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Saturday, June 09, 2012

David Farrar and the NZ Listener - the other losers in larger classroom size abortion

It isn't just National and Hekia Parata who are bleeding heavily after the larger class room fiasco. This political mismanagement and strategic incompetence has swamped National Party proxies as well.

The fallen angel of NZ media, The Listener, was the chosen vehicle Treasury used to spin class sizes. That the Listener allowed itself to be so manipulated by Treasury makes The Listener little better than an embedded Fox News 'journalist'. The NZ Listener was once the bastion of intelligent liberal opinion, but the beige of middle class pretension turned the leafy burbs pro John Key ever since he batted his flirty eyes their way.

Think of the NZ Listener now as a Ponsonby housewife facing menopause wanting one last fling with a charmless, witless, chinless multi-millionaire. It's not much of a fantasy but it's the best their empty busy lives can muster.

Watching the ease with which Treasury played them by trying to seed the larger classroom meme leaves one with a very simple lesson. Don't read the Listener.

The mainstream media have become so right wing that we don't even recognize the bias any more. When Paul Holmes isn't writing racist diatribes against Maori just to boost his media attention before returning to Q&A, John Roughan is writing homophobic junk so baseless that you wonder if he's taking the piss in that boring way old people sometimes do to try and be far more edgy and relevant to the debate than they actually are.

Honestly, Roughan is against Gay Marriage because homophobic children will tease them at school? That's his justification for continued inequality, the bigotry of other kids? He's not a brave one is he our John Roughan.

But I digress, the other damaged party who is swamped by National's political mismanagement also happens to be the worst example of how hard right our media have become is in the form of the bore of Babylon, David Farrar. How the Governments chief propagandist and pollster has been allowed an unchallenged role in the media with no attempt at a competing counter opinion is an empty question when the media think hard right spin drs have anything more to offer than soft sell message points as 'opinion'.

Watching David Farrar back peddle over the larger class room sizes has to be one of the most entertaining and hilarious attempts at speaking out of both sides of your mouth any political junkie will savor.

Farrar has the added ignominy of having demanded that National stand firm, right up until his polls turned and thens suddenly so did David's opinion. It is contemptible at best, schadenfreude at worst. Read the column and laugh long and hard.

Those who have been so easily manipulated or were trying to manipulate over larger classroom sizes have been dealt as hard a blow as the Government have.

National have been hurt by this and so have their echo chambers.

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7 Comments:

At 9/6/12 10:15 am, Blogger Max Coyle said...

Gross! I can't believe you suggested people actually go read that, I almost threw up by the end of the first paragraph! :D IN all seriousness though please don't ruin my Saturday morning like this again please Bomber, it's uncalled for!

By the by, I find it a mystery that Farrar, the back pedalling National monkey man emanating spin from every orifice, hasn't yet turned blue like Violet Beauregarde from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

 
At 9/6/12 11:28 am, Blogger countryboy said...

How much is Farrar paid ? And who pays him ? looks that simple to me .

 
At 10/6/12 5:03 pm, Blogger slydixon said...

Ditched the Listerner about a year ago after being a subscriber for nearly twenty years. It was so clear that it had swung hard to the right with the most obvious signs being the advent of the anonymous editorial and the tenor of the so called expert opinion columns. Miss the Take Five and crossword though.

 
At 10/6/12 7:22 pm, Blogger countryboy said...

Whoa ! Wait just a gosh darn minute here ! I've just been to dear old Dr Brian Edwards' blog . I bumped into it as I was researching Nigel Latta . The post I read was of Dr Brians distaste of Nigel Latta . At this point I agreed with Dr Brian . I can't stand the little shit either . Especially after he gagged on jonkey-stiens nob-end on stage during one of his insufferable and banal stage romps . The sort of stage pantomime Americans love . So why does Dr Brian get 101 people leaving comments then ? Is it because he has more people watching than Tumeke ? If so , that's outrageous ! Can there be so few thinkers ? Oh My Ghod ! ? Nigel Latta was awarded a Queens thingy for his ' services ' as adviser to the Jonkey-stien work of fiction and everythung we know and suspect as the Gubbament and Niggle Latta is their 'adviser' ? What the fuck is he advising ? Dr Brian was sent scampering back to his scones and apron when Niggle Latta wrote a curt rebuttle to Dr Brians misgivings and I couldn't help but think you fucking coward Dr Brian . Niggle Latta is a psychologist , he's advising jonky-stiens fourth reich gubbament and we're fucked . We have 270 k of starving and shoeless kids and Dr Brian backs down with a promise of coffee and cakes with the missus ? Fuck that . What is Nigel Latta up to ? I have grave misgivings about the application of certain psychological mechanisms on us at the best of times and here's a man who clearly favours Jonky and makes no secret of his ' advising ' the gubbament ! Freaky man . Really fucking freaky ! Pop star psychologist media darling gets Queens bauble for advising jonky-stien on how to fuck us on the deal ? Just askin' .

 
At 10/6/12 8:47 pm, Blogger peterpeasant said...

Does anyone take the Listener seriously any more? They still have some able intelligent (and amusing)columnists. But there is a lot of inconsequential lightweight writing wearing serious headlines.

I gave up subscribing to it years ago.

I still read out dated copies at my favourite coffee haunt. Generally by the time my savoury and coffee have cooled down enough to have bee consumed I have read most of what is worth reading.

Pity it used to be worth subscribing.e

 
At 10/6/12 11:42 pm, Blogger countryboy said...

Oh , I see . We were talking about the Listener . Oops . Ok then . The same money that pays Nigel Latta , Farrar and sundry others including the salaries of our gibbering , twinkle sparkle news media and all the other sycophantic brown star snugglers is the same money that rid us of the Listener , Kim Hill , TV 7 and actively blocks emerging community media . Follow that income stream and you'll find out exactly who it is that's really behind NZ's woeful fall back into the media dark ages . Ask Katheryn Ryan and Guyan Espiner who it was that paid for their fancy trips to the U.S. as a reward for promoting American foreign policy here ? I miss the Listener terribly . I also miss National Radio . I miss TV1 and I miss New Zealand as I knew it . A safe , egalitarian and evolving land where we were all more or less happy .

 
At 11/6/12 5:26 pm, Blogger Phil said...

Oh...

Parata
Parata
Parat a
Parat a
Pa rat a
Pa rat a
Parrot?

Maybe a budgie ;)

Ha Ha Ha

 

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