Speaking of the political rhetoric and its disconnect from understanding…
Author Nicky Hager accuses the prime minister of being “cranky” and of coming up with “wacky” conspiracy theories. Hmm. – Liam Hehir, Palmerston North
Backstory: investigating journo Nicky Hager came into possession of a lot of internal emails from the National Party, and used them as the basis of a book called The Hollow Men that essentially rolled Nats leader Don Brash out of politics.
Nats attack dog Matthew Hooton went ferociously after control of the story with the lede-friendly counterattack line that those emails were stolen not leaked, probably by high-tech computer hackers, and that made Hager a criminal, and never mind the substance of the book because he’s a criminal and they were hacked! HACKED I SAY!
Cue endless discussion over whether or not the emails were hacked (the media reports all use this frame even though none of them really seem to know what “hacked” means). Meanwhile, things that came up in those emails remain ignored by every media commentator and most politicos. John Key, current Prime Minister, was an important liaison between the Exclusive Brethren and the Nats machine; he denies this vehemently even though the Hollow Men movie has a clip showing him entering a meeting with the EBs. Does anyone challenge him on this? Apparently not. The only story is whether or not the emails were HACKED, i.e. whether Hager is an outright criminal or just a very naughty man.
So, there are two police investigations into the allegations of hacking. Hager maintains “no, they were leaked to me”. Police say, twice: no evidence at all of anything like hacking, whatever that means.
John Key’s response: “Bollocks.” Nice one, P.M., stay on message there. So in the face of two police investigations you’re just going to stick to your story? Of course you are, because your story is a strategic position adopted upon advice from media advisors, and is not in any way connected to anything real. Nats insider/advisor Richard Long, who might be the very one who helped John Key come up with the response line to this story, enthusiastically supports the bollocks line in his completely independent political commentary column in the DomPost.
And so we get the letter to the editor by Liam Hehir, who helpfully demonstrates how effective this media management has been. In Hehir’s world, it’s Hager who’s the wacky conspiracy theorist and John Key who’s the reasonable and sensible one. Sorry Liam Hehir, but you’ve been sold.
I can only point at the media on this. John Key has basically said the police investigations were flawed, and discounted their conclusions. On the basis of nothing much at all he’s pushing a line that says Hager’s entirely reasonable claim of “leakers at work” is a lie, and Hager is a thief. No-one pushes back on this. And certainly no-one pays much attention to the dirt that the emails in question throw in Key’s direction. Media as stenographers to the powerful, as Glenn Greenwald likes to put it. The result is Liam Hehir’s letter. Come on, DomPost and others, do your jobs will you?
I’m critical of the police in some ways (especially some individual police officers with whom I have had less than edifying run-ins) but it has to be galling for anyone whose job is basically to protect the public good to be kicked around so thoughtlessly by an arse-covering politician.
Does anyone really think that the police have a pro-Nicky Hager agenda? There’s no reason I could think of why they would come down against the idea of the emails being hacked, unless there really was no evidence for it happening.
And yeah, I completely agree about most of the NZ media’s understanding of hacking – it’s right up there with their understanding of science. Dismal.
So Key et al aren’t disputing the content of the emails, etc, that paints them in a bad light? Just the spin which somehow relegates the content to irrelevance.
Pearce: the police are well-known apologists for the liberal left.
Billy: exactly. No-one’s talking about any of that stuff at all. Brash took the fall and the story shifted to the emails; no interest in any of the stuff that involved other people. Mindboggling.
Awww, but that John Key is so nice! Surely he wouldn’t do anything as underhand as *spin* a story, would he?
It’s straight out of the Alistair Campbell school of politics. And for the most part our media are totally unprepared for a government that manages in this manner. It’ll be one of the key (heh) reasons National will get back into power after the next election. (Well, that and Labour at the moment being a joke).
“John Key’s a really nice guy. He’s also a twat.”
– I’m not allowed to reveal who said that to me this weekend, but he does know Key personally.
I wonder at what point it’s worth waving a defamation suit about. Sadly, Key’s vast personal wealth probably render this a non-starter for Hager.
(And, of course, there’s no pro-National bias in the New Zealand press…)
Hmmm… I want to comment on the leakiness of organisations based on recent happenings at work, but suspect that might itself be considered leaky 🙂
“the police are well-known apologists for the liberal left.”
Yes, Greg O’Connor has admitted this on numerous occasions.