Shock horror, Ardern chooses to keeps her mask on

Written By: - Date published: 9:37 am, November 11th, 2021 - 79 comments
Categories: covid-19, jacinda ardern, making shit up, Media, social media lolz, the praiseworthy and the pitiful, uncategorized, you couldn't make this shit up - Tags:

The Deranged Ardren Syndrome vibe is strong today.  But not from a UN Agenda 21 George Soros is funding a World Government takeover and Bill Gates is putting chips in your vaccine anti vaxxer, it is from a senior reporter with the Herald.

Dear Reader, Barry Soper has accused the Prime Minister of, wait for this, not taking her mask off when she was inside visiting a vaccination centre in South Auckland.

He said this:

At her chat with the media at a Pacific youth vaccination event yesterday she unusually chose to keep her mask on, saying she did it because she was indoors. With the media well out of spitting distance, I wondered what the caution was all about.

I won’t link to his column.  It does not deserve the clicks.

Both times I was vaccinated thanks to the good people at Te Whanau o Waipareira everyone, and I mean everyone, in the vaccination centre wore a mask.  If Jacinda did not wear a mask then no doubt Barry would have criticised her for it.

The rest of his article was a regurgitation of National and Act attacks on Ardern for not travelling to Auckland and criticism of her for catching an Air Force Flight and visiting an Avondale Engineering firm. He repeats the National attack line that Ardern does not understand what it has been like living in Auckland recently.  He would prefer that she zoomed back and forth and went into lockdown continuously.  Memo to Barry the Internet lets you know exactly and in real time what is happening throughout the nation.  Four Cabinet Ministers stayed in Auckland during the lockdown.  And I prefer that Ardern has the time and head space to guide the country through what is a particularly challenging time.

Soper has a major snitch with the Government right now.  I wish that all reporters understood that their primary role is to report the news and not try and make the news.

79 comments on “Shock horror, Ardern chooses to keeps her mask on ”

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  1. Tiger Mountain 1
    11 November 2021 at 9:51 am

    Mr Soper was a burnt out hack years ago–a rather bilious type–which NZ Herald and Newstalk ZB seem to specialise in.

    How do Govt. MPs put up with him and his reactionary crap? yeah, yeah part of the job and all that–which is why I am not a politician, I’d let him have it.

    • Chris 1.1
      11 November 2021 at 10:10 am

      He was regarded as a bit of an idiot in his press gallery days working for Radio Pacific, prancing about wearing a bow-tie.

    • Patricia Bremner 1.2
      11 November 2021 at 2:38 pm

      Yes, He has taken over from John Armstrong. There will be a bottle of wine soon!!

      When churnalists(thanks Gezza) attack the person with molehills…..

    • Gezza 1.3
      11 November 2021 at 4:53 pm

      From the post:

      “Soper has a major snitch with the Government right now.”
      ………………….

      That’s not new. He’s in his sunshine years, reporting to an ever-ageing audience, always looking for relevance & seemingly finding only things to moan & grizzle about. A rather tired-sounding old hack who’s slowing down while other more recent models are racing past him in the glitzy fast lanes.

      ” I wish that all reporters understood that their primary role is to report the news and not try and make the news.”
      …………………..

      Forelorn hope, I’m afraid. That horse has well & truly bolted. Some years back.

      It’s not just reporters either. It’s news anchors, sports presenters, weather forecastpersons, invetigative journalists, breakfast tv hosts, magazine-style current affairs & after-news short-documentary-harvesting & compilation shows.

      Everybody in the public eye in msm online, print, tv & internet media is now promoted as a star in their own right. Pisses me right off. The quality of their work & news analyses seems to dive down in direct proportion to the amount of ego they display or the promotion their employers give them.

      Other than that, they’re great❗️
      Just go to their annual awards shows & ask them. 💪🏼 🙄 😀

      • Christopher Randal 1.3.1
        12 November 2021 at 7:16 pm

        I didn't realise that we have "investigative journalists", or indeed, any sort of journalists any more.

        • Gezza 1.3.1.1
          12 November 2021 at 7:41 pm

          We do, Christopher.

          They tend to be described as such by their msm media companies.

          And they do produce rare articles & tv docos that look into & report on matters of interest or importance that folk may be unaware of – like slave labour in NZ, sexual harassment in workplaces, “P” etc.

          But there are not that many of them, & some of them (eg Patrick Gower) are over-promoted as media stars, imo.

    • North 1.4
      12 November 2021 at 12:44 pm

      Please please Tiger Mountain, since the passing of Sir Paul Holmes Old Barely has been 'Father and Protector of the Nation'…….do not cast snide upon this venerable whatever he is.

    • Blazer 1.5
      12 November 2021 at 7:54 pm

      Don't you worry about 'Bazza' …about to become a father again @70!

      The man from Gore is still ….potent!

  2. Tricledrown 2
    11 November 2021 at 9:55 am

    Soper is suffering Right Wing born to rule envy.

    The few right wing supporters are crying in their beersies screeching Jacinda this Jacinda that. When the best their leader can do is muster support from Brian Tamaki ,bike gangs,the Mongrel Mob and Gloriavale.

  3. Pataua4life 3
    11 November 2021 at 9:55 am

    Question MS

    Why did the PM bother coming to Auckland?

    It was a waste of time, failed as a PR exercise.

    I just don't see the point.

  4. Pete 4
    11 November 2021 at 9:58 am

    If Ardern had been in Auckland he would have been complaining she was in Wellington. Not only that, no doubt he would have had it as her "running away."

    I saw his column headed "Paranoid' PM " and realised it was probably another opportunity for him to show the world that more of his marbles had been lost.

    • ghostwhowalksnz 4.1
      11 November 2021 at 3:10 pm

      His claims are bullshit about the flights too

      Her office says she flew north with troops on Tuesday night who had to be relocated for MIQ duties, and headed back on the big jet because it had to be returned to Wellington. Strange that, given the jet's home base is Whenuapai. Yeah, well, the plane apparently then flew out of the capital for Auckland again.

      Air NZ is only operating a skeleton service between Wellington Auckland, just 2 flights per day …all in the morning

      So no hope of getting back after a day of engagements in Auckland.

      Sounds like the Air Force is doing a shuttle service for defence MIQ people ..coming back from Auckland too.

      He doesnt understand how flights operate. But then hes been in full bullshit mode for some time.

      In his story list going back into last year . Barely a word about Judith Collins leadership of national and its road to nowhere

      Except :"Soper: Collins should have been elected Nats leader two years ago

      Thats often a sign to me that hes got Collins as a source for his stories. First rule of political journos is – dont burn your sources

  5. Ad 5
    11 November 2021 at 10:00 am

    There has got to be more ways to keep the news interesting than this.

  6. ianmac 6
    11 November 2021 at 10:15 am

    Soper is in a bind. He has to continue his attack on Jacinda because she is doing pretty well in trying circumstances. He has to invent "failure" to "bring her down." Wonder if they threw tennis balls at him?

    • Patricia Bremner 6.1
      11 November 2021 at 2:46 pm

      yesdevil

    • Scotty 6.2
      11 November 2021 at 3:15 pm

      Imo . Soper has never recovered from having his supercilious arse handed to him by Jacinda in her first press conference as leader.

      Gone from front row- barking out the first question .- Soper has been reduced to bitching to Hosking about not being chosen to ask a question.

      Archetypal bully boy / sook.

    • Christopher Randal 6.3
      12 November 2021 at 7:21 pm

      Isn't "bring her down" treason?

  7. georgecom 7
    11 November 2021 at 10:23 am

    this is the guy who is fixated with questions about people using toilets under alert level 3.2 yeah?

    seems like he is providing a continuing supply of toilet paper anyway

  8. Reality 8
    11 November 2021 at 10:29 am

    People may like to read my comment on Open Mike today regarding my personal witnessing of Barry Soper's atrocious behaviour at Parliament some years ago. I have viewed him with contempt ever since.

  9. Adrian 9
    11 November 2021 at 11:46 am

    He was particularly incoherent at a late 4pm press conference last week, does anyone here know how early he starts drinking?

    • tc 9.1
      11 November 2021 at 12:54 pm

      It's his belligerent behavior where he shouts over the response to his loaded questions.

      Not going your way Baz….diddums.

      It would be a waste of time IF the rest weren’t doing the gotcha game but that’s the low bar we have in the MSM

  10. Treetop 10
    11 November 2021 at 1:56 pm

    Does Soper have a 3 year old at home to consider?

    Maybe Soper needs a Covid test incase his pregnant partner is at risk of getting Covid.

    I really do not like to comment on the private life of people when they have a public profile, however Covid has no boundaries.

  11. Jimmy 11
    11 November 2021 at 2:05 pm

    " I wish that all reporters understood that their primary role is to report the news and not try and make the news."

    I agree with that comment. Can you please let Tova O'Brien know.

  12. dottie 12
    11 November 2021 at 2:06 pm

    The Herald keep trying to get me to buy their newspaper,

    Sops Hosk Preeble and a few others are reasons why

    I won’t contemplate it.

  13. DS 13
    11 November 2021 at 2:41 pm

    The sad thing… once upon a time (i.e. a good twenty years ago or more), Soper wasn't like this, and actually behaved like a proper journalist. Goodness knows what has got into him.

    • ghostwhowalksnz 13.1
      11 November 2021 at 2:56 pm

      His employer.

      They want extreme opinions now as it 'drives listener engagement' or other such corporate double speak

  14. DukeEll 14
    11 November 2021 at 3:40 pm

    Prime Minister Adern is welcome to keep her mask on. It is her choice.

    However, a fucking air force jet in and out and only visiting one cultural exhibition and one business?

    Why not a walk down queen st? or through the viaduct? too scary for her after the misery she's forced down Aucklands gullet?

    It's more apparent everyday there is no leadership in this government. Just weak willed, spineless meandering. plain ordinary my grandmother would say.

    • infused 14.1
      11 November 2021 at 3:47 pm

      Took a weee while for everyone else to catch on.. Auckland is very angry.

      • Sanctuary 14.1.1
        11 November 2021 at 4:07 pm

        Middle class people who are now vaccinated and feel bullet proof want to resume their privileged life and their one sided class war on the poor, we get it.

      • North 14.1.2
        12 November 2021 at 12:54 pm

        Of course this Delta shit is entirely optional as is all that gullet intubation and tortured struggling for breath and grave digging and cremation. Oh yes. Entirely optional. Do your research !

    • Jimmy 14.2
      11 November 2021 at 4:52 pm

      Yes agree totally. Either of your suggestions would have made the trip more worthwhile.

      • In Vino 14.2.1
        11 November 2021 at 9:25 pm

        Rubbish! The only thing that would have satisfied you Righties would have been a walk of shame the length of Queen Street. You’re actually out of touch with most Aucklanders, let alone NZers.

        • Jimmy 14.2.1.1
          12 November 2021 at 10:37 am

          I'm in Auckland and very much in touch. Being locked down for 3 months tends to turn many people against the person who has locked them down.

          Interesting that you refer to a 'walk of shame' as that does sum it up nicely. Would be interesting if she had met with a hairdresser, beautician, restaurant owner, cafe owner or bar / nightclub owner. rather than an engineering firm that had traded through…and it sounds like even that CEO gave her some interesting words of advice on MIQ.

        • KJT 14.2.1.2
          12 November 2021 at 10:46 am

          Even Shane Reti had to admit that the majority in his electorate wanted to keep the Auckland border closed.

          Even though it is costing us money without Aucklanders spending.

        • DukeEll 14.2.1.3
          12 November 2021 at 4:31 pm

          The only words spoken about Jacinda must be grateful and pleasing? Most aucklanders have quietly given up on the rules, and this vocally given up on this government.

          The fear of facing that is what kept jacinda off queen st.

          The acknowledgement they've lost it's what giving aucklanders a summer holiday.

          What is the point of a rule that no one every obeys.

          I'm jabbed, i'll wear a mask and i'll sign in. But i'll also go to bbq's and have drinks with my friends and generally get on with my life as best i can. And if you have a problem with that, then fuck you. You obviously haven't lived in lock down for three months.

          • logie97 14.2.1.3.1
            13 November 2021 at 1:39 am

            Apparently there are many Aucklanders who are actually getting about, managing to get to west coast beaches for healthy walks and coping well in the circumstances. Actually getting on with life. It would be interesting to know how many of these "failing" businesses really exist and how many are just creations to fit a narrative. Plenty of subsidies to see them through to better times. Seems European countries that followed the "let's get back to normal" approach are having to double down now.

  15. infused 15
    11 November 2021 at 3:46 pm

    Odd from Barry… pick your battles mate.

  16. Sanctuary 16
    11 November 2021 at 4:00 pm

    Soper sums up much of what I have been pondering about aging lately. Much as it sounds horrible, we have to start thinking as a society about the social and cultural consequences of so many boomers remaining physically healthy far past the age where their intellectual capacity starts to fade. Sure, you can be seventy and fathering kids but while our physical shape can vary wildly most seventy years old are, well, seventy years old mentally. Sure, there are exceptions but generally anyone with a modicum of self awareness will know at seventy they are not the man they were at fifty in the cognitive department. Cognitive decline sets in from your late fifties and becomes rapid after seventy.

    It is hard – especially when you've had a glittering carrer – to admit you've had your day when you health is good and you remember Muldoon. Who else remembers the sad, stumbling old man Brian Edwards became on the panel, pushed around and bullied by Michelle Boag? I was so pleased when he gave it away, and last year I heard him being interviewed on RNZ as a man who has lived a great and interesting life should be – gently, warmly and responding with humour and wisdom. I smiled and listened and enjoyed that, something better to remember a good man by. But let us all just pause and consider that Soper has been around since the mid-1970s, yet Jason Walls wasn't even born until the 1990s. The intellectual landscape/world view of Walls is as incomprensible to Soper and Sopers is to Walls. The bottom line is Soper is well past his prime and now approaching just being past it.

    The issue of a boomer gerontocracy is important, because gerontocracy is a cousin to plutocracy. Power concentrated in the hands of old people who usually are also rich by little more than luck of birth will predictably lead to policies that benefit the old and rich. The young are unlikely to get much of a sympathetic hearing or notch up many policy wins from the entrenched wealth and privilege of the boomer generation, just ask Jacinda Ardern and Greta Thunberg! And of course, we all know how the stumbling old men of the Kremlin (and now it seems the ancient congresspeople, senators and presidents of the USA) send clear external signals about the morbidity of the political system they preside over.

    Soper used to be great listening – a quarter of a century ago. Now, he is just – in the words of Al Pacino – too old, too slow and too fucking blind.

    I think that the time is fast approaching for laws that set in place compulsory retirement ages across industries. No 70 year old has a right to use his position to rail against someone just for being thirty years younger and having the temerity to be the prime minister. I guess that contains an element of ageism, but I guess a bit of ageism is better than watching a bunch of rich and healthy septugenarians, octogenerians and even nonagenarians wreck the place just because they don't want admit they are no longer forty.

    • Patricia Bremner 16.1
      11 November 2021 at 4:23 pm

      yes This is a touchy subject lol I turn 80 this week. So I'm thinking… cognitive slip not linking my comment this morning lol. Yes Sanctuary, the hardest thing is to step aside for the more competent and be gracious as Andrew Little was.

      • roblogic 16.1.1
        11 November 2021 at 6:12 pm

        Happy Birthday Patricia! And many more.

      • Gezza 16.1.2
        11 November 2021 at 6:51 pm

        Cool. The decade ones are always special & worth having a family & friends party over.

        Will you hint to us what day it is, on the day, if it’s not already been traversed?

        • Patricia Bremner 16.1.2.1
          11 November 2021 at 8:18 pm

          smiley Thank you robologic. Much appreciated.

        • Patricia Bremner 16.1.2.2
          11 November 2021 at 8:34 pm

          Hi Gezza I have been hoping our son Ross could come from Waikato for it (Sat.) That does not look likely. We have a group of friends we used to golf and travel with who are coming, family can not.

          I was not brave enough to go out, as Lakes has low vaccination rates, so I'm doing a lunch here for 8 of us devil All the naughty things and the trimmings.

          I like to cook, and we are great talkers. Norm and John play all the "good old songs" on the guitars though we need a few bucklaughs fizz to sing in tune these days. Looking forward to it Cheers Gezza,

          (Just sad my brother in NSW can't come, neither can our son in Queensland and Norm's brother in Auckland plus Ross in Waikato but we will zoom and all singalong. Only turn 80 once.)

          • Gezza 16.1.2.2.1
            11 November 2021 at 10:06 pm

            Sounds awesome. Bet the food’s to die for,

            I’ll BE THERE in spirit when someone gives the best speech, Patricia.

            Will also raise a glass of something alcoholic to you down here, lass. Probably kahlua & milk, with ice.

      • Treetop 16.1.3
        11 November 2021 at 8:32 pm

        Patricia you do not need to be 80 to have a cognitive slip, I have them all the time, I am in my early 60's.

        Wishing you all the best for your 80th birthday. I thought you were about 70.

        • Patricia Bremner 16.1.3.1
          11 November 2021 at 8:41 pm

          Oh Treetop you have made my day smiley I feel blessed.

          • Anne 16.1.3.1.1
            11 November 2021 at 9:59 pm

            When I had my 50th birthday, my siblings sent me a beautiful bouquet of flowers with a card saying happy birthday Anne you don't look a day over 60.

            Ratbags.

            • Gezza 16.1.3.1.1.1
              11 November 2021 at 10:13 pm

              Siblings are always bastards like that.

              Me n mine can call each other the most outlandish things dating back our sins & embarrassments as babies.

              But, as the old adage goes:

              Me against my brother & my sister
              Me, my brother, & my sister, against our cuzzies,
              Me, my brother, & my sister, & my cuzzies, against every other bastard

      • Anne 16.1.4
        11 November 2021 at 8:58 pm

        Yes, I had my 80th birthday recently Patricia and am well aware my brain does not function in the manner it did 20 plus years ago.

        One cautionary word. We "septuagenarians and octogenarians " do have historical knowledge and experiences which can be useful to the young ones if they are willing to listen.

        • In Vino 16.1.4.1
          11 November 2021 at 9:52 pm

          Agree with all of you… Would just add that I (only 75) have met a number of 90+ people who seemed to have lost none of their mental sharpness at all. (Unless I have already lost all mine…)

          Well-written Sanctuary, and live it up Patricia

        • Patricia Bremner 16.1.4.2
          11 November 2021 at 10:05 pm

          True Anne, I often reflect on the wonderful people I had in my life, many now passed away. That is the painful bit.

          I really feel for the people in lockdown. That is hard. I spent 6 months in a hospital and was not allowed visitors because we were considered infectious when I had Polio at age 6 in 1947. I was also in an iron lung for a period, so to get to 80 still reasonably well is downright amazing. Yes Anne we have lived the history.

        • Treetop 16.1.4.3
          11 November 2021 at 10:05 pm

          Anne I do not know if my brain will be functioning at 80. I might be worse than Soper.

          I thought you were 70 max.

      • Brigid 16.1.5
        11 November 2021 at 9:29 pm

        It'll be a while yet before you need to 'step aside' Patricia

        Your eloquence and intelligence is well appreciated.

        I hope you have a glorious birthday and

        May the road rise up to meet you..

    • DS 16.2
      11 November 2021 at 5:11 pm

      Soper has problems, but it's not his age. After all, Mike Hosking is in his mid-50s.

      One's age is irrelevant to the value of one's opinions (c.f. Bernie Sanders, Jeremy Corbyn), and the notion that one has nothing to offer once they turn 70 is absurd and offensive.

    • Gezza 16.3
      11 November 2021 at 5:49 pm

      Much food for thought. 66 years old, & reasonably tech savvy, wiv me iPad & Galaxy A30 smartphone, using mobile data & free hospital patient wifi, was well connected with the world, pretty well as normal.

      Found myself in a shared hospital room for two days with two different older gentlemen. One, 73, spent most of his life in Oz but retired back in Levin. Didn’t know how to use a laptop or smartphone, his 2nd wife in her 60s does that sort of stuff for him. I texted her to get her to call the hospital so he could chat & make arrangements with her to meet him when he was discharged, via Palmy North Hospital, after a 3 hour ambo ride on bumpy roads that he was dreading, the next day

      2nd chap I did a double take when I overheard him give his birth year to the nurse as 1924! Yep, he’s 97, still pretty independently mobile, & mentally sharp enuf to query the single dose of his meds that should have been a double, & to hold intelligent conversations with docs & me about anything – except modern comms tech. Another chap who is right out of date & doesn’t use the internet unless someone can do it for him.

      They were effectively lost to their whanau while I was chatting & texting & emailng away to my 3 siblings nearly every day.

    • RedLogix 16.4
      11 November 2021 at 6:01 pm

      Adults pass through three major phases of their life – a physical prime, an intellectual prime and finally a spiritual prime.

      All indigenous societies understood this.

  17. Adrian 17
    11 November 2021 at 4:01 pm

    The AirForce jet thing has another dimension, while it was relocating people to Auckland and took along the PM and back to Welly it only had to do another 100 kms back to Ohakea, all well and good but it probably does a lot of kms with nobody on board other than crew as the crew needs to do a fixed number of hours every month to maintain skills etc. So probably nothing wasted or better still, 2 jobs for the price of one. That Jacinda eh, always careful with the money. Good on you JA

    • ghostwhowalksnz 17.1
      11 November 2021 at 5:57 pm

      Not based at Ohakea

      MIQ hotels mostly In Auckland, but Army has bases at Trentham in wellington and Linton outside Palmerston North

      Take defence force staff to Auckland( with Ardern) , turn around fly back to Wellington ( with personel finishing their 2 week stint and Ardern ) and return to Auckland where its based. The timing is to suit Arderns timetable

      The idea of flying that way to avoid covid is absurd , as Ardern has flown commercial to other cities in level 2.

  18. Adrian 18
    11 November 2021 at 4:12 pm

    Replying to Sanctuary , I love telling my cohort when they complain about the young having fun or doing anything, and “ as for Marri being spoken every bloody where! “ It’s not your world now it is theirs, and the ones I know are far more tolerant, accepting and inclusive than we ever were so just STFU and relax, drink your beer, if you can keep it down and, watch them make a better world than we left them.

  19. roblogic 19
    11 November 2021 at 5:51 pm

    Grammatical quibble MickySavage.

    The phrase "Deranged Ardren Syndrome" should probably be rearranged/corrected to "Ardern Derangement Syndrome" (ADS).

    Or maybe IMHOA (irrational misogynistic hatred of Ardern)??

  20. Gezza 20
    11 November 2021 at 6:47 pm

    Haley Wotsherface on 1Ewes at 6 just announced that Kimberly Downs, their “cricket tragic” “has been up since before sparrow’s fart” (& then something about the Black Caps who -.unless they’re playing rugger for a benefit, or some kind of amplified musical instrument – I generally pay no attention to).

    “Sparrow’s fart”? Is THIS the kind of language we now need to expect from our tv sportscaster stars❓

    I always knew that dog saying “Bugger” on the Hi-lux ad was the start of a slippery slope. 😠 😀

    • peter sim 20.1
      11 November 2021 at 8:43 pm

      There are sprtscaster "stars"?

      OBTW my dog often swears at me using other words as well. I will not repeat them.
      I have no idea how she learnt them.

  21. Adrian 21
    11 November 2021 at 9:11 pm

    At least hayley was an Olympian.