It is bad enough that National pedals through its social media stuff that is blatantly not true. But it is really annoying when senior political reporters uncritically restate what is demonstrably not true.
This is what happened this morning when Barry Soper repeated National’s misrepresentation of something that Jacinda Ardern said during the last election campaign.
Soper said this:
How was Jacinda Ardern to know when she was being interviewed on a television debate last year that this time next week nurses could be downing their stethoscopes?
She was asked under a Government led by her whether the country would go back to the days of national, industry-wide strikes and she was adamant: “No we will not.”
Pressed on whether she was giving a rock-solid guarantee she was equally adamant, answering in the affirmative.
You could have expected her to know with the trade unions exerting much more power in a Government than they’ve ever been allowed to in the past that was always going to be a risk, which is now being realised.
There is one basic problem with Soper’s claim.
Jacinda was not asked if a Government led by her whether the country would go back to the days of national, industry-wide strikes. She was asked if there would be national strikes as a result of Labour’s fair pay industry wide bargaining proposal and her answer was there would not be.
National trimmed the video to remove the context and it looks like Soper fell for it hook line and sinker.
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