MEDIAWATCH: Why Damien Grant’s column on Nicky Hager is hilarious garbage
I’m sorry.
What?
The Libertarian Free Speech Champion says what now…
Why Nicky Hager’s latest book falls well short
Stuff
…to be fair on Stuff, this is at least an upgrade right?
Their last right winger who wrote a review, failed National Party Cabinet Minister Chris Penk, wrote a review of Nicky’s book, WITHOUT EVEN READING THE BOOK.
Wow.
So at least Damien has actually read the book before he reviews it.
His review however is self serving bullshit.
He’s currently doing the Taxpayers’ Union Election Debate and he’s trying to salvage the damage Nicky’s book has done and is doing to his debate series.
Damien argues Jordan is a good man and he would never be racist.
Cough.
That’s not what the former staff who worked there said. They painted a picture of deep discomfort over the way the 3 Waters debate was becoming so racially charged and talk of Jordan cheering as he refreshed the computer over and over as the donations poured in as they got more and more race baiting.
So not racist by design, just market rewarding racism then?
Damien then defends the Mowbray BillionairesFamily as people who would never attempt to influence politics, despite them admitting in the last 72 hours that they want to influence politics…
Why the Mowbray plot to skew the election probably won’t work
The Post
…Then Damien takes a weirdly personal swipe at me…
When opposition leader Judith Collins used her position to expose Ian Lees-Galloway’s personal failings for political effect I described her behaviour as such: “It was an appalling way to behave. It was the politics of personal destruction to gain a tiny electoral advantage in a hectic news cycle….I find this behaviour reprehensible.”
I have terminated successful media collaborations with people who revel in this behaviour and I am, perhaps, a little sanctimonious on the issue. Being the target of frequent, if factual, references to my past certainly colours my perspective.
Well he’s certainly sanctimonious, but The Working Group ended not because I “revelled in the personal destruction of others’, it ended because I refused to censor The Daily Blog form criticising The NZ Initiative and Israel.
If the great Libertarian Free Speech Champion needs a revisionist history that he culled The Working Group sponsorship because I “revelled in the politics of personal destruction” rather than him being a free speech hypocrite, he can knock himself out.
The Bradbury Group has gone on to be far more successful than The Working Group ever was. Creatively I refer to losing Damien as becoming cancer free. So no hard feelings on this side of the ledger.
I think Damien’s latest Podcast had 400 views. Good for him. Nice to seem him trying. It’s good that he’s getting out there and meeting new people.
Since the publication of the book and the insight it provides, Labour, Greens and Te Pati Māori have all pulled out of the Taxpayers’ Union debate series…
Labour, Greens pull out of Taxpayers’ Union debates following Nicky Hager book
Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick says her party will no longer participate in a series of electorate debates hosted by the Taxpayers’ Union, following a new book about the lobby group by Nicky Hager.
A spokesperson for Labour said they had pulled out as well.
The book, which Hager styles as the third in a trilogy focused on the political right, focuses on the right-wing Taxpayers’ Union.
Hager accuses the group of engaging in race-based campaigning to push New Zealand to the right, in particular through its Stop Three Waters campaign.
The Post
…so it’s going to be the intellectual equivalence of the sound of one hand clapping in terms of ‘debate’.
Hope Damien can get his deposit back.
In the words of the great warrior oracle poet Mike Hosking, Happy Days.
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The Westminster system needs serious reform.
Politicians are elected to serve the people, not wealthy donors, lobbyists or big business.
Lobbying itself is not corruption. But when money buys access, access buys influence, and influence shapes policy, democracy is being distorted.
We need transparent political donations, a public lobbying register, disclosure of who meets ministers and why, strong conflict of interest rules, and real accountability.
Government belongs to the public, not the people with the deepest pockets.
Yep, the free speech brigade idealise free speech…until it gets used against them. At that point free speech proponents then advocate ‘controlled free speech’ instead. Free speech apparently has its limits. Who knew. Want proof? Ani O’Brien. And, as it turns out, as shown in the above opinion, Damien Grant, though, unlike Ani O’Brien, it was restricted to a disagreement and didn’t go to court. Never mind. Let’s put that behind us. Back to Hagar’s book: I feel the net result of the book will be the Taxpayers Union, it’s affiliates, supporters, members, and some politicians, doubling down on the rhetoric, and entrenching an American style left/right divide. My point: it will eliminate the centre in reality, but not the mirage that most people will want to believe in. Most people want to believe they have the capacity to listen to the other side, but that belief itself has become an aberration, as proven by the anti-Māori rhetoric blocking out factual information that contravenes the Taxpayer Unions message.