The desperation of the National’s sockpuppets

Written By: - Date published: 6:51 pm, May 14th, 2014 - 77 comments
Categories: blogs, david cunliffe, dpf, john key, making shit up, Minister for Photo-ops, social media lolz, spin, you couldn't make this shit up - Tags: , ,

National Party pollster David Farrar must be seeing some numbers he really doesn’t like because he’s veered off on another weird attack on David Cunliffe.
This time he’s falsely claiming Cunliffe’s photoshopped himself into an event he didn’t attend.

The slight problem with Farrar’s breathless accusation is that there are pictures online of David at the rally. Like this one and many more that can easily be found around the net…

This looks like another odd attempt to smear a man that the Nats are clearly worried about. It looks David Farrar finally realised how much of a dickhead he looks as he goes from this incorrect assertion (ie a lie) with a touch of plausible deniability.

I’m not a photoshop expert but I’ve shown it to a couple of people who handy with photo editing, and they reckon it is photoshopped. They may be wrong. Any experts out there who can offer an opinion?

Which when he finds he is wrong descends to this attempt at pushing infer that the his guilt for being a very lazy mischief maker is the other guys fault…

UPDATE: Have had confirmed that David Cunliffe was at the rally. So the image may be touched up, but is genuine.

And on to a series of justification about why he David Farrar really is not just a petty dipshit putting out this kind of nonsense and never bothering to check it. I guess he is trying to remember the glory days when he was the single big voice in the local blogs and could lie like this for his paymasters  with relative impunity.

Cameron Slater stalking David Cunliffe1It is a hell of a bad look for someone who has spent so much time on the board of InternetNZ that he is too damn lazy to use google to check some bullshit someone sent him. I guess that they were hard up for competent candidates.

But even weirder (as usual) is the under-employed Cameron Slater, a blogger with no visible means of support and with lots of friends in the Prime Minsters office, posting creepy, paparazzi style pictures of David Cunliffe eating his lunch at parliament. The question one has to ask is from whom did the bloated moron get this photo from? John Key our Minister for Photo-ops or his personal blogmeister Jason Ede perhaps?

Only in the weird and obsessive imaginations of the bloggers that the National Party pays for one way or another could eating your lunch and speaking to a rally in support of saving kidnapped girls be political crimes.

Cameron Slater stalking David CunliffeWhat dirt will they dig up next? David Cunliffe buying shoes? Oh, wait

Just pathetic. I expect we will see a lot more of National’s dickheads acting like fools heading into this election. It isn’t like they have substantial to support in this governments economic record apart from National being good at putting us heavily into debt again.

77 comments on “The desperation of the National’s sockpuppets ”

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  1. Ant 1
    14 May 2014 at 7:03 pm

    It also looks like Farrar and his hot shot team of photoshop gurus in their tinfoil-hattery don’t know the techniques of how an image is sharpened and adjusted to give the main subject more emphasis or to compensate for being out of focus. You mask the subject from the background then adjust them independently, generally as their own layer.

    As a technique it is pretty normal part of work flow for processing photos.

    I suppose for them that would still be a case of Cunliffe being Tricky™.

    • framu 1.1
      15 May 2014 at 8:14 am

      and thats just the tip of the iceberg in regards to what photoghraphers do in photoshop to real images

    • RJL 1.2
      15 May 2014 at 9:15 am

      Given the evidence of DPFs various posts documenting bush walks and climbs in Nepal etc, it seems that he knows nothing much about either photography or photoshop.

  2. SHG 2
    14 May 2014 at 7:04 pm

    The image in question has obviously been manipulated, and not very proficiently.

    [lprent: That may be your opinion – and I’d say that it is impossible to tell. Go and raise your pet lies, assertions and conspiracies on your own post on your own blog or comment in Open Mike. Don’t do it on mine, they really are just a diversion troll.

    My post is almost entirely about David Farrar and Cameron Slater being a complete dickheads stalking Cunliffe with silly picture posts. ]

    • lprent 2.1
      14 May 2014 at 7:09 pm

      Huh? He was at the rally. Is there any particular reason to say that he was not. It took only a couple minutes to find out that David Farrar was just outright lying in his post in suggesting that David Cunliffe wasn’t at that rally.

      What is your point – that you are a complete putz?

      Incidentally, if you notice, my post isn’t about the image – it is about David Farrar claims that Cunliffe wasn’t at the rally. If you raise a different topic – do it in Open Mike.

      • SHG 2.1.1
        14 May 2014 at 7:23 pm

        Way to leap to conclusions. I’m not saying he wasn’t at the rally.

        [deleted]

        [lprent: I didn’t say that you did. I said that David Farrar did? Is this a sockpuppet? But you didn’t heed my warnings about what I the author considered this post to be about. Do not repeat the offense for which you got warned – banned 2 months. That is one fast way to de-amnesty yourself. ]

  3. Awww 3
    14 May 2014 at 7:10 pm

    Intrusive. Maybe this is why he didn’t want to do the Campbell Live interview.

    • lprent 3.1
      14 May 2014 at 7:14 pm

      I wasn’t aware that David Farrar was doing one.

    • Anne 3.2
      14 May 2014 at 7:26 pm

      They’re stalking Cunliffe! It’s a measure of the fear they have of him… and their gut instinct is to sink to the lowest common denominator when the going gets tough.

      Its easy to see what the Crosby/Textor instructions are for the next few months. Lie, lie, lie. Lie in the House, on the street, in the TV studios… anywhere. And the nearer to the election the bigger the lies will become.

      Labour/especially must deploy a counter strategy otherwise the bastards will succeed.

      • geoff 3.2.1
        14 May 2014 at 7:37 pm

        They’re stalking Cunliffe!

        Yeah it’s incredibly creepy, and exactly what you’d expect from these…well…creeps.

        And you’re dead right about the lying lying lying.

        I think the only strategy Labour can deploy is to hold up Key/Nationals lies next to the reality and let the voter see the stark contrast.

        • blue leopard 3.2.1.1
          14 May 2014 at 8:19 pm

          Whilst this short video (1.52min) is about wikileaks I believe it gives a good insight into the National party strategy and what it must be like in the National party strategy team when a factual report comes out:

        • Will@Welly 3.2.1.2
          14 May 2014 at 9:08 pm

          Simple – flood the country with BLiP’s posters – John Key’s lies.

      • burt 3.2.2
        14 May 2014 at 8:45 pm

        They’re stalking Cunliffe!

        Like myself, many of them probably have iPredict contracts that he’ll be gone before the end of the year. So sure, he cops a beating. However at this stage, the odds of him not being leader by end of 2014 are about 4x his rating’s as preferred PM. I have a double vested interest in seeing him go, a) he is IMHO a complete disaster as a leader of a workers rights party and b) I benefit on iPredict 😉

        • mickysavage 3.2.2.1
          14 May 2014 at 8:55 pm

          Burt your thinking that David is a disaster as a leader has reinforced my belief that he is the appropriate leader and will win. Better start selling your ipredict stock …

        • Tracey 3.2.2.2
          15 May 2014 at 8:46 am

          sorry burt, are you saying some people might be deliberately doing false stuff and smearing to bring in their ipredict bet? I realise YOU are not doing that, just wasnt sure about the connection between your comment that people have contracts he will be gone… and so sure he’s copping a beating.

  4. TheContrarian 4
    14 May 2014 at 7:17 pm

    I don’t doubt he was there, but someone did a shitty job.

    LPrent, stop being such a sensitive wee soul. It’s a shit picture.

    [lprent: You mean that it is black and white? Since almost certainly was taken on a color CCD and made black and white by photo manipulation inside the camera of outside, the image itself isn’t that interesting.

    But the post isn’t about the image it is about Farrar and the bloated moron being dickhead stalkers. So this is your warning. Try Open Mike for conspiracy theories.. or return to the banned… ]

    • geoff 4.1
      14 May 2014 at 7:30 pm

      I’ve just looked at the image on the Labour party website and it looks like it has the standard instagram filter on it, nothing special. certainly doens’t look like it has had him pasted in there.

      Why would they bother doing that if he was at the rally anyway??
      It’s not like it’s a super important picture anyway and it only features on the Labour website.

      The kiwiblog picture looks edited but that’s because it’s clear that Farrar has edited it! (contrast etc)

      Lynn is correct, this is a lame smear attempt from Farrar/National that has back fired. It does smack of desperation.

      • lprent 4.1.1
        14 May 2014 at 7:47 pm

        Be fair. Farrar said that he received the possibly enhanced photo from someone via email (as I remember it). Of course he could have just googled to find the originals and not looked like a dork.

        I guess that cautionary thought just never reached past the National driven stupidity?

        Of course that someone could have been Cameron Slater or Jason Ede from Whaleoil I guess. Both have track record of being imaginative about getting good photos

        • geoff 4.1.1.1
          14 May 2014 at 8:01 pm

          I guess that cautionary thought just never reached past the National driven stupidity?

          Well as you say in your post, what numbers has Farrar seen? People are much more likely to do stupid things when they get desperate.

        • Draco T Bastard 4.1.1.2
          14 May 2014 at 8:57 pm

          I guess that cautionary thought just never reached past the National driven stupidity?

          Nope. It would have been an immediate ZOMG!!!, must post immediately to show how tricky DC is!!!11!.

          • lprent 4.1.1.2.1
            14 May 2014 at 9:22 pm

            Cameron Slater perhaps. But David Farrar?

            I suspect that he thinks a bit more than that. That is why I think he must be getting a bit desperate after looking at the polling numbers he does for them in his non-blogging “work”.

            Or someone reading them in his control at the 9th floor is and ordering him to take a few more risks.

            • Colonial Viper 4.1.1.2.1.1
              14 May 2014 at 11:21 pm

              Or someone reading them in his control at the 9th floor is and ordering him to take a few more risks.

              I would say that is more likely.

              Farrar is a contractor. He’s not going to be taking liberties this close to elections without clearing it all with his political client first.

      • Tracey 4.1.2
        15 May 2014 at 8:49 am

        I would expect this from the Slug but thought Farrar’s lies were more massaged and subtle. There is no way a normal person’s first reaction tor receiving such a photo and suggestion would NOT be to do a google search and see if he was there or not.

        It’s the complete lack of contrition when found out that is staggering. Oh well, they caught that lie, no worries, now for the next one…

    • TheContrarian 4.2
      14 May 2014 at 10:03 pm

      Warning heeded, mien commandant.

      And I want to thank for this break you’re giving me – I spent the last 2 hours or so in a state of catatonic despair, rolling round on the floor gibbering like an Oxy addict. Drenched in sweat, spinal-column wracked with spasms. Beset with terrific fear that the great Lovelockian terror, the Cthulhu of The Standard, would wrought his justice, fling me into the pits of madness for having the opinion that a photo, not one I thought was staged or photoshopped, merely looked shit and poorly done.

      I’ll breathe a sigh of relief, suck back heartily on my nicotine vaporiser, and think of some other beast to prod.

      As you were kind sir.

      • lprent 4.2.1
        14 May 2014 at 10:09 pm

        Good to hear that I brought some excitement to your life.

        • TheContrarian 4.2.1.1
          14 May 2014 at 10:13 pm

          The way you prance about here like a peacock makes me feel I brought some to yours.

          Lets call it even.

          • lprent 4.2.1.1.1
            14 May 2014 at 10:32 pm

            You always can raise silly conspiracy theories in the sewer or Open Mike. Just not on my post. Seems perfectly fair to me. Just like knowingly lying seems fair to Farrar.

            • TheContrarian 4.2.1.1.1.1
              14 May 2014 at 10:35 pm

              Lucky for me I didn’t actually suggest any sort of conspiracy or wizardry has taken place then.

              • lprent …
                14 May 2014 at 10:49 pm

                Good point. You are correct. It is a crap poster.

                As you might have picked up, I am pretty pissed off about the lying that showed up today at the sewer. It is stupid, shallow, and something that needs quashing as a political technique.

                However I am pretty sure that it is simple to make up such mischief. Farrar will make quite a good target between now and the election. With a bit of luck we can see if he appreciates the attention enough to donate me some discovery time.

                • Tracey …
                  15 May 2014 at 8:51 am

                  and in all his replies not a word of condemnation of farrar’s mistake/deliberate lie/smear

    • Frank Macskasy 4.3
      15 May 2014 at 12:37 am

      @ Contrarian; “LPrent, stop being such a sensitive wee soul.”

      That should be “LPrent, stop being such a sensitive wee sausage”

      If you’re going to quote the milklady, do it right.

      Anyhoo. There are those who think that astronauts on the moon were faked – the 1970s equivalents of photoshopping. Nothing wrong with this pic; http://fmacskasy.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/moon-landing.jpg

      😉

  5. Jimmie 5
    14 May 2014 at 7:35 pm

    [deleted]

    [lprent: Banned 4 weeks. ]

    • Anne 5.1
      14 May 2014 at 7:40 pm

      oooooooh… they don’t like it up em do they.

    • geoff 5.2
      14 May 2014 at 7:40 pm

      You are showing your age, Jimmie.
      It’s called Instagram, all the kids are doing it these days…

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instagram

      • freedom 5.2.1
        15 May 2014 at 8:44 am

        from KB
        “jims_whare (393 comments) says:
        May 14th, 2014 at 8:32 pm

        The leftazis at the standard are a wee big exercised about this post…..akin to blasphemy I think. I got banned for 4 weeks for suggesting that DC needed someone with slightly better touch up skills than whoever mucked this up.”

        I never saw what Jimmie said, but guessing it was not as innocent as he is trying to suggest

  6. Ant 6
    14 May 2014 at 7:43 pm

    I think the biggest crime here is not using the “this looks shopped” meme when you have the opportunity.

    http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/this-looks-shopped

    Someone should also let DPF know that a hastag wasn’t magically floating in front of Cunliffe at the protest either. Obviously a grey and overcast day in Wellington though…

  7. Stephanie Rodgers 7
    14 May 2014 at 8:04 pm

    The Internet Party’s anti-GCSB surveillance ad directly below the post is delightfully appropriate.

  8. felix 8
    14 May 2014 at 8:38 pm

    “It is a hell of a bad look for someone who has spent so much time on the board of InternetNZ that he is too damn lazy to use google to check some bullshit someone sent him.”

    Yes well I imagine he gives the bullshit a little extra credence when it comes from the PM’s office.

  9. Mary 9
    14 May 2014 at 8:55 pm

    What’s more perplexing is how MSM thinks farrar and slater have something to say.

    • Draco T Bastard 9.1
      14 May 2014 at 9:10 pm

      +1

    • lprent 9.2
      14 May 2014 at 9:14 pm

      Farrar and Slater provide a channel for sleaze merchants (and some reporters) to bypass the integrity and checking that reporters are meant to have.

      There have a been a number of instances that I am aware of where a story that was offered to the gallery by National’s dumpster divers and was turned down because it was unverifiable and frankly rubbish.

      Then lo and behold within a week, it turns up on one of the Nationally funded blogs like Kiwiblog or Whaleoil. Still unverified. Still without proof. Still not a story that any journalist would touch because it would violate the press council rules.

      But when it is on a National blog, then of course the media can talk about this story turning up on the blog rather than having to check and verify.

      Of course you understand that these blogs are available right around the country eh? Has nothing to do with A National Political Party….

      They really are dickheads to think that this kind of daft back channelling to the MSM isn’t pretty damn obvious.

      • repateet 9.2.1
        14 May 2014 at 11:13 pm

        The strange thing is the WhaleOil photo of D Cunliffe today was neither preceded nor followed by a Mental Health break. An admission of being beyond help?

      • karol 9.2.2
        15 May 2014 at 7:14 am

        Interesting that on last night’s episode of The Good Wife, there was a Slater-type blogger. It was explained as a standard strategy (in the US): one whereby a political smear article, rejected by the MSM because the evidence contradicted the claims, was posted by a blogger. It included a title/subtitle explaining it as what the MSM wouldn’t print – as though it had been unnecessarily censored.

      • Stephanie Rodgers 9.2.3
        15 May 2014 at 9:22 am

        And in this instance Farrar can use the defence of “Oh, I was just asking an innocent question, silly me”.

  10. Tiger Mountain 10
    14 May 2014 at 9:24 pm

    A truly pathetic display from Farrar. Where next will senior opposition figures encounter pap lenses? Shower cam? That morning after photo of carpet after a press gallery function was pointless enough but David Cunliffe having a meal, really.

    Good too that the Snowden pipe is drip drip dripping on the kiwi spooks too. Of course no one seriously expects them to be gathering lots of data but they sure as hell have access to some of the yanks efforts. ShonKey is the minister where the buck stops, his school chum in charge, so “I know nothink” will not cut it for much longer.

    • Colonial Viper 10.1
      14 May 2014 at 11:18 pm

      Good too that the Snowden pipe is drip drip dripping on the kiwi spooks too. Of course no one seriously expects them to be gathering lots of data but they sure as hell have access to some of the yanks efforts.

      Everything entering and leaving NZ via international cables and satellites will probably be swept up and stored. Anything which goes through a google (including Gmail and YouTube), yahoo!, hotmail or similar will definitely be swept up and stored. I expect that NZ plays its part as one of the original Five Eyes.

      • Tiger Mountain 10.1.1
        15 May 2014 at 6:52 am

        “probably” Viper, that is the problem when the Prime Minister hides behind not disclosing “operational matters”. Waihopai does not sit there for nothing or legislation enabling leaning on the ISPs. This post and comments will likely have been perused already.

  11. lurgee 11
    15 May 2014 at 6:59 am

    I imagine Farrar is just trying to be annoying here; he has clearly succeeded.

  12. anker 12
    15 May 2014 at 7:38 am

    @lurgee 11.

    What a meaningless shallow life Farrar must have. All his goals appear to be selfish……… If one is going to be annoying, better to pick something that will help people or advance good causes, e.g. being annoying about why this govt didn’t pay out Pike River Miner families as they were due………

    Some people need to get out and do some real work e.g. helping a charity like The Hospice or the Sallies. Or what about making himself useful in Chch with a wheelbarrow.

    • lurgee 12.1
      15 May 2014 at 7:33 pm

      Of course his life is sad and empty! He’s a rightie! More to the point, he’s the man who admitted lightly cyber-stalking his first crush on a monthly basis on National Radio. Someone still mooning over Spotty Sally from 30 years ago is clearly the proud owner of a sad and empty existence.

  13. felix 13
    15 May 2014 at 8:33 am

    Oh ffs. The pic on the Labour site is colour! https://www.flickr.com/photos/nzlabour/13996007757/

    Is Farrar colourblind? No?

    Then he must have known the photo he published had already been manipulated.

  14. King Kong 14
    15 May 2014 at 9:50 am

    Many here were adamant in September that even though most of his colleagues, and the majority of those who have ever met him, couldn’t stand Cunliffe, he would be hugely popular with the public if elected leader.

    I have no reason to doubt those vociferous advocates (a few of whom are allegedly now working in Cunliffes office) so the only thing that could be making DC one of the least popular opposition leaders in history, is the smear campaign that Slater and Farrar have been accused of.

    If it is so successful why would they stop just because lprent starts crying about it?

    • lprent 14.1
      15 May 2014 at 10:18 am

      I don’t think it is a successful campaign. I just think it is a stupid and rather despicable campaign. However all I am intending to do is to focus exactly the same kind of personal crap back about Farrar (don’t need to do it about Cameron) because he really is a bit of an arsehole when he does it.

      Why would you object to that? Do you have some kind of double standard? Or are you busy boning one of them?

      And I was helping out Helen Clark throughout the 90’s. Her personal popularity barely got into double figures, then it went stratospheric. For that matter when John Key was anointed to be leader of the opposition, it took him a while to get close to 20%.

      Leaders of the opposition seldom rate in the personal popularity. But I guess you are simply too thick to have noticed that eh?

      • King Kong 14.1.1
        15 May 2014 at 10:38 am

        You keep on believing brother. If you don’t have your unflinching faith then you may, all too quickly, realise that you might be just a sad old man getting stiffies from bossing around losers whilst telling everyone just how clever you are on your own website.

        Unless I have misunderstood and you actually don’t think Cunliffe will be as popular as Clark or Key.

        • lprent 14.1.1.1
          15 May 2014 at 11:18 am

          I have no idea how popular he will be when he becomes PM at the end of the year. That really depends on what he does in office. If he does a Tony Abbott and turns out to have lied to the public, he won’t be popular.

          But most people who become PM have a massive rise in popularity either after they go into office and sometimes just before when it is clear that they will win. I don’t think it has anything much to do with support. In my opinion it has to do with simple name recognition and that people like “supporting” winners.

          The personal popularity measurement is essentially useless in my opinion at measuring much apart from name recognition.

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