Blog Weary, Boock

I don’t have the blog motivation at present. Not going to force it; soon enough something will happen that will ignite my outrage-burners and I’ll be typing away furiously before your knee can jerk. But until then, it looks like I’m rolling slow-bloggery styles.
If ever a demonstration was needed of the kindergarten logic of newspaper editors, one need only refer to the ongoing bottle of fun that is the Sunday Star Times – they prominently feature columnist Michael Laws in the Comment section, where he infuriates all the liberal readers by frothing over political correctness; and they hand over the back page of the Sports section to Richard Boock, where he infuriates all the conservative readers by being too politically correct. At first I thought it was a bit odd that the most trendy-liberal voice in the paper was in the Sports section – but of course it isn’t an accident at all. It’s how you maintain some energy in your paper. Its like sending out a wrestling heel to insult the crowd and draw a lot of heat – there’s nothing those wrestling fans like more than a good loud boo-session. It would be endearing if it didn’t have consequences for the national discourse, e.g. the massive rightwards slant of our news-oriented commentariat.
Anyway, this weeks SST Sports section featured a charmer of a Letters section (located under Eric Young’s section, where he reassuringly rails against “the PC clan who stole bullrush“). Simon Lawrence writes about Boock: “who do you think reads your sports section whilst the wife hogs the front few pages? Obviously it may be presumptuous to say we are all married, but perhaps not to say we are red blooded Kiwi blokes who just have a love of sport. Persist with Boock, and you are telling New Zealand, you are looking for a reader profile who is a left wing, liberalist forever searching for his feminine side…”
The next letter is headed Pinko!: “Richard Boock is a pink shirt-wearing, wine-drinking, Green Party supporter who has smoked too many funny cigarettes while carrying his wife’s handbag and should be writing for a women’s mag.” It is attributed to “A synopsis of feedback on www.stuff.co.nz”.
That sounds like an endorsement to me. Which is, sadly, exactly the point.
Right, things to do. Have lovely days everybody.