Announce protest actions, general chit chat or give your opinion on issues we haven’t covered for the day.
Moderation rules are more lenient for this section, but try and play nicely.
EDITORS NOTE: – By the way, here’s a list of shit that will get your comment dumped. Sexist language, homophobic language, racist language, anti-muslim hate, transphobic language, Chemtrails, 9/11 truthers, Qanon lunacy, climate deniers, anti-fluoride fanatics, anti-vaxxer lunatics, 5G conspiracy theories, the virus is a bioweapon, some weird bullshit about the UN taking over the world and ANYONE that links to fucking infowar.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/455609/fire-crews-battle-forestry-block-blaze-in-canterbury
Why it’s so important that all firefighters have Covid doubles. This is no time for ditherers in the life and property saving business. But real estate agents can feel free to consider about it!
Front page story in the NZ Herald this week about an Auckland father of seven who died in misery while self-isolating at his Glen Eden home. The story was matched by several media outlets following an “exclusive” by one Michael Morrah, allegedly an award-winning “investigative journalist” working for Discovery.com. In what was an understandably emotive interview with a daughter of the deceased (who went on to decry the Government’s handling of the pandemic), Morrah failed to let his audience know if the family had been vaccinated. As every other media outlet that matched the story failed to do. I contacted Morrah by email, out of concern that the enormous elephant in the room might roll over on top of him. This was the following exchange:
Me: There is a glaring omission from your story/ matcher. See if you can guess what it is.
Morrah: No idea, sorry.
Me: I have yet to read any version of this story that indicates whether anyone in this cluster had been vaccinated. Fairly relevant, no?
Morrah: Yes, I was obviously aware of that omission. Yes that father of seven was unvaccinated. But ultimately the story was about people in care in the community. The govt said all was well regardless.?
Morrah had plainly ascertained the vaccination status of the dead man (he did not indicate the status of the rest of the family), but chose not to include that information. Instead, he ran a story in which the daughter told us how much her father had cared for others in his community. Not enough to protect either himself or that community, it seems. Morrah is being disingenuous by saying his story was about people in care in the community. This is not journalism folks.
Thanks Terminally Disgruntled, I hope that we can sort the details of what we need to know from emotive pulls to our anxieties soon. Let’s get gruntled soon, not disgruntled. Let’s start a Gruntled Movement that supports a cohesive yet flexible and informed society> Go Gruntles!!
Woke journalism doesn’t like to include all the facts. Sad about Morrah, as he is generally one of the better journo’s working MSM.
Then media wonder why nobody trusts the news anymore and gets their news off social media!
Media started with the advertorials and paid for click bait, so don’t be surprised when it is picked up and used else where, aka Brexit, anti vaxx etc.
Anyway more illuminating why the father was not in hospital as maybe the hospitals expect people to get vaccinated first if they are able to AND not very truthful reporting about how the man respected the authorities etc, aka the NZ authorities are telling everyone to get vaccinated!
Yes. It may now be difficult to know what facts Morrah has failed to disclose in other stories he writes. Acknowledging the deceased man’s non-vax status could also have been useful in influencing non-vaxxed persons to get jabbed, especially when I gather that two or three other family members are now hospitalised with Covid.
Terminally Disgruntled. Wow. How self-serving Morrah is, selecting the facts to fit his own agenda and using
the grief of a bereaved family to deliver emotional clout. The community deserves better than this, and well done doing the Herald’s job for them.
The deceased had every right to decline the jab, but thenceforth all the consequences are the outcome of this decision. Shovelling his death back onto outside parties not involved in the unfortunate decision making is questionable at every level – and far too simplistic.
I felt that story was suspect from the start. Apart from the grieving young womans story, Michael produced no corroborating evidence to verify her contentions. On the daughters own say so the helpline asked if the father wanted an ambulance. Did he refuse the offer? The issue of the father coughing blood, may have been the indication of an underlying condition, the possibility of this was not pursued by Michael in the interview. Having been a first responder and knowing how third parties can badly misconstrue the realities of crisis situations and how the program appeared to be a gotcha event some further investigation was warranted before it ran.
PS. We all know it’s that Marxist Nazi Jacindas fault anyway!
Kiwijoker, agree; this did sound like a grieving family hitting out the way that families sometimes do at times of great stress – it happens. Limited prior dying and death experiences, as you will know, can skew responses. Journos would be well advised to be a little more circumspect here – sadly, there will be more such scenarios.
I would like to give Morrah (or is it Morah?) another award: The In Vino Award for Meretricious Manipulative Ratbag.
Funny you say that. Our email exchange was mid-evening on Friday, which from experience can be a bit of an extended Happy Hour for dedicated journalists. Morrah was so open about the elephant I was thinking of awarding him the Veritas Cup myself.
From NZ Geographic: https://www.nzgeo.com/video/counting-carbon/
Better Ancestors: Counting carbon
For the past two weeks, the world’s leaders have been focusing on climate change at COP26 in Glasgow, but Dave Lowe’s journey with the atmosphere began in 1970 as a 23-year-old physics graduate, where he made the first measurements of carbon dioxide levels in New Zealand. The data he collected at Baring Head became an important part of David Keeling’s research into the seasonal changes of carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere – and, due to the steadily increasing levels he charted over the years, an inescapable record of what humans were doing to the planet.
“I think everyone’s aware now that the climate is changing very rapidly, but this is a horror I’ve had to live with for over 50 years,” Lowe says.
So can we turn the tide? “The thing that Covid-19 has taught us was that when there’s an existential threat that’s in your face, human beings can collectively get up and do some remarkable things. And in the same way, human beings can get to grips with global heating and dramatically reduce carbon emissions. We know how to do this.” Watch the video…
Olivia Wannan reports from Glasgow:
Climate modellers have been tracking the plethora of commitments and coalitions launched during the COP 26 meeting. Even on the basis that every single one will be met (a prospect many doubt), that path would hold warming to 1.8C.
The path set by the NDCs and other pledges out to 2030 put the world on a path to 2.4C.
Our very own James Shaw describes the final agreement this way:
“The text represents the least-worst outcome. The worst outcome would be to not agree [on] it, and keep talking through next year and deter action for yet another year.”
I think least wort is a pretty generous description of this declaration of intent to do something about climate change. Rather than an emergency this shows that climate change is just another thing on everyone’s “to do” list. Its pathetic.
It seems that the Chief Executive , Nick Chamberlain, of Whangarei Hospital is facing up to the problems of a neglected hospital, as he attempts to keep it good and working okay, running against the odds. Give this man credit for fronting up to –
To avoid disrupting the entire wing at once, the DHB’s plan is to seal off bathroom sections, floor by floor.
“It’s going one level at a time, protecting contractors and everybody from both asbestos and poo,” Chamberlain said.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/455622/sewage-leaking-into-whangarei-hospital-medical-wing-s-walls
I think we should all give credit to those setting up the system that has led to our services being run down like this. So thanks Treasury, Roger Douglas and you Merry Men in good niches, and all you right-wing and left-wing fellow travellers dazzled by lovely theories that are impractical when the vulnerabilities of all the people are considered. You have plenty or discretionary money to utilise to ease your way. I hope that you have all been lauded in our Hall of Fame for being Quislings introducing toxic systems; your versions of myrtle rust that we are now having to cope with and the denatured, twisted effects showing on our social and physical environment.
For those feeling politically and socially discombobulated I present a timely jingle-jangle, the Goons trying to sing, I’m Walking Backwards for Christmas.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e61uC-5s9VU
Gosh, GW, I tried that link, it was louder than my scary “loud alarm”! Thanks so much for sharing, I’m sure there’ll be others who will enjoy more 🙂
Comments are closed.