What Bryce Edwards Missed – Hooton’s selective morality
In the ever brilliant Bryce Edwards latest political round up, Bryce gives Matthew Hooton a platform to claim that there is some sort of increased hate campaign by the Left against John Key…
Matthew Hooton has a theory that the New Zealand political left suffers from “Key Derangement Syndrome” (KDS). By this he means that political activists – especially those aligned with Labour and the Greens – tend to have an irrational hatred of John Key that is out of line with reality and with the wider public. According to Hooton, sufferers of KDS are hamstrung by their hatred of Key as their lack of perspective undermines their effectiveness as an opposition.
…now let’s just deal with the crux of Hooton’s assertion. People who are educated and politically aware of what Key is doing to NZ are enraged by his hard right agenda…
- 300 000 kids in poverty
- Rising Inequality
- Housing affordability crisis
- mass surveillance
- signing away our economic and political sovereignty to America
- allowing the Auckland property bubble to continue because it’s the only thing generating GDP growth.
- Killing off critical media
- Farming meltdown
- No real movement on Climate Change
- Exploitation of the environment
- screaming at Labour that they supported rapists and murderers
- Touching a young waitress over 10 times in her place of work
- Privatisation of state houses
- Idealogical experiments in education
- privatisation of prisons
…the list can go on and on. There is plenty of reasons to be furious towards Key, but that’s not the wider point here.
Why is Hooton being held up by Bryce as some sort of genuine perspective on this? Where the hell does Hooton get off moralising on hate when he is such a hateful commentator?
Max Rashbrooke, a respected journalist, author and researcher who has exposed the terrible manner in which the wealthy have destroyed egalitarianism, who has exposed the lies of 30 years of neoliberal policy, who has highlighted the grossness of the new elite and their rich spoilt offspring is leading a hate-motivated campaign to promote a communist agenda?
How does pointing out the farce our egalitarianism has become with the rise of spoilt uber rich kids a communist hate campaign?
How does Hooton get away with saying mad things like this and STILL get invited onto panel discussion shows?
Let’s not forget, that when Cathy Odgers asked for Hager’s address in Dirty Politics so that wealthy clients of her’s could assassinate Hager for drawing attention to the clandestine trusts they were using to launder cash, Hooton immediately gave Cathy Hager’s address.
I’m just not sure that a man who hands over the address of a Journalist in the hope that Journalist becomes a target for Chinese mafia assassination has any high ground left to claim others of hate campaigns.
Hooton called Hager a ‘Communist Cunt’ on Twitter and has personally attacked Professor Jane Kelsey but Bryce doesn’t mention or contextualise any of that.
Look at what this Government did in Dirty Politics, look at the way this Government attacked beneficiaries for speaking out against reforms and look at the way this Government have attacked journalists – it has been this Government who have taken hate campaigns to a new level, not the Left!
Hooton’s selective morality is as sick as giving him the platform to promote it.
Breath taking journalism Martyn, you have exposed the filth that is Hooton’s trademark.
We must see Hooton shamed for this in the press, as he is intent still of using dirty politics to attack our free speech again in the journalism world.
Hooton is filth.
He belongs with Collin’ and Steven Joyce again as they prepare for another filthy dirty politics election.
I guess it’s easy for Bryce to be charitable toward Matthew. After all, Bryce wasn’t targetted by right-wing fanatics, and he certainly didn’t have his address published so that “unhappy billionaires” could more readily exact revenge…
When people like Jon Stevenson, Nicky Hager, et al, are targetted for their criticisms, I am reminded on the crackdown and mass-trials of dissidents in the former USSR, in the 1970s and 1980s.
At the same time, let’s not forget that Robert Muldoon was also a popular – and extremely polarising – Prime Minister in the 70s and 80s. It was only when Bob Jones’ NZ Party split the FPP vote in 1984 that a resurgent Labour Party under David Lange was able to topple Muldoon.
History now views Muldoon unfavourably; wrecking the economy to such a degree that it allowed a new-right revolution to find fertile ground; being divisive; and usual populist issues such as the ’81 Springbok Tour for personal political advantage.
Were critics of Muldoon (who were legion in number) guilty of Muldoon Derangement Syndrome? Or were they in the vanguard of criticising a demagogue for what we see now as legitimate reasons?
And how will political historians view Key in twenty, thirty years time?
“How does Hooton get away with saying mad things like this and STILL get invited onto panel discussion shows? ”
The same way the rabid David Farrar gets invited to all sorts of media platforms.
And the same way Michelle Boag gets invited on to panel shows. I’m sure she’s channelling Kim from Kath and Kim.
Good question answered by you Pete, and I am sure Martyn knows what I add here also.
“How does Hooton get away with saying mad things like this and STILL get invited onto panel discussion shows? ”
Also I may add,
Because Steven Joyce, Minister of “Propaganda” our clone of the late Joseph Goebbels who ran Hitler’s Ministry of Public Enlightenment & Propaganda” Joyce runs MBIE that is strikingly similar called “the Ministry of Business Innovation & Employment” has a political power enshrined in this agency, to force a hold over the entire NZ MSM.
So spread this fact around when you can.
So effectively uses Hooten as their mole as many others also are used by this Government like Gooseman.
The only thing Hooton is good for is an expos’e of the neo liberal ‘wretch’ and their mode of operation. He is useful in that regard.
And like all neo liberal wretches, he does it for the money. Such as he did when handing out that address. Again, the motive being to silence any criticism of the National neo liberal wretch govt so as to maintain the elevated social status position and thus the money to keep rolling on in.
He was on the IKA debate panel.
I can hardly think of a lesser qualified person save Simon Lusk to have even been allowed to set near that microphone as he was allowed to.
He also called David Cunliffe David C*ntliffe on a Radio Live ‘commentators’ discussion when he was leader of the Labour Party.
No rebuke from media works . Nothing!!
However due to the fact that he continually links that part of the female anatomy with something that in his mind is bad, then it’s pretty obvious that he is a closet gay.
I think he should just ‘come out’ instead of suppressing it with all that pent up anger!!
The reason he still gets invited on discussion groups is money.
He’s a paid mouth piece for the neo liberal media to peddle their vile ideology.
A vile person with zero moral compass.
To be avoided !!
‘However due to the fact that he continually links that part of the female anatomy with something that in his mind is bad, then it’s pretty obvious that he is a closet gay.’
That makes a closet Gay?
Grant, I’m not sure if you were attempting humour or if you actually believe what you wrote but hey, who needs Hooten trying to turn people off the Left when we’ve got comments like yours.
Sorry. I didn’t mean to offend.
I may have got that wrong.
Instead maybe it’s Hootons body language in the photo.
The flirty tilt of the head.
The suggestive playing with his forefinger.
The deep gaze of wanton admiration.
Just random observations…
Some time back Hooton announced that he was having troubles with alcohol.
He gained a certain amount of sympathy. Perhaps people thought that his addiction was part of the reason for his obnoxious demeanor.
It wasn’t long before he began his regular snide and snarky ways.
Did he loose the battle with the bottle, or does snide and snarky just come naturally to him?