the fawning, for some reason, just feels a little more sickening.

            • Crunchtime 2.1.1.1.1.1
              23 October 2013 at 12:55 pm

              That sentence makes no sense. Your poor use of the english language is just a little sickening.

              Comment from DC was firm and calm. I’d add “authoritative”. That’s not fawning. That’s descriptive.

              • fender …
                23 October 2013 at 1:21 pm

                King Kong is shattered that Colonial Viper is Tat Loo. The Kong was hoping that CV was a nobody like himself and the truth is really hurting the apes sense of self worth.

                • King Kong …
                  23 October 2013 at 2:17 pm

                  What? You mean the quack healing, Chinese fella who has come as close to dead last as you can get in every political race he has entered.

                  Truly striding the earth like a colossus.

                  • Rogue Trooper …
                    23 October 2013 at 2:23 pm

                    to you the prize for initiating the fall of the RW commentators into the abyss…carry on…didn’t take you long.

                  • fender …
                    23 October 2013 at 5:18 pm

                    How many political races have you had the monkey-balls to enter, ape shit?

                    • King Kong …
                      24 October 2013 at 8:47 am

                      I have far too much integrity to be a politician.It would also require me to take an enormous pay cut.

                    • bad12 …
                      24 October 2013 at 9:14 am

                      You mean KK you have far too little intelligence or political nous for any political party to come within a mile of you,(yawn another ‘fantasy’ millionaire who spends all day at the Standard)…

                  • Tat Loo …
                    23 October 2013 at 6:21 pm

                    What? You mean the quack healing, Chinese fella who has come as close to dead last as you can get in every political race he has entered.

                    Second just behind the Deputy Prime Minister, and MP for Clutha-Southland, the Hon. Bill English. Not too bad for a first tilt, I thought 😉

                • Rogue Trooper …
                  23 October 2013 at 2:18 pm

                  lol

        • Nicolas 2.1.1.2
          23 October 2013 at 10:30 am

          Actually, the conclusions reached by the likes of Gavin Harris, Geoff Kemp, Richard Mulgan, Bryce Edwards and Nicky Hager (all of whom, I assume, know more about our media than you) is that our media outlets’ inadequacies are NOT derived from their servitude to “right-wing corporate interests”. Primarily, our journalists are not unscrupulous, but under-resourced. They are pressured into promoting entertaining, rather than informing news so that advertisers are happy, but there is no indication whatsoever they are puppets for big political players in the background.

          So no, I don’t buy into the idea outlets like the Herald are completely biased towards one side or the other; I think they’re mostly incompetent, particularly in the face of an increasingly sophisticated PR industry.

          Which reminds me, your last comment made you seem like a bit of a spinner, mate. I don’t care if it originates in the Right or in the Left, spinning stinks. “Firm, calm” responses? DC deserves praise AND criticism when they’re due.

          • Tat Loo 2.1.1.2.1
            23 October 2013 at 6:26 pm

            Most journalists (not jonolists) are pretty fair minded. There are exceptions of course.

            But if you really believe that papers do not take an editorial line on many issues, which they have done since day dot, you’ve missed something.

            So no, I don’t buy into the idea outlets like the Herald are completely biased towards one side or the other; I think they’re mostly incompetent, particularly in the face of an increasingly sophisticated PR industry.

            That’s weird, you jumped from describing the problem as being a lack of resources, to the problem being incompetence.

            Which is it?

            Also no one was claiming “complete bias”. That was just something you chucked in yourself.

          • karol 2.1.1.2.2
            23 October 2013 at 6:44 pm

            I agree with Tat on this. It’s more about a “bias” rather than being a deliberate attempt to present a right wing view as much as possible. The bias comes from the corporate media, the editors selected to be sympathetic to corporate interests, and the whole infotainment approach to the MSM – the latter part of the neoliberal revolution – it often diverts from crucial issues and focuses on superficial conflicts, dramas, and accessible visual representations. A neoliberal view is embedded in such an approach – the medium is the message.

            It’s not so much due to biased individual journalists, who I believe do their best to present the news fairly. But they work within the parameters set by the editors and management, and are selected so as being likely not to rock the corporate boat too much.

            Sometimes the approach is deliberately supportive of the right wing: eg the NZ Herald’s “Democracy under attack” campaign. Most often the bias is less deliberate and more subtle.

          • karol 2.1.1.2.3
            23 October 2013 at 6:47 pm

            Nicolas, you are misrepresenting some of the guys you mention – certainly that’s not Hager’s view. This is what he said in his Jesson lecture.

            We live in an era where the public spaces are cluttered with paid spokespeople and commercial agendas: where lobbyists for foreign-owned banks are more likely to be heard commenting on economic news than community groups, where legions of other PR people vie to promote their clients’ interests and where the public spaces available for real democratic activity are shrinking. This is about the cumulative impact of an ever-growing, professionalised industry for political and media manipulation: more and more paid manufacturing of news, more and more paid voices in so-called public discussion, greater influence of corporate election donations, fake community groups, more scripting of politicians by unseen advisers and so on; all of it tending to crowd out ordinary people or citizen groups that don’t have a PR company and a large advertising budget. If we have more and more and more of this stuff pouring into the public spaces, at what point do we realise that the river is no longer fit to swim in or to drink?

            These profound changes to the way politics occurs have unfortunately coincided with the multiple crises occurring within the news media. Exactly when better journalism is needed to compensate for so much organised manipulation of news and politics, highly commercialised media organisations have (with notable exceptions) become more superficial, more susceptible to vested interests and less thoughtful about what counts as legitimate news and commentary. In recent years, for instance, two major news organisations have published regular political and election columns by David Farrar, without telling their readers that he earns his living as the chief pollster for the governing party, the National Party, including being the person who regularly briefs the prime minister on the poll results. He has also appeared regularly as a “political commentator” on Newstalk ZB and breakfast television. A good measure of media organisations is to look at the balance in their choice of political commentators. Most are not balanced.

            More like that in the lecture, where Hager outlines the problems in a lot of detail.

      • richard 2.1.2
        23 October 2013 at 9:51 am

        …but he also did NOT take a clear position like that taken by Metiria and the Greens.

        I am hoping that Cunliffe’s milk and water response was an involuntary hangover from the days of non-commitalism that plagued labour for years.

  3. bad12 3
    23 October 2013 at 8:22 am

    There is something bizaare about Slippery the Prime Ministers little ‘faux revelation’ over what Labour might or might not do when it becomes the Government in 2014 with regards the ‘Sky-city deal’,

    i watched this story on TV3 news last night and the comparison in the two leaders of the respective parties, Labour and National was stark, Slippery the PM looking every bit the disheveled used car salesman gave off an air of desperation as He tried to convince God only knows who for God knows what reason that He has the inside gossip from within the Labour Party on what they would do with with the shoddy Sky-city deal struck by that company and Slippery’s National Government,

    On the other hand David Cunliffe looked every bit the composed Prime Minister in waiting as He quietly without undue rhetoric poo pooed Slippery the PM’s latest flight from the factual world of reality,

    Why the desperation tho, there has to be a reason why Slippery is trying to light a fire, one reason may be that Nationals own paid for Party polling is matching,(or worse), than what has been revealed by the last couple of Roy Morgans,

    The other, Blubber boy, the stench, the woeful trail of wreckage among the Party faithful in Auckland has as yet left the Parliamentary National MP’s blissfully untouched, without knowledge of, involvement in, and, if you will having all taken the vows of silence over,

    Except now, there is the rumor that Len Brown was tipped off by none other then a National Party MP that National’s own shit-spewing publicity organ in the form of Blubber boy was about to ‘out’ Brown,

    Is the Prime Ministers starting of a fire of distraction really just a pathetic ham-fisted attempt to divert attention away from what is as yet only the tiny whiff of a deeper story which leads right back to Nationals Parliamentary wing’s hands having been sullied by a deeper and as yet unreported involvement in this affair,

    Blubber boy reckons there is more yet to be revealed about the ‘Brown affair’, obviously believing anything that one says is always going to be a 50/50 proposition, BUT, if there is More to come, then, under fire from His own, i would suggest the only scandal, if He has one to release, can only be with regards a deeper involvement in the ‘Brown affair’ from Nationals Parliamentary wing than has so far been revealed…

    • MrSmith 3.1
      23 October 2013 at 5:39 pm

      Perhaps Key is just trying to tell someone he has the GCSB in his pocket along with the SAS and The filth, so basically he know everything, so a warning maybe be careful Mr/Mrs before you …………………. etc.

  4. BM 4
    23 October 2013 at 8:52 am

    No doubt Cunliffe has been talking out of both sides of his mouth.
    Honestly, you don’t score a million dollar pad in Herne bay being a raving communist.

    All this cancel this, take back that stuff is complete bull shit said to keep the the paid up party members placated.

    One song sheet for the Labour sheeple, another one for business.

    • Tat Loo 4.1
      23 October 2013 at 9:00 am

      What should be worrying you is that many small and medium business owners quite like the new Labour message; after waiting for John Key’s brighter future for 5 years it’s no wonder.

      • BM 4.1.1
        23 October 2013 at 9:11 am

        What a load of horse shit

        Higher wage costs,crippling environmental taxes, another 10 tons of government bureaucracy and unionists poking their nose into their business every 5 minutes.

        Yeah, wow small to medium businesses are practically gagging for a new Labour led government.

        The only ones who don’t care are the big boys such as Sky city as they control the show, they’re above all that.

        • vto 4.1.1.1
          23 October 2013 at 9:26 am

          What a load of horse shit.

          I think you will find that most businesses would rather an equal and prosperous community where people earned enough to live on. That way their businesses prosper.

          You should get out more.

          • Tat Loo 4.1.1.1.1
            23 October 2013 at 10:40 am

            Correct – what BM regards as “higher wage costs” in fact equals “higher discretionary income for customers” – which is a great thing for small business.

        • MrSmith 4.1.1.2
          23 October 2013 at 6:02 pm

          “Yeah, wow small to medium businesses are practically gagging for a new Labour led government.”

          We are BM, more money in the working man and woman’s pocket, so they can save it for their first home or spend it as they see fit, retailers and small business owners will be rubbing there hands together in glee as they were the last time Labour were running the show, when a lot of hard working people made their fortunes, not sitting on their asses trading bits of paper, but with sweat and hard work.

      • King Kong 4.1.2
        23 October 2013 at 9:12 am

        Perhaps you might like to provide the details on how you know these sme owners are signing up for their little red books.

        Talking to your dairy owner each morning doesn’t equate to “many”

        • One Anonymous Knucklehead 4.1.2.1
          23 October 2013 at 9:34 am

          If they were actually being offered little red books you might have a point.

          What they’re actually being offered (among other things) is the higher per capita GDP that always accompanies a Labour led government.

        • greywarbler 4.1.2.2
          23 October 2013 at 10:58 am

          KK

          Talking to your dairy owner each morning doesn’t equate to “many”

          That’s where our politicians get much of their background and backing for proceeding with their policies. They will often use the vague terms ‘people’ , or ‘everybody in NZ’ even. And they might include ‘overseas’ if they want to give an exotic authority to their precious brainfarts. Try listening, looking and thinking to them before coming here with your amused, bemused, naive questions.
          ook!

      • Populuxe1 4.1.3
        23 October 2013 at 1:59 pm

        Given Labour’s message is mainly Blairite third wayism, I’m having difficulty spotting the difference.

    • Lanthanide 4.2
      23 October 2013 at 9:08 am

      “Honestly, you don’t score a million dollar pad in Herne bay being a raving communist.”

      You’re right. All you have to do is have bought your house sometime during the 90s and held onto it.

      Pretty easy.

      • Rob 4.2.1
        23 October 2013 at 1:22 pm

        Lanthanide, you obviously do not live in Akl.

        When I returned from the UK in 92 I looked for housing in Auckland , finally settling on Onehunga which was the only suburb I could afford to buy in that was moderatly central. I paid 125K for the old 3 bed villa , that needed the full reno (rewireing, plumbing, lining, roof and pileing). Equivalent do -ups in Grey Lynn were 170K , Ponsonby were 200k and Herne bay was at least 250K , a shit load of money back then. Also my salary working in a science related business was 22K.

        Point being Herne Bay has been a very expensive suburb for along time and it is not open to poor strugglers.

        • fender 4.2.1.1
          23 October 2013 at 1:30 pm

          It’s a good thing Cunliffe hasn’t claimed to be a poor struggler then eh.

          Can’t help admiring the guy though, he actually wants to improve things for strugglers. Whereas Key only cares for his rich mates.

    • bad12 4.3
      23 October 2013 at 9:15 am

      BM, aaah a good reply in the vein of the spastics knee can jerk after all, what i understand Labour leader David Cunliffe to be saying is that Labour once Government after November 2014, something i am sure has your knees twitching uncontrollably, is hardly going to stop construction of the proposed convention center in it’s tracks,

      Sky City seems to me to have the right to build such a convention center at it’s whim, however, Cunliffe has directly said that as the Government Labour and i assume the Green Party have the right to Legislate to ensure the minimization of harm from gambling and in this case pokey machines in particular,

      Put more simply, as YOU appear to all extents and purposes to be one, a simpleton that is, the next Labour/Green Government WILL Legislate for the number of pokey machines Sky-city are allowed on its current site in Auckland,

      To further simplify what will happen for you, in consideration of your obvious intellectual limitations, Sky-city will be allowed the same number of pokey machines on it’s present site as it had befor the ‘deal’ was struck with National,

      If Sky-city knowing this still ‘choose’ to build the proposed convention center what have they got to whine about…

  5. Philgwellington Wellington 5
    23 October 2013 at 9:08 am

    You are in the wrong place BM. You are clearly blue in a red/green zone;-)

  6. Lionel 6
    23 October 2013 at 9:22 am

    Go back to Whale Oil and Kiwiblog BM that is your home you are out of step with reality over here.

    • bad12 6.1
      23 October 2013 at 9:30 am

      BM and KK are over here at the Standard because of the fact that the comments they make stand out, over at the Sewerage pipes they are just minor dumps of intellectual defecation among the 1000’s of others talking shit,

      Neither of them have anything of a factual nature to impart their sole reason for commenting is to try and drag the Post off into unreadable Derrrr comments….

      • richard 6.1.1
        23 October 2013 at 9:43 am

        Poor little poppets. For the attention deprived, even being proved to be fools over and over again is better than getting no attention.

    • tc 6.2
      23 October 2013 at 9:30 am

      no being rostered on to TS is their role as shitelands is sitting on the naughty step so they’ve been very busy trolls lately. Maybe chris73’s day off.,

    • King Kong 6.3
      23 October 2013 at 10:02 am

      Did you just say “go back to the townships, you are not welcome here?”.

      I guess that makes me the Nelson Mandela of the Standard and BM the Desmond Tutu.

  7. Philgwellington Wellington 7
    23 October 2013 at 9:32 am

    Xox
    Donkeys go where Donkeys go. Kk go to the zoo, with the Donkeys.

  8. billbrowne 8
    23 October 2013 at 10:32 am

    Stand strong David, we don’t owe the MSM or the PM for that matter any policy-on-the-hoof just ’cause they want something to beat us over the head with.

  9. Zorr 9
    23 October 2013 at 12:38 pm

    I’m just posting to say that New Zealand politics needs more representation by pink ponies. Please increase the pink pony quota 110% 🙂

  10. Vagabundo 10
    23 October 2013 at 2:46 pm

    Hahaha, so it’s gotten to the point where Key has just claimed he has no ministerial responsibility over his own statements.

  11. ghostrider888 11
    23 October 2013 at 6:20 pm

    66.6