GUEST BLOG: Gerard Otto – Using Shane as a wedge

A dedicated team of propaganda writers don’t stop just because they have been censured and fined by the broadcasting standards association.

Instead they keep focused on the current campaign.

Which is what we saw Heather Du Plessis Allen do this morning after she got pinged by the BSA for her dreadful comments about Pacific Islanders being leeches.

Shit that took way too long, but at least it happened.

Heather’s armadillo hide and rhinoceros thick skin, meant none of that got in the way of the “Get Shane” campaign.

Before the horrific events in Christchurch the campaign focused upon Shane Jones and how he must be the devil incarnate for criticising any corporate CEO, shaking the hierarchical power tree, and generally daring to try to get some regions busy with jobs and opportunities again – after those regions have been neglected and could do with some capital investment.

NZ First are truly the team National would love to have on their team these days, because really and truly – 41% is failure and Simon Bridges is not going to get those critical 5% of voters back.

“Don’t wanna be all by myself”, is another way to put it, when you are all by yourself in opposition with Simon fending off the Serious Fraud Office.

David Seymour does not even show up, let alone count – so you see my point.

NZ First did not behave like National’s puppet and pensioners in St Heliers are still flabbergasted that MMP means they did not get everything they counted on.

Fiddlesticks.

Now the idea from Heather is that PM Ardern has made NZ First look like grandmas old socks ….in other words – the unworthy boyfriend who got the nice girl.

PM Arden is too good for them – says Heather.

The same Heather who calls Pacific Islanders leeches is telling us how to think about NZ First again.

Really it’s just Heather attacking NZ First again because National voters, ( the target demographic ) are still terribly wounded, and it’s good to keep them focused on their sorry state.

Then you can direct that upon the problem.

Which from National’s perspective is – they are short of votes and NZ First has some of them, that could be stolen back.

The notion is to get the attention of the whimpering audience, bathing in pools of self pity, ( disgruntled NZ First voters ) and draw their attention to who is to blame for all of this.

NZ First.

Namely Shane and Winston.

But to make this campaign work requires complete negativity – wall to wall about the Provincial Growth Fund.

Don’t expect positive project results to hit the headlines in media pandering to this audience.

I simply don’t buy this type of shit from this team of propaganda writers ( Heather, Barry, Hosking etc ) – I don’t know about you?

Instead I see that Heather does not know details about Shane Jones’ intentions to rescue thousands of jobs with an intervention between two parties and whether it is true he intends this for the common good, or what the factual details are about threatened company closure by the police , or what the official police comments actually were in her little sterilised version of the story.

Her story sounded like a writer repeating some gossip they had heard in an excited flap….short on details, long on high level plot points.

It’s probably bollocks.

Her article was just another effort to create a wedge between NZ First and Labour – by a media who have let New Zealand down so badly with these partisan political games on behalf of the same old group.

These days the absence of reported facts is the measure by which we can smell the bullshit.