Now we have some idea of the level of contempt and joy Lusk & Slater privately have in manipulating the mainstream media, will Firstline, RadioLive, ZB and The Nation continue to have him as a commentator on their shows?
I’ve emailed Richard Harmen of The Nation to see if he will continue to have Slater on, now we know he uses his blog to perpetrate the darker machinations of a far right agenda within the National Party.
It’s not that I don’t think many within those media organizations don’t sympathize with Slater’s right wing extremism, it’s just that I think they will be angry that he thinks he can manipulate them so easily.
What Lusk and Slater and David Farrar have understood for some time now is that news organizations are increasingly being gutted and in a 24 hour news cycle, Journalists are pushed for research time and many don’t have the institutionalized meta knowledge of the political hegemonic structure to contextualize the raw feed of the live present.
Blogs seed the news cycle for tomorrows headlines. It makes the Journalists job far easier if they can research Whaleoil or Kiwiblog while pumping out another 7 social media stories before lunchtime.
That is indeed one of the reasons I started The Daily Blog. To counter the influence of the right wing blogs. I’m a lefty because we have the answers to the social injustice of the free market and our ideas don’t get much canvassing if the mainstream are only taking their influences from the right. Bringing together some of the best progressive bloggers in NZ onto one site provides the counter weight to this right wing pollution. Last month, The Daily Blog increased to over 200 000 page views, making us the 5th largest blog in the country within 3 months. We hope to build on this right up to the 2014 election and push the case for policy and Political Parties that take the social justice concerns of the poor seriously.
Seeking to enter the debate in democratic life is admirable and should be encouraged by more, but it’s to what ends such interaction is aimed that should be the question.
A financial transactions tax, feeding every poor kid, 12 month maternity leave, living wage, equal pay, abortion rights, respecting our minority citizens, protecting the environment, real affordable housing, legalizing medicinal cannabis, a green economy, some type of compulsory Union fee, better public services and curbing corporate power while standing up to America and China is about as dangerous as we get.
Oh, and we’d also probably want Israel to close its embassy.
Slater & Lusk on the other hand do so to engage and provoke a reactionary white male anger and they manipulate that fury into political momentum to ultimately place in power a hard right crypto-fascist State.
If you want to see the NZ of tomorrow under Lusk & Slater, just read the comments section of Whaleoil. It is a journey into mad darkness that makes Apocalypse Now look like a children’s tea party.
The mainstream media must ask themselves if they want to be party to that or is it their responsibility to challenge every inch of this kind of Machiavellian nonsense by removing Slater from the debate and the attention altogether?
Attempting to influence the news is fine, the issue is to what ends and the eye opening leaks from the Prime Ministers Office into what Lusk and Slater have been up to suggest even the National Party leadership find these tactics to be concerning.
Perhaps the media should as well.
Coverage of the Lusk papers on TV in the weekend was rather interesting: TV 3 – comprehensive coverage; Prime News – briefly mentioned; One News, Q & A – complete silence.
I agree with your sentiments Martyn, but I’m more cynical of the MSM’s ability to pull themselves out of their trance and start doing real journalistic work. I’m also sure most of the sheeple will look on this latest revelation as some sort of left wing conspiracy.
So Cameron Slater’s been exposed as right-wing and manipulative? Where’s the news in that?
Surely he’s the perfect foil for someone who’s left-wing and manipulative, and therefore as a commentator he’s able to add balance.
The day the media want to talk to someone who’s balanced (as opposed to balancing between extremes), well my phone’s on the hook…
The difference is Cameron is an ignorant muppet who knows nothing about REALITY. Just like right wingers the world over whose DELUDED policies have been LONG SINCE DISCREDITED. Certainly, as a complete nobody, with no poltical qualifications or experinece in industry, or it seems, anything, Slater is really just like, a creepy little bug that crawled out of the wood work. He has no relevant qualification or experience and should be ignored.
Now the difference between the left5 and the right, historically observable, you disengenuous dolt, is that the right have proved they will sink to any low in order to achieve the aim of justifying wealthy greed. Where as the left actually have moral integrity, which makes it difficult for them to cheat in the same way. The left right so called schism is a false dichotomy. Absolutely meaningless. It is simply those who are correct and have an accurate grasp on the goals of civilisation how they can best be achieved and the right, who simply don’t, and merely represent the wishes of the privileged few and pedal these to the masses under the guise of false neo liberal ideology. Guess what the trickle down effect doesn’t exist, dick head. Privatisation of core industry DOESN”T WORK. AUSTERITY MEASURES DON”T WORK. THIS IS VERIFIABLE FACT. IT’s CALLED REALITY DIP SHIT! DEAL WITH IT. DO YOUR FKN RESEARH AND OPEN YOUR FKN EYES YOU FKN MORONS. I’m sick of hearing you mind dump drivel, as if the “left” the “right” were some hjow equal or on par… HA HAHAHA what a joke. You may as well call it the “Correct” and “Deluded”. It really is that simple.
Good one bomber all media are controlled by corperates who support the likes of slater and co our job is to fight back the best way possible which includes public rallies and so forth and getting those workers on the margins to vote at every election
Brilliant
If I want sane, rational commentary, I’ll opt for Matthew Hooton or, if I’m desperate (which I’m not), David Farrar.
Whilst I still disagree with Hooton on most issues, he presents a coherent case without too much cliched rhetoric and other rightwing nuttery.
Slater is our Anne Coulter.
Why would we want Israel to close its embassy? I am no fan of Israel’s occupation of Palestine and indeed very critical of it but closing the embassy and cutting all political communication/ties seems unnecessary and extreme? Mainly it seems like a really random comment/out of place with the other domestic policies.
Anyways I also wonder if they will continue to use him as a pundit anymore. I hope they stick up for some sort of dignity and refuse to seeing how much he disdains them and seeks to manipulate them.
The image of daddy’s overweight gimp son locked in the basement with only a keyboard for company, replete with spandex suit and a host of mental illnesses/demons springs to mind.
[…] Will the mainstream media continue to use Cameron Slater as a commentator now he’s been exposed? […]
Despite Whale Oil’s boorishness, I think the blog plays an important part in New Zealand democracy and in encouraging freedom of expression and speech in New Zealand.
Sometimes, rhetoric is an important part of getting one’s point across and doing away with language plagued with political correctness.
Mind you, Whale Oil cites the same reason to justify its existence as you do— its views are not covered by “Mainstream Media”.
You call mainstream media as “Right Wing”, Whale Oil calls it politically correct. It’s all a matter of perspective, I suppose..?
Your Blog and Whale Oil have more in common than you would like to admit. You both claim to be “marginalized”.
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