The media perspective
May 30th, 2005 at 5:41 am by David FarrarIt is with a degree of amusement that I read in today’s Dom Post that “an unexpected high-flier was Wellington barrister Chris Finlayson” and also “A surprise omission was former National Party president and 2002 candidate Sue Wood”.
What this means is that the media had not actually checked around to see what was likely, and hence “unexpected” means they had not predicted it. I doubt a single candidate or local activist was surprised by Chris Finlayson’s list ranking.
Likewise the only surprise with Sue Wood would have been if she was standing. Again I don’t think there had been any suggestion from anyone (including Sue) that she was seeking to stand again. And even if she was, her nomination would have been made public before the list ranking so in fact it is even less of a surprise.
The article overall is actually a good one, but I found those two comments rather silly because quite simply neither of them were unexpected or a surprise.
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May 30th, 2005 at 6:49 am
Your comment regarding the use of “surprise” as a way of covering themselves when they did not know something is prophetic. No doubt those low paid dud journalists never get a surprise from the Labour Party because they are always being briefed at Trades Hall and then publishing their incontinent shite. But the more senior people in the newspapers are not much enamoured with Labour these days especially after the Doon affair.
Vote:May 30th, 2005 at 12:35 pm
It’s not like Finlayson was a surprise last minute candidate – I presume he had been to National LNI conferences and the like meeting and greeting people. Simply a case of a journo trying to make their article more sensationalist….
Vote:May 30th, 2005 at 12:41 pm
Chris is a former Regional Chair of LNI, the current chair of the national policy cmte, been a party member since he was 18, is one of the top litigation barristers in NZ, is a world class public speaker, so no surprise at all he got a top rating.
Vote:May 30th, 2005 at 8:59 pm
Luke, perhaps you could inform the rest of us which seats are the ACT seats you refer to. Last time I checked ACT hasn’t held a seat since the 1996 election, and even then it couldn’t manage it without National’s help.
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