John Campbell’s exasperated interview with John Key on the GCSB Bill conducted live for 19 odd minutes on Wednesday has become media folklore by the weekend.
On presentation, Key out Campbelled Campbell. He didn’t like being trumped on his ‘gosh-shucks’ routine the PM was using to bluff his way out of answering the questions. He didn’t like it because he knew it was working – working a charm out there in TVland and the punters
would be lapping up his blythe assurances. That is why Campbell’s concession of him being ‘a brilliant politician’ was sarcastic to a point. However Campbell has been damned by this concession and the terse exchange that happened immediately afterwards ascribed to Campbell’s petulance. Smug or petulant I’d just like a straight answer to a straight question.
If only the ruffled Campbell – who by the end of the interview was sitting at a desk with his notes strewn about in a shambles – could have asked the questions that might have wiped the PM’s fixed smile expression off his face and let us see the killer in his cold blank dead shark eyes.
Campbell was being bested on his own turf by this smug wanker. Did Campbell ask why it was that the PM had figures on what it would take to launch a total surveillance operation on every communication? The fact the GCSB must have been asked to or of its own agency submitted
an estimate for the total surveillance state – transcribing and human analysis of every email, every call – is now the question. If the only barrier the PM mentions is the cost then if the cost is lowered (farmed out to centres in the Indian subcontinent for example or tendered back to US, Canada etc) then the reason is stronger to do it… following the PM’s logic. Key says $8b for operation Key Stroke, OK So what if the revised budget, submitted by his old school chum that he hand-picked for the job, is only half a billion, and the Yanks will kick in for most of the software costs etc. Now it becomes, to John Key, more likely to launch this. This is the worrying end point to his rebuttal – and one Campbell wasn’t able to see for the wood amid a forest of his own making.
Key’s ability to provide a mix of patrician assurance – as in the Orwellian, Helen Clarkian, way of stating blankly that it was all lawful (even if the lawfulness is retrospective, including all the pending validations) – combined with the matey conviviality of a suburban barbecue (he’s always happy, comfortable and light) is the PR dream come true. It’s a brain-faded washed out tone of blue through which an entire prism is being downloaded. And just because a journalist in the midst of his own campaign self-ambushed when the PM fronted up as he did, doesn’t mean the so-called ‘commanding’ performance of Key refuted for one moment the criticisms of the Bill. The reason Campbell appeared sharp at times was because the PM was not answering – he was giving his media release points repeatedly.
And Dunne? Dunne’s vote? The ‘willing seller, willing buyer’ as Dunne put the bargain, what was the price of that deal? Did Campbell rip the scab off that in the interview or was he too focussed on his own campaign to change tack and press at the flanks.
One side of the ledger – Dunne backs spy Bill – and other side of ledger… Dunne gets what? Because he’s obviously getting something when Dunne says on RNZ under NO circumstances will he back a Bill letting GCSB spy on NZers, then PM says oh he’s sure that he will back the Bill no matter, and then Dunne says he’ll vote for it with some bullshit amendments that… nevertheless… allow the GCSB to spy on NZers and become the inner fifth eye. Ambassador to somewhere nice is apparently on the cards, you have to ask. Did he ask? If he couldn’t get an answer to why a domestic spy agency, essentially – via the ever expanding NZ Police and the NZ Defence Force (that operates domestically with NZ Police to supress indigenous protest with
seemingly no special constitutional safeguards already) should be trawling through everything then he should have got an answer on why getting this legislation through is so important that Dunne is sworn to secrecy on the price of his vote. Did Campbell go there? Within about three weeks or so Dunne went from can’t be trusted, had to resign, to, love to have him back as a minister in my next government. Something like: Take me, Prime Minister, if you can through the arc of decision-making whereby Mr Dunne went from (in your own estimation) from untrustworthy when you had to ask him to resign, and to trustworthy now? When was that magic moment Prime Minister? Wasn’t it when he agreed to back the Spy Bill to spy on NZers? What is his pay off? The power of the state’s security apparatus and an effective operational carte blanche to breach privacy is all dangling on the single vote of this pompous bouffant terrible.
One thing I noticed about John Key in that interview was the bags under his eyes. It was recess week so I assume his schedule would be less hectic yet he still looked exhausted. I think John Key won’t have the energy for election year.
Calling Kim Hill …..
Campbell was an embarrassment, however Key exposed enough to show where he is vulnerable. His blokey facade gets very brittle and starts to slip when he is cornered and forced to confront the question. Same snake-oil tactics you see in boardrooms up and down the country, every day of the week. For Campbell not to anticipate this and have a counter strategy ready was appallingly naive.
considering he is basically the only journalist on television, he kinda has his work cut out for him. Yea he could have done better, but he’s only one guy. Even 3news doesn’t add anything to the story, only reports on what happened on Campbell, he had the stones to make the jump across the gap, you shouldn’t stop applauding his courage just because he fell in the ravine
I agree He is the only one with the balls to tackle this subject.
Go John Campbell Go.
John Key is nothing but snake oil.
Very true. I mean we sit there and whine about how biased and uninformative our media is and then complain when they actually do take on the big issues because they didn’t do it perfect. The fact Campbell put enough pressure on John Key for him to finally show face is impressive also this is good practice for Campbell on how to deal with Key in the future namely the election year.
How dare anyone hassle John Campbell because he was polite and gracious to John Key’s lying and bulldozing party political broadcast – I never want to see John Campbell sink to Key’s level ever – that would mean Key successfully turned a human being with a conscience into just another of his disgusting moral corrupt misbehaving cronies
Anne right on.
He is a man with a conscience and so is his team.
Tim Selwyn continues the misconception that the massive quantity of e-mails to be read would require thousands of manual workers.John Key stated bluntly that the number of people involved would be massive as would the cost.I think Key must know the real situation but this untruth suited his argument better.
The days of manually scanning documents that are held digitally is long gone ! Computer software would,of course,be utilised scanning the myriad messages for certain keywords.Only those messages throwing up a match would then be investigated further!
Jenny Shipley used this technique when asked a question – answer a Q which hasn’t been asked and ramble on for ages throwing in several answers to many questions not asked. Or the “That opens up many points of view…” and proceeds to give them which just happens to have nothing to do with the primary Q – maybe loosely related. Not very smart of Key to use those cheap media training tricks, nor very smart of the pro-Key types not to pick up on what was going on. The killer moment when Key totally lost the plot was when Campbell said, “Are you saying the Law society etc…” above with Key’s “Yes”. Really !!!! Bottom of barrel stuff and hey, this is how stupid I think you are Kiwis that you think I am being clever !!! Fall for that insult and you deserve all the crap Key is about to plaster you with the GCSB Bill.
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