National’s attack on Kim Dotcom during this election was as viciously personal as it was effective. Nice to see one Journalist speaking up about it:
Dita De Boni: Kim Dotcom – the unwanted entrepreneur
… The National Party spin doctors have been hard at work, painting him [Dotcom] as an evil German trying to subvert democracy, throwing in a side smear of “secret Nazi”.
The first big charge against him is that he used his wealth to “try to sway the election”. On that front, his mistake was probably being open about what he was up to.
To be clear, this is not at all like the people who pay $10,000 a head for a National Party fundraiser, hoping to entrench their entitlement. Not a bit like Alan Gibbs, who uses his wealth to keep a party with less than 1 per cent of the vote alive, and pumping its warped ideas into the national dialogue.
Not like Colin Craig, who is using his wealth to finance a platform that many find whacky. No, this is finance provided to the left wing, and as such, is inherently evil. …
Excuse me if I don’t judge this man based on the spin put out by people who engage in dirty politics. Maybe Kim Dotcom can’t be trusted, but we know for sure they can’t be.
It has been disappointing to hear people like David Cunliffe buy into the wholesale dissing of Dotcom, as if Crosby/Textor is writing his lines as well.
The fact is that Dotcom helped a group of people who represent the most marginalised in society to get a voice on the national stage – a group promoting things like free tertiary education and eradicating child poverty which are, after all, true left-wing causes. …
Well worth reading the whole article.
So what, if anything will Kim Dotcom do (politically) next? Is his “brand” now “poison” as Dotcom himself put it? Will politicians now avoid association with him?
My bet is that he will cut his losses and stay out of NZ politics from now on. In the unlikely event that he did decide to get involved, and was still of a mind to rock the right wing’s boat, then surely the most effective avenue would be to fund an existing left-wing party (but have no other association with it). Or perhaps an alternative media source – start a new media channel, or newspaper, fund The Daily Blog (seems sensible given Mana links)?
One thing is for sure, support for any kind of left-wing initiative would see Dotcom once again comprehensively vilified by National. Why would he put himself through that again?
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