Fran O’Sullivan’s continuing her ongoing philosophical project of interrogating the notion of truth in her latest repetition of Kiwiblog talking points Herald column. In it she picks up on the Owen Glenn interview and from a few disparate facts weaves a story of intrigue and mystery. Or rather provides us with an insight into the strange life of her mind.
I’m not even going to bother a point by point refutation of this odd piece of fiction because to be honest after a close reading I realised there is very little substance in there to refute. The real gold is in the rhetoric. Here’s one of my favorites:
The Labour Party president’s comments may be literally true.
Did you get that? “literally true”. Apparently the literal truth isn’t good enough anymore. I guess that means we need to look at the figurative truth then Fran? And, after mentioning the fact that Glenn lent the party money for fundraising (money which has been paid back in full), that’s exactly what she goes on to do:
Owen Glenn’s disclosures call into sharp relief how much of the $800,000 Labour paid back into taxpayers’ coffers is the result of similar loans. The public is entitled to know.
Now you’ll note that Fran doesn’t put forward a skerrick of evidence for her allegation but then decides the public is entitled to know. There’s a name for this kind of argument and one of our more vociferous commenters has written about it on his blog before but, as The Standard is a “G” rated blog, I’m not even going to link to it. I will however say this:
The paucity of facts in this column and O’Sullivan’s recent piece on the “above ground option” call into sharp relief how much of her “reporting” is actually done while under the influence of hallucinogenic substances. The reading public is entitled to know.
Now do you see how this kind of rhetoric works Fran? Because, despite what you may think, everyone else does. I can only assume that when the Herald subbed the title of your column “Public deserves better answers” they were referring to your standard of commentary.
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