Educating Helen

I've just listened to a second interview where Helen Clark refers to “right wing blogs” incorrectly. She earlier called Fran O'Sullivan's NZ herald column a blog and in interview also refers to (presumably) Matthew Hooton's SST column as a “right wing blog”.

Can someone on her staff please explain to her that she looks foolish everytime she does this. It's like calling a newspaper a TV broadcast. Here's the three things you need to make sure she understands:

1) A blog, short for web log, is not a newspaper column (even if there is an online version of it). It is an opinion peice published on the , using blog software.

2) Not all blogs are right wing.

3) Not all publications which criticise her, are blogs.

She seems to have been told these “right wing blogs” are a bad thing, so whenever something criticises her, she is now calling it a “right wing blog” to undermine it.

This is as silly as if Don dismissed a NZ Herald newspaper column attacking him as a “socialist propoganda broadcast”.

UPDATE: Russell Brown has also noticed the PM's confusions with bloggers. He notes she tends to regard the phrase “right wing blogger” as the worst insult she could reach for.

I have to say that the thought we annoy her so much, so she now uses an a term of insult gives me a warm happy feeling that could only be exceeded if Scarlett Johansen wanted me as a love slave.

Perhaps a t-shirt is needed – “I am a right wing blogger and proud of it” 🙂

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