Hosking and Slater Spoilt the Party

  Aotearoa      pn261

A 2017 Colmar Brunton poll showed that 31% of New Zealanders thought Government should not attend the Waitangi Celebrations.

If you believe, having watched this year's Waitangi Day celebrations, that racism and tolerance  are on the way out in the Land of the Long White Cloud, unfortunately you need to think again.  

SpinOff/The Bulletin, Stuff and Cameron Slater on Climate Change ... and Mike Hosking again

 SpinOff/The Bulletin Commends Stuff on Climate Change Articles  Thursday 29 November

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Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin, by Alex Braae and supported by Vector.

We're going to lead off today with something a bit different to the usual – we wouldn't normally start with a story about media coverage of a story. I like to think that this publication is generally pretty positive about the quality of NZ journalism. But today I want to talk about a series that in my opinion surpasses everything else published in this country over the past year.

Thinking about "The Rotting Corpse of Daily Journalism"

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"But my real suspicion was this: the stench was from the rotting corpse of daily journalism after it had finally, and deservedly, carked it from overdosing on clickbait, reporting speculation and breathless beat-ups." -- Greg Dixon, "On the (Carterton) pong track," NZ Listener, Oct. 13 .., pp 94.

Taking the Mickey out of Donald

UN leaders laughed when Donald Trump told the UN General Assembly his administration had "accomplished  more than any other in the history of the country".  

Trump said they were not laughing at him. "They were  laughing with me.  We had fun... We had a good time. They respect what I've done," he said.

"To the moon and back."   pn104

Jacinda Adern said she did not laugh because "I was respecting the fact that he had the floor and what he had to say." (Her UN speech)  And Simon Bridges agreed with her. The "President of the United States deserves some respect.  I  certainly would not have been laughing."

But National PM-to-be Mike Hoskings went a step further. 


Under the heading "UN is an abject failure", he said  the "United Nations is a bunch of condescending snobs ... Laughing at people is bad manners, its rude..." 

This from the man who uses every opportunity to take down anyone who disagrees with him.

The Trump brain

After the meeting Trump told reporters he has a  'very, very large brain" respected by the Chinese.   He went on to say that President Obama nearly pressed the button on North Korea. "If I hadn't been elected, you'd be in a war," he said.  

Asked if he snubbed Canadian PM Trudeau at the UN meeting: "Yeah", he said.  "I did. His tariffs are too high and he doesn't seem to want to move."

No wonder UN leaders laughed at him.  Anyone with a sense of humour would also laugh were it not for the power the man wields.

-- ACW

The Threesome in New York: Public Spending and Nitpicking

With Parliament in recess for another two weeks it's anyone's guess what scintillating political news the parties and the media will serve up for us.   

So far, it's par for the course. A several way exchange in insults and very little substance, with the media adding the topping.

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First was the "debate" about whether or not Jacinda Adern was entitled to use an America-based ad agency to take photographs that would be used for future campaigning. "A crew of three," writes Mike Hosking,  "from some agency called Augusto, which has a New York office."

Is the Egalitarian Vision of Past NZ Generations Dead?

On the one hand, it's good to know we still have investigate journalists like Kirsty Johnston of  the NZ Herald, though I doubt cynical ostriches like Mike Hosking would read what she writes.   On the other hand, her recent articles on admissions to university courses  are so distressing I'm tempted to become another ostrich. What I don't know can't hurt me.

Kirsty Johnston, investigative journalist.  pn99

The gaps between those  from poor homes or low decile schools and those from the other end of the home/school spectrum make appalling reading. 

Even more distressing is that schooling does not seem to be resolving the situation. The gaps increase as our children progress through school.  At Year 12 there are four times more children from rich homes.  One-half of our children who attended high decline schools go on to university compared with only 17% from low decile schools.

White Man Behind A Desk Quits Comedy

White Man Behind A Desk quits comedy, pivots to political commentary

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The calculus of supply and demand has driven WMBAD to abandon humour and focus instead on hot takes. 

Here Robbie Nicol, Finnius Teppett et al pitch their wares

White Man Behind A Desk has given up comedy because it is a moral evil. Some people might think we gave up because of our inability to convert views into financial success or because we were never that funny to begin with. To those people, we would say, “Shut up.”

Luckily, we have discovered a job that requires neither knowledge nor humour – political commentary. (Click on Read more below.)