The Sunday News Roast

On the Sunday News Roast tonight at 7pm, Sky Digital 65, Alt Tvs News and weekend newspaper critique show that is Unfair & Unbalanced, THE SPIN STARTS HERE with the best political news team on television, Bomber from Alt, the last man to be convicted of sedition in NZ, blogger Tim Selwyn and Phoebe Fletcher from the Auckland University media studies department, Ben Thomas from the NBR is away on assignment with a special report on right wing cult groups who worship the holy pocket linings of the prophet Adam Smith. No really he is, some crazy right wing conference in the Central North Island, he’ll report back next week.

Tim – Let’s talk about Tumeke and the Corrections list story – is it a case of the much maligned blogging community living up to journalistic standards well above that of the mainstream Herald?

Best moment was Oliver Driver on Sunrise when James Coleman in his charming insincerity foolishly condescendingly asked Oliver after an interview for Olivers’ latest must see performance in Pinters’ Betrayal, how Alt Tv was going, quick as a wit Oliver shot back “Fantastic, we scooped you on the Corrections file story 24 hours before you claimed it was an exclusive”, James interrupts that they don’t have time to talk about that and must move onto the next story which involved cats, to which Driver exclaimed in the background, “That’s the important story we need to move onto rather than debate the important issue of the day, cats? No wonder it took you 24 hours”.

Oh and smackers for smackdown?

Phoebe – Let’s talk about your new blog that will appear on Tumeke tomorrow, a damaging appraisal of male chauvinism that is quite eye opening.

News that caught my eye this week
1: Simon Powers on Agenda this morning, it was supposed to be an interview and turned into a handjob, Powers more than any other Conservative Politician has played to the sensible sentencing wind up by painting prison out to be some sort of Adult Disneyland with under floor heating and plasma TVs, he even demanded that Tumeke be shut down because, drinking too deeply from his own bullshit, believed Tim had access to a computer in prison as if it’s some sort of hotel service provided with their 5 course meal – and yet he was today purring on Agenda about moderate yet firm measures and rehabilitation and soothing words about his privitaisation agenda that would see American styled private prisons with a perversely vested interest in more prisoners in more prisons for longer because it boosts profit margins, none of which was challenged in the interview. TVNZ Agenda - that was poor work.

2: The counter-reaction from some on the right to suggestions that liquor outlets are restricted by letting local groups clamp down on them has been ill targeted. Deborah Coddington claims that it is akin to blaming the victim of the shooting for owning a liquor store, Whaleoil pointed out that Manurewa had the second driest district – what these points miss is that the issue is with discounted booze outlets with very new and forced through late night shopping hours springing up in suburbs, while no one ever asks to be killed in cold blood, the easy access of these outlets due to piss poor planning exacerbates and feeds the problem. The indifference of the killer to killing Navtej Singh, the indifference of the customers who walked in, the indifference of the Police, the indifference of Councils to zone out suburban discount liquor stores, the indifference of funding Manurewa properly with childhood learning centers and with 10 000 teenagers they have funding for only three youth workers!

The Manurewa Community Board member Alan Johnson in the best commentary on this that I have read goes much further, “The rich irony in all of this is that it is easier to establish a liquor store in a suburban neighbourhood than it is to start an early childhood education facility or build a classroom in a local school.”

3: 12 students expelled from Westlake Boys for weed, I’ve always found this mentality from schools offensive, how does expelling the kid from his school for some sacred zero tolerance of drugs mantra help those kids? We know they disappear off the radar when they are expelled and end up being the exact statistic schools are supposed to be stopping. Reputation of the school drives this shit, not the well being of the student.

4: In the same week that it was announced that Bruce Emery was to stand trial for murdering a tagger, the Tagging Bill, a pointless knee jerk piece of legislation that is being passed to look like something is being done, Nandor has called for it to be voted down as he pointed out, “it is irresponsible to pass useless legislation just to send a message. He pointed out that everyone who spoke in favour of the legislation railed about the evils of tagging and its link to violence, while openly admitting that the Bill itself wouldn’t work”

5: Talking of tagging, National signed up to the newest knee jerk reaction against da gangs, The Organised Crime (Penalties and Sentencing) Bill increases the maximum penalty for participation in an organised criminal group from five to 10 years and allows police to use interception warrants to investigate gangs.

While every politician clambers to be seen as tough on crime and with a public baying for blood in the wake of some pretty hideous crimes, we suddenly have all these police powers being rushed through Parliament

Firstly making being in a gang an aggravating factor won’t do a damned thing to gang crime and will only see more gang colours inside prison and we see the current pressures that is bringing to our corrupt, violent and racist prison system, if you want to tackle organized crime you attack them with the old format SFO to bring down their financial structures rather than longer pointless sentences and secondly what the hell is this “interception warrant” and what new powers will that bring? Is this the break into your home, plant spy cameras and record for 4 days without any independent judicial over sight, and are we whipping up gang fear to pass this through without any questions asked?

In the Weekend Newspapers
STORY 1 – Generation Why Bother – SST
This election 18 to 35-year-olds will form one of the key battlegrounds in deciding whether Clark will continue to lead the country. But the most surprising thing about this group is how numerous they are, and yet how quiet.
They numbered over 900,000 at the last census, almost double the much-vaunted voting group of superannuitants, who numbered just 500,000. Generation Why Bother, as we have dubbed them, are so politically disengaged, they may be the last ones to realise the political muscle they possess.
Brilliant piece on the first mass media consumer culture individuals, Labour have brought economic power to their Baby Boomer backers while Gen Xers have paid the price of user pays policy as social policy so they are a disconnected community that has no voice – how do you reach the cynical when the cynicism is so righteous?


STORY 2 – Why we're not so clean, green - HOS
The clean, green image of New Zealand is being tarnished by environmentally unfriendly practices of its businesses, according to an international survey. The survey of 2300 human resources managers in 17 countries found that only 29 per cent of Kiwi employers had environmental policies or activities in place. Only Germany scored worse, with 26 per cent. New Zealand also had the lowest proportion of companies - 8 per cent - to include environmental issues in their financial reporting, and the highest number of human resources managers - a third - who believed going green did not improve a company's image to investors.
Good work by Cliff Taylor, in the same week that showed Ocean temperatures have been misread and that the Ocean has warmed 50% more than has been predicted, which suggests we are in much more of a dangerous position with Global Warming than we thought, we see NZ Business has no interest in being part of the solution. Are we still in denial, sure there’s a lot of awareness, nut no one is doing anything are they?


STORY 3 – Sugar and Spice Sunday Insight story in HOS
This is an article on the effects of a sexualized consumer culture on girls, but the issue that strikes me most is the sexualized images they have selected to go along with this worthy article. We’ve seen the effects of consumer culture on the disconnected and individualistic why bother generation, how will the next generation grow up on a constant media diet of sexualized images of tweenies?

On the E Channel they now have advertorials for plastic curgery.


STORY 4 - Israel trains to raid Iran but capacities in doubt – sst
Israel has spent years training for a possible bombing run against Iranian nuclear sites but its air force may be too small to finish the job alone, officials and independent experts have said. Citing unidentified Pentagon sources, the New York Times said on Friday that more than 100 Israeli F-16 and F-15 jets took part in a long-range Mediterranean exercise this month that appeared to be practice for real sorties over Iran.
Is it going to happen or what? If Israel attacks, consider $139 a barrel as cheap.

FINAL WORD – Season two of Let’s be Frank is starting soon, be ready for more agenda setting interviews with Oliver Driver, I’m talking to the Electoral Commission on their attempts to reach out to disconnected people in Society to enroll in this years election on Green Core, Wednesday 8.30pm and read A Dangerous Drift by Rosemary McLeod in the Sunday Star Times this week, the best column I think she’s ever written!