“I am not a Monster”, hissed Judith Collins
I don’t read the Sunday Star Times, so had no idea that they had just decided to make Judith Collins of all people a new columnist.
Her appointment cements into place the total full spectrum dominance the Right now have over all media in NZ. Rodney Hide in Herald on Sunday, Hosking on Seven Sharp, Paul Henry on TV3 and Guyon Espiner on Radio NZ ensures one unbroken neo-liberal narrative that stands alongside the inherent right wing bias within the mainstream media so evident during the last 6 years.
That the Sunday Star Times would appoint a Politician so mired in the filth of Dirty Politics shows that the mainstream media have learnt nothing from Dirty Politics and they actually just don’t give a damn about any pretence towards balance.
Those voices representing the Left have been slowly killed off. The Herald was supposed to replace Matt McCarten as a columnist, they instead ended up simply appointing Rodney Hide to spout his right wing nonsense. When a Left voice is included, it tends to be the same old tired right wing Labour voices they roll out.
With the imminent launch of Slater’s new media weapon the Left are in total retreat along all fronts. The Standard is currently searching for a new direction as that voice of the Left, but their pathetic and limp criticism of Labour selling out on 24 hour surveillance shows that the leash around their neck from head office has tightened.
With Scoop about to collapse next month, The Standard, Public Address and Pundit are about to lose their largest revenue streams.
The importance of a new media to counter this Right wing onslaught is more necessary than ever before.
In terms oft The Daily Blog, we are in talks over the summer to look at where we can build. Hope to have some news in the new year.
UPDATE: The SST has appointed Phil Goff as the supposed counter view to Judith Collins. So that’s the really right wing of the National Party debating against the right wing of the Labour Party. Only in mainstream media is that considered ‘balanced’.
A drone? We need drones. It’s the way of the future.
The good news is it makes the Daily Blog more important on the media landscape than ever
Judith Collins’ place as a columnist on the SST is confirmation the Right is placing its sleazy, decadent stamp on as many media sites it possibly can. Another propaganda mouthpiece for Key and his Natsies!
Being in a class of its own TDB, I’m sure will have no problem in holding up against other blog sites, by building on what’s already established.Very few offer strong alternative news, such as this blog site does.
Look forward to your news next month Martyn.
I was a reader of the Star-Times on a trial discount basis. Within a month I complained about its pro-Right wing bias but decided to hang in. Reading that Judith Collins was to be a columnist was too much for me so I cancelled my subscription.
As I understand it all the print media is struggling to survive. If we simply stopped buying their papers wouldn’t they collapse?
The problem is then where can we find a full coverage impartial news source. The Daily Blog is not a solution because it isn’t really a newspaper; it is really a left wing discussion group. If I read only the Daily Blog, there is a huge amount of news I would never get to read.
So what is the solution?
As Mark Twain once said “If you dont read the papers you are uninformed, if you read the papers you are mis-informed”.
I stopped getting the herald for two reasons -1) too left wing & unbalanced reporting (Jarod Savage take a bow) and 2) our puppy became house trained so no longer had need for herald
The Herald too left-wing? Jared Savage? The Herald is brazenly right wing, and Savage was the first to lead the attack with the bullshit Cunliffe/ Donghua Liu scandal.
At least when your proctologist takes a look inside, you’ll be able to look him in the eye.
Ha ! Brilliant @ richarquis
Remember Dennis there`s a huge amount of news you are not getting now by reading the main stream media drivel.
I’m in!
I actually read Collins’ article. Leaving aside her political views it was a thoughtful and rational article dealing with worker safety. I would have thought this might be something close to your heart but it appears your prejudice gets in the way.
“Worker safety”?!
Deflection much, Ben?
Yes the bloody hipocrisy of Collins . …remind us again…the party that has been screwing down workers conditions/ safety standards etc. WTF ,, xcuse me whilst I be sick
Read it. That’s what it was about.
read between the lines – THATS what its about
Ben, If you accept this article on face value then you have not taken the slightest bit of interest in Judith Collins over the years or her government. What a duplicitous little article it is but vintage National.
Her crocodile tears about worker safety were so fake as to be pathetic.
How about Nationals attitude to the Pike River deaths or the carnage that is the forestry industry? How many companies or individuals have been held accountable for those two examples. None! Or “flexibility” the code word for allowing employers to get away with unsafe work practices that is a hallmark of this National government. They even legislated away tea breaks for God sake, can’t have people idle can we?
A Collins gem was multiple prisoners to a cell, even living in shipping containers. How safe is that for them or the prison officers? Not too safe at all I reckon.
And on her born again appreciation of Whistleblowers, dear oh dear oh dear. Recall the lawyer who blew the whistle on Customs suppressing OIA requests, sometimes permanently. National were none too impressed with him and yet nothing has come of his revelations have they? They’ve been buried! Or whistleblower Edward Snowden, hate him don’t they?
And a quote I’ve heard and seen in print over and over is “You’ll never work in government/Wellington again if you blow the whistle’ . Do you really think Judith would appreciate someone from the public service blowing the whistle on what has really gone on in her former ministries, that the public should know? Of course not!
It’s a soft rosy snow job for her resurrection, nothing more.
Listen up Ben, XRAY is saying to you – dont you dare believe what you read by anyone who doesnt agree with me. Read and blindly agree with eveything I say.
No, he’s saying don’t believe anything by Judith Collins. She has proven herself to be deceitful on so many occasions now that only a fool, a sycophant, or a liar would continue to support her.
Precisely. So why should the Star-Times want to support her…… with my subscription?
OMBE – your reading and comprehension is below par.
C Minus. Can do better.
@ Ben . How’s Bill by the way ?
Don’t you mean ‘ leaving aside collins’ insanity , greed , sociopathy and a general omnipresence of vile , toxic waste in a frock ?
You fucking idiot .
Talk is cheap with the Nats.
Speaking with forked tongues is their speciality.
“Yes we’re dealing with the poor and unfortunate. We’ve told them they just need to pull their socks up and get on and get a University Education!
What do you mean you can’t concentrate because your hungry ,because both your working parents wages all go on rent , power and petrol? Just pull your socks up damn it!
Oh , you don’t have any socks…..ah ,or shoes. Well ….. just get on then!”
Brian Edwards , speaking on Firstline this morning about Collins writing for the Sunday Star Times, came out with the second dumbest statement I’ve ever heard , when he said that “having balanced points of view, ie. articles from both ‘The Left’ and ‘The Right’ was not necessary as people are quite capable of drawing their own conclusions.”
Ah Brian, how do you become capable unless you have read from many angles ?
If you continue reading ‘rightwing’ articles only, very quickly, you will not know which way is up.
Just look at 47% of the electorate as a graphic example.
The dumbest statement I’ve ever heard was by a 2nd generation Dairy Farmer , who told me that everyone is born equal and it’s just that people make poor decisions and they just need to pull their socks up and ”get on”.
When I suggested that probably the poorest decision they made was being born into the wrong family, he stared blankly back at me and walked off.
Go Martyn Go,’
There is a fertile ground for a honest free public voice of the people media network now more than ever.
May the wings of fortune, fulfilment and free speech fill your future plans with success.
Anything we can do to help, you know we will be there for you.
Alternative media is really with only avenue left for commentators who go off the reservation. Making a blog more user friendly is a good approach for increasing readership.
Cleangreen is right – NZ desperately needs an alternative, independent media network to counter the biased narrative provided by our manipulated msm. The Left is in retreat BECAUSE of the orchestrated attacks from the media.
On Waiheke Island, there is an independent newspaper that consistently wins awards and frequently features perceptive and enlightening editorials. There is also a Fairfax paper, that although it has some good journalists, appears to be selective about which local issues to cover. For example, when the previous Local Board had a serious stoush (involving former Gulf Island Councillor and current Green MP, Denise Roche), the Fairfax paper ignored it, until the Herald took it up.
Some years ago, the Fairfax editor announced that she was shutting down the lively debate about the placement of cellphone towers and would no longer publish letters on the subject. More recently, when there was a cellphone tower protest involving a number of protestors including a Local Board member, banners, speeches and locals honking support. Fairfax sent a reporter but failed to cover it.
Distrubingly, the Waiheke example is symptomatic of the whole country’s situation, with the msm applying a biased criteria as to what items to cover and what stance to take. It is only when there is an independent news source that the lies by ommission and distortions of the msm become apparent.
Blaming the MSM avoids the issue of the failure of the left to identify the nature of the selective attention of the corporate media. Corporate media can never be independent because it relies of the state as a kind of insurance broker.
Huh? We know what the nature of the corporate media is – To prevent themselves from saying anything that would upset their advertisers, who just happen to be the well-monied supporters of the National Party. There’s no failure on our part to identify that. There is only the failure of middle NZ to demand better.
The best/only option for an alternative at present seems to be a decentralised model with a core “news desk” vetting and posting contributions. Those at the centre need to be working and paid for a full time job – ie manager, news editor, advertising manager and a few others. Contributors then send them their news items – columns, videos, news stories etc.
They clearly don’t give a damn about ethics, honesty or anything remotely positive or even holding politicians accountable for high standards.
What in Gods name is The Sunday Star Times thinking? Has it hit the rag status level of the Herald on Sunday?
Yes unbelievable. As if Collins does not have enough power already she is now the ‘good’ reinvention middle ground media cop while BFF Slater is the ‘bad’ media cop. HELLO, do these editors not realize their readership is falling as only 30 -40% believe in right wing policies? People want papers to be politically neutral not a propaganda fest. I normally buy the SST to support them as they do have a couple of more neutral journalists writing columns there, however I am not going to do that now as supporting SST is like supporting Collins – no way! Likewise I used to subscribe to the Listener which was left of center, but as they progressed right I failed to agree with their commentaries and stopped my subscription. Newsflash if you are a propaganda outlet not a newspaper then less readers will pay for that. Your readership will fall.
If Slater gets to relaunch Whalespew 2.0 … maybe seriously get behind Laila Harre’s Not the 6 O’Clock News effort or similar — Citizen A needs to be pumped out …
Can’t believe someone has said Jared Savage is indicative of a “Left Wing” voice, this is the guy who professed having to supposedly be busy sorting out the “wheat from the chaff” and yet spouted the chaff even when he knew his lines were direct from Slater. That he called himself an “investigative reporter” only makes his peurile defence of printing that rot up only adds to the ignonomy of his so-called “news”
And people like Paul Thomas should simply be gagged when it comes to politics. I can’t help notice that on his column “Moment of Truth just sinking in now” he has this line in the article:
“the hubristic talk of a fourth term before the third had even started shows Key’s warning about arrogance has fallen on deaf ears.”
It largely fell on deaf ears, that and other issues, thanks to people like Thomas dismissing things like Dirty Politics as simply being about a blogger when it was actually about a culture of arrogance and reckless behaviour that has permeated the Key regime since their triumphant PR campaign got that septic bankster elected in the first place. It just happened to be that such arrogance crystallised itself through the conduit of Slater, who happily fed the rest of the media their psycho-fantic “cult of Key, he that can do no wrong” promo pieces. I can well recall Thomas’s column about Dirty Politics issues as being no more than a little cloud that was shooed away, and should be dismissed, by the wind – no doubt the wind of empty farts posing as legitimate comment of people like Thomas who can’t seem to grasp much more than sports analysis if we’re honest about it (and even then he fails miserably).
Hmm Judith Collins, cold crushed (pressed) Whaleoil Lite
What is happening to Scoop?!
I think that one way to lift the readership and encourage engagement for TDB would be a layout redesign.
Steal the Standard layout? It is extremely user friendly.
5% – that would be… bad form.
(*pssst* Martyn! Can we do do that and get away with it?!)Gave up on the MSM ages ago. At least with the alternative media political leanings are declared and transparent.
Fair point, Nehemia…
Radio. With a specific Left approach.
Or should we say : Social Democratic approach.
Something this country lacks totally at the moment ( and has done for over 35 years) .
Radio. Unapolegetically opposed to neo liberalism . And totally and unashamedly endorsing Social Democracy.
The style of govt the people want deep down , with many too young to even know what it is and that it existed before Douglas and the rest of his globalist sell – outs.
Radio the forum ….for real Social Democratic values , issues , and change.
Perfect example this morning. ‘Arse-on-the-Air’ interviewing (?) English who was allowed an almost uninterrupted spin doctoring on gNat engineered inequality. Wondered if little Guyon had gone to sleep or was readjusting his diapers. Then Ferguson gets all stroppy with Robertson, even regurgitating the gNat’s mantra that Labour started the decline. Maybe ‘Oosie’ should grovel for cup of tea with ‘stRuth – sMother of all Bludgets’, if that one can spare a few minutes away from her China Bank et al; but always remember to sup with the lang spoon when sitting down with the de’il. Morning Retort – what a farce.
John Key knows that the MSM is always promoting him.
We know the MSM is promoting John Key .
John Key knows that we know that he knows.
John Key dosnt give a damn, he not interested in peoples opinion
hes a dictator.
The new sis bill should not affect people protesting because he ignors the protests as totally irrelevant.
The furore over JKs lies etc has died down in MSM they just stopped out of presumed “no interest”.
It would be great if this news outlet went tabloid .
Fair and balanced journalists cant be getting much work, at the moment no real place for them in MSM .
Yes, but remember the last dictator (Helen) set up the current left spectrum of politics to fail. There was no future planning and now the left is in shambles. The left needs to get smarter. Marches and demonstrations turn too many people off. What we need is smarter politicians, smarter strategies smarter ground crews. In my electorate the left door knockers (admittedly only labour bothered to go house to house) were a ragtag ensemble that was quite off putting to my family.
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