TDB NZ Blogger Alignment Awards 2015

“The blogs dont get to vote in the labour party, so we dont pay much consideration to it”
– Andrew Little, 2012

“I am not actively contacting Cameron Slater”
– John Key, 2014

It’s the end of the year and that time to cast our gaze over the years blogs to reward those who have done good and punish those who have done evil. As current affairs continue to be killed off and strangled on mainstream media by infotainment clickbait content that has no info or bait, the importance of the political blogs in shaping the opinion of current affairs continues.

2014 broke some huge stories on blogs, the ponytail hair pulling by John Key went global, Villainesse launched a powerful social media campaign and the Spinoff did some excellent blogs on the meltdown inside TV3.

It was also the year that saw Cameron Slater crash and burn out after the level of his desperation of being scammed by Ben Rachinger was exposed.

In a fractured media landscape, NZ on Air needs to start real consideration for serious funding into online media compared to what they sink into TV and Radio. Blowing another million on The Nation on a dying media platform like TV while so many more stories are being broken by independent online blogs seems backwards not forwards.

Watching the scrapheap of excellent journalists being cancelled and silenced is making us here at TDB consider launching our own weeknightly live streamed current events show next year. We are thinking 7.01pm Monday-Friday so that you all have a chance to see how awful Story & 7 Sharp are before switching us on.

But that’s for next year.

Without further ado, here are this years TDB Blogger Alignment Awards 2015*, with much referencing to Wiki for the Dungeons & Dragons alignment descriptions.

Lawful Good Blogger 2015: Lizzie Marvelly – Villainesse

Lawful Good is known as the “Saintly” or “Crusader” alignment. A Lawful Good blogger typically acts with compassion, and always with honor and a sense of duty.

Marvelly started the feminist blog, ‘Villianesse’ this year and it has become a daily must read. It is one of the best feminist blogs in the country with a line up of news and opinion from perspective’s rarely given platform. Marvelly’s work on the #mybodymyrules anti-revenge porn social media campaign was one of the best this year. Always fascinating and interesting, it deserves respect and support.

Neutral Good Blogger 2015: The Wireless
Neutral Good is known as the “Benefactor” alignment. A Neutral Good blogger is guided by his/her conscience and typically acts altruistically, without regard for or against Lawful precepts such as rules or tradition. A Neutral Good blogger has no problems with co-operating with lawful officials, but does not feel beholden to them.

It come across as twee and a bit Wellington at times, but The Wireless on RNZ has gone from strength to strength as an excellent source of information and longer reading. Very focused on the me first generation and not so strong on explaining hegemonic structures of power, it has the added bonus of not being as awful in its layout as the RNZ website.

Well worth reading.

Chaotic Good Blogger 2015: Keith Ng – Public Address
Chaotic Good is known as the “Beatific,” “Rebel,” or “Cynic” alignment. A Chaotic Good blogger favors change for a greater good, disdains bureaucratic organizations that get in the way of social improvement, and places a high value on personal freedom, not only for oneself, but for others as well.

Ng’s critique of Labour’s asian people are buying NZs houses statement made for uncomfortable reading because it was difficult to argue against. His work on delving into data and coming up to the surface with insight is almost unparalleled in the NZ media. His recent blog outing the desperation of Slater and the con man manipulations of Ben Rachinger was one of this years must reads.

Lawful Neutral Blogger 2015: DR JARROD GILBERT SOCIOLOGIST
Lawful Neutral is called the “Judge” or “Disciplined” alignment. A Lawful Neutral blogger typically believes strongly in Lawful concepts such as honor, order, rules and tradition, and often follows a personal code.

After winning the Canon Media Awards best blogger, Jarrod Gilbert did something few bloggers are able to do, prove David Farrar wrong and force him to apologise. Farrar lied and pretended that the Police Minister’s claims of thousands of gang members being in prison was true until Gilbert destroyed Farrar and the Minister’s lies. It was probably this more than anything that had the cops recently deny Gilbert access to data and threaten him. His reputation and mana grow every week.

Neutral Blogger 2015: Bryce Edwards – Liberation 
Neutral alignment, also referred to as True Neutral or Neutral Neutral, is called the “Undecided” or “Nature’s” alignment. This blogger represents Neutral on both axes, and tends not to feel strongly towards any alignment. A farmer whose primary overriding concern is to feed his family is of this alignment. Most animals, lacking the capacity for moral judgment, are of this alignment since they are guided by instinct rather than conscious decision. Many roguish characters who play all sides to suit themselves are also of this alignment (such as a weapon merchant with no qualms selling his wares to both sides of a war for a profit). Some Neutral bloggers, rather than feeling undecided, are committed to a balance between the alignments. They may see good, evil, law and chaos as simply prejudices and dangerous extremes.

Hated by the Wellington Twitteratti for owning a penis and daring to critique identity politics, Edwards remains the central point of blogging opinion. His column in the NZ Herald is a must read (despite moving away from the blogs and focusing more on the mainstream media) and his ability to pick the zeitgeist from week to week is almost supernatural. How Fairfax have gone this long without generating their own Edwards shows how far off the mark they’ve become.

Chaotic Neutral Blogger 2015 – Toby Manhire & Duncan Grieve – The Spinoff

Chaotic Neutral is called the “Anarchist” or “Free Spirit” alignment. A blogger of this alignment is an individualist who follows his or her own heart, and generally shirks rules and traditions. Although they promote the ideals of freedom, it is their own freedom that comes first. Good and Evil come second to their need to be free, and the only reliable thing about them is how totally unreliable they are. Chaotic Neutral bloggers are free-spirited and do not enjoy the unnecessary suffering of others, but if they join a team, it is because that team’s goals happen to coincide with their own at the moment. They invariably resent taking orders and can be very selfish in their pursuit of personal goals.

While Toby Manhire is simply ghastly on The Wireless with his awful simplistic attempts at speaking down to the kids, he has become a must read on The Spinoff. The Spinoff has finally become the new Listener minus all the cashed up property speculating baby boomers. It’s intelligent and clever, like a well funded Public Address. I never really read Duncan Grieve much before, but his insights into the meltdown at tv3 have been riveting. One of the best things to have happened to the NZ media landscape for a very long time.

Lawful Evil Vlogger 2015: Mike Hosking
Lawful Evil is referred to as the “Dominator” or “Diabolic” alignment. Bloggers of this alignment see a well-ordered system as being easier to exploit, and show a combination of desirable and undesirable traits; while they usually obey their superiors and keep their word, they care nothing for the rights and freedoms of other individuals and are not averse to twisting the rules to work in their favor. Examples of this alignment include tyrants, devils, undiscriminating mercenary types who have a strict code of conduct, and loyal soldiers who enjoy the act of killing.

Mike, while not a blogger, does do awful ‘Mike’s minute’ video blogging, as if his special brand of selfish neoliberalism requires another outlet. His attack on Amanda Bailey for going to a blog rather than the mainstream media (which when you consider what Rachel Glucina did as a member of that mainstream media is ludicrous) was punished by the Broadcasting Standards Authority  and Winston Peter’s attacking him as a National Party stooge was a highlight. The ghoulish glee Mike seems to exhibit when speaking down to people poorer than him makes Seven Sharp the worst current affairs show in the country. What a privileged arsehole has to say about the world is as relevant as a fish fart during an orchestral movement. How Jane Kelsey managed to destroy him live on air in less than 6 minutes is still  thing of legend.

Neutral Evil Blogger 2015: Rachel Glucina – Scout
Neutral Evil is called the “Malefactor” alignment. Bloggers of this alignment are typically selfish and have no qualms about turning on their allies-of-the-moment, and usually make allies primarily to further their own goals. They have no compunctions about harming others to get what they want, but neither will they go out of their way to cause carnage or mayhem when they see no direct benefit to it. They abide by laws for only as long as it is convenient for them. A blogger of this alignment can be more dangerous than either Lawful or Chaotic Evil characters, since she or he is neither bound by any sort of honor or tradition nor disorganized and pointlessly violent.

How can one person destroy the NZ Herald AND TV3? The despicable way Glucina pretended to be a PR expert to gain a story from Amanda Bailey, the waitress who spoke out against the Prime Minister bullying her at her workplace, was so bad even the Press Council had to slap the Herald with one of the most damning rulings they’ve ever released.  After being pushed from the Herald, Mark Weldon inexplicably took her on with ‘Scout’, a glorified gossip blog, and she destroyed that as well. Known as the ‘female whaleoil’ for her role in peddling right wing smears in gossip columns, Glucina’s role in media this year was as bitter as it was destructive to the credibility of anyone near her.

Chaotic Evil Blogger 2015: LF
The Chaotic Evil Blogger is referred to as the “Destroyer” or “Demonic” alignment. Bloggers of this alignment tend to have no respect for rules, other people’s lives, or anything but their own desires, which are typically selfish and cruel. They set a high value on personal freedom, but do not have any regard for the lives or freedom of other people. They do not work well in groups, as they resent being given orders, and usually behave themselves only out of fear of punishment. It is not compulsory for a Chaotic Evil blogger to be constantly writing sadistic blogs just for the sake of being evil, or constantly disobeying orders just for the sake of causing chaos. They do however enjoy the suffering of others, and view honor and self-discipline as weaknesses. Serial killers and monsters of limited intelligence are typically Chaotic Evil.

I know, I know, I know – who are ‘LF’ and why isn’t Cameron Slater the most evil NZ blogger in 2015? Consider his list of crimes against media…

• Slater has led attacks against Muslims
• Slater has used hateful speech
• Slater attacked public health campaigners while taking money from those opposed to their research.
• Slater defended Israeli aggression while getting trips to Israel.
• Slater published falsified SIS info to smear the leader of the opposition months before an election in a dirty smear campaign that originated out of the PMs Office
• In Dirty Politics Slater is alleged to have blackmailed Rodney Hide into standing down
• In Dirty Politics Slater is alleged to have trawled brothals for dirt
• In Dirty Politics Slater hacked into and downloaded the Labour Party website
• In Dirty Politics Slater crucified public servants
• In Dirty Politics Slater was trying to attack the head of the SFO
• Slater called a person who died in a car accident ‘feral’.
• Slater described a Kings student who drank himself to death as “a toffee-nosed school boy, a dead thief and a liar who couldn’t handle his piss. I always said King’s boys were poofs.”
• Slater published all the details of businessman Matt Blomfield whose stolen computer he somehow obtained.
• Slater tried to insinuate that Tania Billingsly wanted to get sexually assaulted on purpose to claim rape culture
• Slater has been convicted of breaching a variety of name suppression orders
• Slater published the personal employment details of a wharf protestor
• Slater posted a fake Green Party press release that inspired threats of violence against Russel Norman
• Slater publicized a doctored interview with Jim Anderton edited into Anderton saying an earthquake would need to strike for him to lose the Christchurch mayoralty
• Slater called for looters in Christchurch to be shot in the stomach so that the death would be slow and painful
• Slater claimed Chris Carter’s mother (who was dead for 12 years) was still using a taxpayer cell phone?

…you look at the hateful pus that is Cameron Slater’s spite blog, and it’s difficult to consider how he’d lose this award, but the simple fact is that the Cameron Slater of today is not the Cameron Slater of old. His blogs now are pitiful and embarrassingly weak. The way he constantly wails his emails were stolen ignores his own role in receiving Matthew Blomfield’s stolen computer and that Hager broke no laws in publishing stolen emails because of public interest. His ongoing garbage about troughers and bludgers avoids his own secret legacy  and the blog where Whaleoil staff admit posting a fake review of Slater’s worthless book is so cringeworthy you can only feel sadness towards them.

The less said about his 10 years of dirt party flop the better.

Slater is a broken blogger who has lost many of his sources of information and is now so radioactive no one will have anything to do with him. He is a punch drunk Colonel Kurtz holed up in his own Ablogalypse Now compound with numerous defamation cases and police investigations.

The demise of his brand of political sadism is a positive thing and his declining influence removes him as the most evil blogger, that distinction goes to ‘LF’.

‘LF’ are allies of Slater who live in a truly deluded world. Beyond the spittle flecked abuse, their bizarre private investigator stalker like behaviour borders on the creepy and they manage to make the National Front look charming. They did something this year so despicable and vile that their blog is not named on most of the political blogs in NZ, they are simply referred to as ‘LF’ so their hate speech can’t be googled.  ‘LF’ do sick things that not even Slater would do. Ugly stuff from ugly people.

*TDB Bloggers weren’t eligible otherwise we would have just given all the good awards to ourselves.