I continue to despair at the state of local media, a longstanding concern as the venerable mediawatch category on this blog shows. As the information environment has eroded into its present miserable state, the failure of the media to rise to the occasion grows ever more inexcusable. Today delivered a particularly egregious example of how unthinking journalists can cheerfully serve the needs of some of the worst people in the world. These bad actors know exactly how to take advantage of our media, and yet in 2026, well into the era of Trump 2, with fascism on the rise and right-wing authoritarianism stronger than it has been since the Second World War, somehow our fourth estate remains completely vulnerable to this kind of exploitation.
At issue is this story in Stuff, one of Aotearoa’s primary news sources: MP defends knitting in Parliament: ‘I find it calming and makes it easier to concentrate’
Lloyd Burr has turned in a light-hearted story about MP Deborah Russell, who can sometimes be observed knitting while at her seat in Parliament.
Russell’s act of knitting prompted some feedback into Stuff’s inbox. One of them said “I’m outraged at the footage of a Labour MP knitting in Question Time. These people!!! Knitting!!!!”
Is it really such an outrageous thing to do during Question Time?
Burr then reported the Speaker of the House’s confirmation that knitting is explicitly allowed in the House, and has been for decades, finishing the para with a light touch: he jokingly added that “it may lead to too much uneven tension in the knit”.
Deborah Russell is quoted saying she finds it helps her concentrate, and we get extra context: lots of MPs are texting or doing social media or games on their phones; a number of other MPs from all sides of politics have knitted while in the House, including several current MPs. The piece ends with a classic human-interest light touch finale: “The funny thing is, I’m actually not that much of a good knitter,” she laughs.
What a charming story! A few grumpy phone calls have been comprehensively dismissed with the addition of good-humoured context!
Except.
Stuff also put on the page an interactive poll, complete with the cutesy use of a knitting needle in place of the usual pointer. And that has generated tens of thousands of votes, which show the takeaway from the story is not as benign as the cute tone suggests. In spite of long-standing rules, cross-party precedent, testimonial of benefit, and the fact the entire story presents this as fine and dandy, 20,000 people (as I type) still think it’s not OK. Hundreds of comments on the story also include plenty of aggrieved voices who find this completely unacceptable.
Despite the cheerful tone of Burr’s article, and the jaunty energy of the knitting needle pointer, the material effect of this story is to introduce thousands and thousands of people to a fresh justification for furious anger towards (left-wing) politicians.
Lloyd Burr and Stuff just circulated hate propaganda.
This is not a surprise. It was, in fact, completely obvious, so obvious a simpleminded blogger like me could call it. And that’s exactly what happened. I encountered the story on Bluesky, where Hayley/writagal (an excellent follow BTW) shared it expressing entirely appropriate frustration.
I’m going to feature my reply in full because I called it exactly right, and I say this not to show how clever I am (hahahanope) but the opposite: that it was completely obvious to anyone who is paying attention to how any of this shit works now.
I expected it was some chud on X who had noticed Deborah knitting and decided to make a thing of it. A couple hours later I braved the feotid waters of X, plugging “knitting parliament nz” into the search function. This incredible investigative skill was rewarded with the culprit: some chud on X who had noticed Deborah knitting and decided to make a thing of it.
But wait, there’s more. By using the advanced investigative technique of “scrolling down slightly” I found even more shocking evidence: this wasn’t even the first time! Back in July the same poster had made almost exactly the same post!
These posts had generated lots of engagement on renowned hate site X dot com, but the first one hadn’t made it out of the troll ecosystem. This time, however, someone had actually sent an email to the Stuff website, and that was all it took. Suddenly it was A Story.
Regardless of Burr’s and Stuff Editorial’s intentions, covering this story at all was handing a win to the right-wing haters. Of course it does! The whole story is about something that looks like a distraction! That’s why there was a need for a specific rule allowing it! That’s why the same subject has been covered in the media in the past! The most salient point of the story is that the negative first reaction is wrong!
This point was completely lost.
As soon as you put an image or video (which Stuff also posted under a separate header!!) of something that, at first glance, looks like a politician failing in their duties… then you’re inviting hate. Especially if they’re on the left. ESPECIALLY if they’re a woman.
The tone of the story, the exonerating facts, all of the words Lloyd Burr put in that story are so much dust in the wind compared to the communicative force of raising it as an issue at all, with images and a reader poll to boot. And this was completely obviously the case right from the start.
So far, so bad. Turning this grumpy email into a story was phenomenally ill-judged, and the story itself was wrapped and presented in a way that would only deliver terrible consequences.
But instead of stopping there, I’m going to use my completely self-taught journalistic skills to take my background investigation to a higher level, with the extremely advanced technique of “clicking on their profile picture”.
Gross.
Just to decode for anyone blessed enough not to know: “Socialists & Globalists” here is a reference to Jews, and relates to grotesque conspiratorial thinking about left-wing ideas that is frequently used to justify all kinds of hatred and atrocities. Gab is a social media site utterly dominated by extreme right ideologies. This guy is a fascist troll hiding his identity, with thousands and thousands of followers, enthusiastically connected to global comms channels that promote hatred and conspiracy.
This is the guy who is looking to make Deborah Russell the target of political and media approprobrium.
Lloyd Burr has done exactly what this fascist prick wanted. Stuff Editorial has done exactly what he wanted.
There was no need to cover this at all. Covering this story was losing. A pathetic self-inflicted failure of journalistic standards, once again, and at the expense of a woman in politics, once again.
And how much media coverage of the extensive community of hatemongers who spread their conspiracy and stoke outrage and try to undermine democracy? None.
Not good enough.
My nan used to sit and knit at family gatherings, she looked as though she was completely immersed in the “knit one purl one” but absolutely nothing got past her, no matter how sneaky we were or how low we whispered, she could follow several conversations at once and not miss a stitch.