MEDIAWATCH: The Salem witch trial character assassination of David Seymour and the audacity of a mother demanding something must be done (but not by her)
The Marc Daalder smear against Seymour metastasised into a Newshub story and we are right back where we began, smearing Seymour on false insinuations that will only end up empowering ACT.
Again, I think Daalder is one of our best environmental political journalists and that Newsroom is one of the best journalist sources in NZ now, but everyone has an issue they are a dick about and for Marc, that is David Seymour.
Don’t get me wrong, YOU SHOULD BE VERY ANGRY at David Seymour. His race baiting race war inducing anti-Treaty, anti-Māori agenda alongside his glee at amputating the State should enrage every single citizen, but insinuating Seymour is a ‘groomer’ for talking to 14 year olds who contacted him on Snapchat is the puritanical woke at their worst and madly counter productive.
This story is a Salem witch trial level character assassination and those promoting the ‘groomer’ smear have zero awareness of how much they sound like the AntiVaxx Qanon anti-Trans brigade when they claim Drag Queens reading at a library are ‘grooming’.
The vast majority of Kiwis when they heard this story asked two immediate questions:
1: Who initiated the contact?
2: Did he say anything untoward?
The answers are, ‘they contacted him’ and ‘no’.
Sure it would be questionable if he had initiated contact, but the kids did!
Trying to make this into sop meting it is not belittles the Left. We have become so used to cancel culture rather than arguing our case that all we have left are insinuations and smears on character!
Again, you should be VERY angry at ACT because they are, as I have been waring for half a decade, implementing;menting a far right agenda, but smearing David Seymour for responding to school kids who were contacting him and conflating that into some type of sexual abuse of power is disgraceful bullshit on those who are spouting it.
I don”t like a mob regardless if it’s a left wing or right wing mob, and on this the puritanical left have come off like Christchurch just before they arrested Peter Ellis.
There are lots of good reasons to hate David Seymour, this smear is not one of them.
As for the other of one of the children who contacted David when they were 14 but has now had a revisionist take on events that they are trending on TicTok…
Parent calls for guidelines after David Seymour’s historic Snapchat messages to teen daughter
A parent is calling for guidelines around how politicians communicate directly with young people on social media.
She’s concerned after finding out David Seymour replied to Snapchat messages from her then-14-year-old daughter and other teens back in 2016.
Both the ACT leader and the students say the content was not inappropriate. But the mother says the fact a much older politician was direct messaging them at all is bizarre.
Seymour says he was just being courteous.
…ummmmmm.
Well, I suppose if you wanted to call for guidelines you could start immediately with your own daughter and tell her not to snapchat politicians when they are 14 years old couldn’t you?
Why does everyone else have to do something that the very mother of the child who did this won’t do?
Shouldn’t you be owning your problem here and remind parents to have that discussion with their own children rather than demand the Government does something?
How about you do something seeing as it is your own child?
This whole story has been a beat up and everyone should be a tad embarrassed at how out of hand this whole saga has become.
Again – hating Seymour is righteous and good, hating him for a concocted smear makes you as ugly as the thing you are smearing.
The only ‘winner’ out of this will be ACT as David gets a bump in the Polls as voters are shocked at how crazy the woke Left have gone with their follow up accusations.
Reckon mum’s name was Karen ?
Yes, good article Martyn. This is someone who is so desperate get something on someone they don’t like, they run with something petty. It just more confirmation of what most people now think of our media.
David looks like one ,quacks like one ,smells like one so probably is one .
Gordon you are so full of hate for the Right it is making you unhinged. Valid criticism is fine but making false accusations is out of line.I wonder if you have ever met the man.
Now now Gordon, just because Seymour is down with sending autodeleting messages to kids but wants to shut down discussion of his associates in Parliament, doesn’t mean we should make any inferences..
https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/hansard-debates/rhr/document/HansS_20230822_058680000/4-question-no-4-prime-minister
Probably a good idea for Politicians and adult strangers not to talk to teens online–as Bishflap discovered–however they might try and justify it later. Snapchats auto delete as I understand it, unless a screen shot or screen recording is taken–so who knows what exactly Incel Dave has said to young girls.
Given the majority of NZ MPs do not support voting for 16 year olds anyway, they should butt out of such behaviour.
Tiger M “ Probably a good idea…not to talk to teens online.” Yep. Probably wiser to have one of their numerous minions reply on their behalf.
Yes…his selfie taken from crotch height looking up his body towards his face was creepy…totally inapproriate…in fact any kind of selfie at all was inappropriate.
Engaging with 14 year old school girls with the excuse of upping their political awareness….really!!@!!
Everyone…male and female is an air head, or close to it, at 14…
Make no mistake… this was an ego trip!!
And make no mistake …
Seymour is only there by the dint of big, big , money and a corruption of a political system loophole.
This guy is a cunning sociopathic narcissist with a religious zealot like approach, who will lie and obfuscate to gain favour and plaudits from The Atlas Group, thus fueling his shallow ego, and will use any tool to implement his demented ideas.
If a male Labour MP had carried on like this Seymour would have been 1st in the queue to try and make political capital.
Remember…Seymour even complained to the media because they had used the nickname ‘Chippy’ when referencing Chris Hipkins, claiming unfair advantage.
He’s no more than a petulant double standard
dweeb who needs to be called out at every turn.What he was doing was inappropriate even if nothing came of it…end of story!!
It just demonstrates what a simple littlechap Seymour is
Are you taking over from countryboy with your long postings .At least yours make sense and express an understanding of the topic.
How come the only time politicians contact me is to ask for donations?
I guess you missed out on asking for ‘puberty blockers’ from the Ministry of Health. It’s never too late though, if you’re still under 20 surgery might be an option.
Have to say I thought Martyn was being a shit stirrer over the Newsroom article. I took it as a piece on essentially why would you go there in this day and age, when there’s no votes in it, and risk the interactions being weaponised. I didn’t take it as a smear piece on Seymour.
That might have been slightly underestimating the outcome, and a tad naive, as clearly it has sparked a ridiculous assumptions about Seymour’s intent. Touché Martyn. You were spot on.
He’s a smarmy wanker that incites the worst in a too many people, but he’s not in my opinion a groomer.
The reaction to Seymour is the same ridiculous rubbish you see from numerous posters on this site about transgender individuals, or homosexuality, or education about such. Completely unhinged.
I’m with Bomber, I don’t want a return to the unhealthy environment of the early 1990s when all men were painted as potentially dangerous child sexual predators, fathers could not hug their daughters in public, teachers or anybody else for that matter couldn’t comfort a crying child with a hug or hold the hand of a child under age 10.
We saw the Christchurch Creche fiasco, numerous fathers being falsely accused of child sexual abuse following social worker/cousellor interviews with children families being unjustly torn apart, accusations of satanic predator rings, daycare abuse being a “rampant phenomenon” , recovered memory nonsense. etc etc
They were very damaging and costly attitudes toward all of society.