Russell Brown on rubbish HoS article

Russell Brown at Hard News has already said what needed saying about today’s Herald on Sunday’s lead story:

Some reprehensible bullshit

EXCLUSIVE, trumpets the Herald on Sunday’s front page lead story today, HIDDEN ROOMS IN MAYOR’S NEW OFFICE. ‘What secrets are concealed in Len Brown’s flash new office?’ the headline inside demands. A better question might have been: is anybody really proud of this nonsense?  …

The “secret rooms” are not actually a “secret” in any meaningful sense of the word: their presence, design and, fittings and budget are literally a matter of public record. They are a dressing room with a two-seater sofa, an ironing board and a wardrobe, and a small ensuite bathroom. But, in what would seem to be a bid to blend the office’s ceremonial and practical functions, the door between the formal office and its ensuite has been designed as part of a bookcase. That’s it. That really is the sum total of the scandal. …

The rest of the story is padded out with inane quotes from failed mayoral candidate and leader of the deranged “Stand Down Len Brown” protests Stephen Berry, and four of the five council dead-enders who got crushed by their peers in a vote over Brown’s censure motion last year …

The editor, the reporter and the rentaquote councillors all know the story is bullshit. For the latter, it’s another chance to have a crack at Brown and for the paper it’s just more cheap clickbait. If Bevan Chuang gets used yet again – and Photoshopping her into a picture really is quite the sleazy touch – that’s just what happens to women who have sex, right?

Is this what you people got into journalism for?

Plenty more in the full post, go check it out at Hard News.

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