Gordon Campbell on Labour’s backdown over the Hobbit law (and Jami-Lee Ross)
Clearly, Jami-Lee Ross is not waging a normal form of political warfare, with agreed rules of combat and rational cost/benefit calculations.
Media
Gordon Campbell on health promises, BP, and the White House correspondents furore
Remember that classic clip of Homer Simpson reacting to news of the government’s best effort at speed –roasting a buffalo? Keep that impatience in mind. […]
Gordon Campbell on the prevailing media narratives about the Labour–led coalition
The media reports the facts…. but that’s not the end of it, and nor should it be. It also marshals those facts and creates a […]
Gordon Campbell on vulnerable kids, fresh RNZ funding, and Poppy
The decision to remove the word ‘vulnerable’ from the Ministry for Vulnerable Children could well mark a whole shift in approach to the care of children in need.
Gordon Campbell on journalism, Peters and Ghahraman
So how is journalism faring in its role of (a) speaking truth to power, and (b) keeping its independent distance from those it seeks to monitor?
Gordon Campbell on Peter Thiel’s bad attitude problem
No-one in government seems to have done due diligence on Thiel’s business values to see if he would be a good fit for our corporate environment.
Gordon Campbell on the killing of the Fairfax/NZME merger
The vast majority of the public would agree with the Commission. Journalism is not baked beans. Society conveys certain powers and responsibilities on the Fourth Estate for a reason.
Gordon Campbell on journalism’s future in the era of “alternative facts.”
Already, the White House has made it clear that the media are the new enemy that the new President’s supporters will be encouraged to unite against.
Gordon Campbell on the proposed media merger
Monopolies are bad for people, and bad for capitalism, too. Look at what happened in the late 1980s when a Labour government handed a state […]
Gordon Campbell on how class colours the reactions to the Panama Papers
Not many heroes so far in the Panama Papers saga, but any number of villains. Those villains happen to include: criminals laundering their ill gotten […]
Gordon Campbell on John Key putting defamation costs on the public tab
So, where are we now on the Teapot Tape saga? According to Prime Minister John Key, Key was wearing his “ leader of the National […]
Gordon Campbell on Pharmac’s unequal battle over the funding of Keytruda
Sad to say, but the Key government has never showed much stomach for saying ‘No’ to corporate lobbyists from the pharmaceutical industry or the film […]
Gordon Campbell on the myopia of the business news
Listening to the business news is a bit like eavesdropping on the radio transmissions from space aliens. There is no discernible connection between the concerns […]
Gordon Campbell on making the media pay for OIA requests
Click for big version. So it seems that since November, the Reserve Bank has been quietly enacting a policy of charging the media for Official […]
Gordon Campbell on the Police harassment of Nicky Hager
So now we know. If you’ve done something to really annoy the Establishment – hello, Kim Dotcom, Heather Du Plessis Allen, Nicky Hager and teapot […]
Gordon Campbell on being accountable, and holding the powerful to account
Don’t know how you feel about it, but the selective unavailability of Ministers and senior public servants to media scrutiny seems to be a growing […]
Gordon Campbell on Malcolm Turnbull, and rugby mania
When Malcolm Turnbull took over as PM across the Tasman, much was made of him citing the populist touch of Prime Minister John Key – […]
Gordon Campbell on Labour-bashing over the TPP and Canada's election
Should we be surprised that Labour has ended up as the media’s cheap and easy target over the TPP? Clearly, it would be more risky […]
Gordon Campbell on John Key’s trip to Iraq
New Zealand Prime Minister John Key has just returned from a quick visit to our troops in Iraq, where he reportedly discovered that (a) Iraq […]
Gordon Campbell on Corbyn, Trump and outsider politics
Jeremy Corbyn elevated to the leadership of Britain’s Labour Party! Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders on the rise in the US… On both sides of […]
Gordon Campbell on Donald Trump, and Dr Dre
For the past few months, you, me, and Rupert Murdoch have been waiting for the wheels to fall off the Trump campaign, and for some […]
Gordon Campbell on the plight of dairy, anti-Chinese sentiments and Pluto
Where now for dairy farmers? On RNZ this morning, Economic Development Minister Stephen Joyce was portraying the carnage of plunging global dairy prices, declining Fonterra […]
Gordon Campbell on Tiwai Point, and saying “No” in Greece
Its hard to see how Rio Tinto’s one month delay in announcing its intentions about the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter is a good sign for […]
Gordon Campbell on what Uber and The Hobbit have in common
Remember the Great Hobbit Fiasco of 2010 – when John Key, Gerry Brownlee etc bowed and scraped to the lords of Warners and changed our […]
Gordon Campbell on the Cullen Review of our security service
Whatever the conflicts and point scoring between them on other issues, National and Labour have always spoken virtually as one on free trade and the […]
Gordon Campbell on lessons for Labour from the UK election
If the polls were right – and the pollsters kept telling us how accurate they’d been in 2010, and even Nate Silver was getting the […]
Gordon Campbell Key’s abuse of secrecy over Iraq & The TPP
Gordon Campbell on John Key’s abuse of secrecy over Iraq, and the TPP For the past week or so we’ve been hearing a lot about […]
Gordon Campbell on Indonesia’s latest round of executions
Gordon Campbell on Indonesia’s latest round of executions To no-one’s real surprise, Indonesia has carried out its second wave of executions this year. Given the […]
Gordon Campbell on the hair-pulling finale and Gallipoli
Don’t know about you, but when hi-jinks and horsing around are going on, my understanding is that everyone involved is supposed to be having a […]
Gordon Campbell on the PM's Hair-Pulling Power Trip
There have been striking differences between (a) the account of the waitress involved in the hair-pulling incidents, and (b) the account being given by Prime […]