MEDIAWATCH: Chris Penk attacks Nicky Hager’s book WITHOUT reading Nicky Hager’s book???
Nicky Hager’s Dirty Work belongs in the fiction section
Mr Hager doesn’t appear to be a journalist any more than I am. There’s nothing wrong with one-sided commentary, to be clear, but the partisans among us (yes, including me) should be open about our biases.
Stuff
Far be it for me to call bullshit on someone, but Penk’s column where he writes off Hager’s book without even reading it is about as much white male privilege I can put up with in one Stuff column, and we have to include Damien Grant in that list.
Penk thinks he’s writing for the NZ Herald where white male privilege is the prerequisite for getting a job.
If he’s writing reviews about books he hasn’t read you understand why his coup against Luxon failed.
Penk’s argument is that Hager’s book amounts to the Left not liking the Right which is as grotesque a misrepresentation as the Gulf of America or Lake America or the Kennedy Trump centre is
The lack of intellectual curiosity to even read what he criticises is a reminder that he is still at heart a National Party Cabinet Minister after all.
Sorry.
A failed National Party Cabinet Minister, let’s not forget that bit.
So a failed National Party Cabinet Minister slags off a book he hasn’t even read from NZs most renowned Investigative Journalist who has broken more scoops than any other investigative journalist.
Oh, but Penky says that Hager isn’t even a journalist.
Cough.
Secret Power: NZs role in te international spy network.
Secrets and Lies: the anatomy of an anti-environmental PR
Seeds of Distrust: The Story of a GE Cover-Up
The Hollow Men: A study in the politics of deception
Other People’s Wars: NZ in Afghanistan, Iraq and the War on Terror
Dirty Politics: How attack politics is poisoning NZs political environment
Hit and Run: The NZ SAS in Afghanistan and the meaning of honour.
…Penk claims that he is as much an investigative journalist as Nicky is which is a bit like Trump claiming he is a stable genius.
Penk says he won’t read Hager’s book because it’s a Lefty saying the Right are trying to influence politics – big shock!
Unfortunately, Penk’s wilful ignorance is what the Right are hoping you believe.
What Dirty Work highlights is how the Taxpayers’ Union weaponised racism for grift.
The book uncovers the real triggers behind the influence. They received so much money in donations when they promoted racist stereotyping over 3 Waters that they became addicted to the funding and the influence it created and generated.
The Taxpayers’ Union found that when they legitimised the bigotry of old white men, the money came gushing in.
That’s not a story merely about the Right influencing politics, it’s a story about an organisation that had zero traction gaining wealth and power by playing to the most racist urges of our community.
That should be condemned not celebrated.
This matters!
Malicious Corporate influencers changed social policy using racist grift and here’s the icing on this shitcake, YOU ARE ALL PAYING MORE FOR WATER THAN YOU WOULD HAVE UNDER 3 WATERS!
You. Stupid. Dumb. Rednecks.
What Hager has done is lift the lid on what was driving the Taxpayers’ Union. It wasn’t the common good, it was out and out racism.
By not reading the book and then commentating on it to denounce it as irrelevant, Penk is allowing the Taxpayers’ Union tactics off the hook which again is more a role for the NZ Herald rather than Stuff.
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A bit too much time spent in a submarine will do that to you!
I know you are a fan of Penk but what you have highlighted here is Penk is still aligned to neoliberal thinking. Clearly his ignorance is shining through in the fact he is not open minded and has has cast his own aspersions without evidence and why I have never liked the man despite his attempt to oust the most woeful PM in our history.
It is very hard to give any credence to what Penk says given his recent sacking from the National party
He’s JAFNPL….Just Another Fucking National Party Lawyer …
yet another one…just like Bishop… where a little knowlwedge is dangerou…but they don’t care…critical thinking is non- existent….Unlike Lawyers in the Labour Party like Vanushi , Duncan Webb or Andrew Littleand Bellich who all possess a much broader knowledge range and rational thinking.
Remember Penk is on record as stating that removing batts insulation from houses makes them cooler in Summer…wtf…that’s the level of intellectual firepower you are
actually dealing with.
What this highlights is what a pack of snowflakes ‘the right’ really are.
Watching Semour and Luxon spitting their collective dummmies when being grilled over Hager’s book was priceless and graphically illustrated their glass jawed snowflakery.
They don’t mind dishing up dirt… and lies… but oh my god….can they not take it when the shoes on the other foot.
Silverspooners like Penk, Luxon, Seymour , Willis, Bishop , Van Velden etc are where they are due to big money beeing thrown at them .These spoon fed robotos have, with monotonous regularity, spouted that throw monwey at anything doesn’t make it better….we here it all the fucking time.
Why then, are they spending $50,000 a year sending their kids to private schools and
why is big corporate money being thrown at them.
Penky perhaps a sincere bloke when it comes to sorting building codes and products. Successful construction outcomes depend on qualified and experienced trades people, and in regard to politics and writing Penky has only just started his apprenticeship.
Some apprentices are not suited to the job and it seems that Chris Penk would be better off finding another job.