If Kiwis want that particular New Zealand fine. If they want to retain Helen Clark and Labour and inclusive government which tries to give every New Zealander a decent and inclusive life in their own country, then they won’t want Phil Goff at this time, because if he is hacked in at this time in 2008, then Labour will lose. Chris Trotter knows this. Therefore, Chris Trotter hates Helen Clark, he is a National Supporter or he is a Phil Goff supporter. He has an agenda.

eh..?

(heh-heh..!..)

numbnuts to the right of me..!

numbnuts to the ‘left’(?) of me..!

phil(whoar.co.nz)

When I hear him talk on the radio, he has nothing to say. And he goes on saying it. He appears intoxicated by the sound of his own voice.

Then he follows up in writing, peppered at times with what I imagine we are expected to accept as erudite and profound quotes.

Its all shallow, flabby and self-serving stuff. He does it, I suppose, for the money. It pays the bills.

Oh, one other thing while we are on this subject. Mr Trotter seems to think he’s ‘on the left’. When I stop laughing at that idea, I can only feel sorry for the left and start looking for some relief from a principled, articulate and coherent ‘right’.

I’m still looking.

goff as leader..?

yeah right..!..

he wants ‘to do a mike moore’..?

doubt it..eh..?

as i said..what’s to critique in the stuff trotter blows out his butt..?

phil(whoar.co.nz)

Wow. Did you just seriously suggest that the government should persecute and harass those it disagrees with?

This situation is in part due to the poor standard of the media generally and the increasingly low level of reporting skills evident.

That is called persecution and it isn’t overly popular. Last time I recall the government targetted any group with its power was when Labour confiscated the foreshore. At the time I was with most every other white guy in the country and thought that was a pretty good idea, but later on I find myself less keen to have a government that operates that way.

In fact I appreciate these different points of view. Don’t you?

Absolutely, but I call them PR people, not comentators. A comentator will call the score as it is, not how they want it to be.

grumpyoldhori

One rule for all is apparently racist…. don’t get me started!

In other words they were too bloody wimpy
about putting the boot in.
Pointing out the Ebs are a bunch of whites
who want special favours would have
gone well.

Thus if Trotter flies a kite, it’s a kite that’s been very carefully assembled from string and brown paper supplied by other people… people very keen to see how far the kite flies before being rained upon.

In other words, ‘comrade’ or no, something is up.

And I agree with your point about his “Labour good – National bad” approach. Although I’d also point out that this has only been a more recent line of argument of the last year or two. He didn’t use to think that way at all. But in general I don’t think there’s anything wrong with a political commentator being partisan or clearly leftwing or clearly rightwing. In fact I appreciate these different points of view. Don’t you?

For what it’s worth, I’d also be quite critical of the quality of media political commentators in NZ, but off the top of my head, I’m always very interested to read Trotter, Colin James, Matt McCarten, Jane Clifton, and Audrey Young.

Bryce
http://www.liberation.org.nz

I think anybody who says (or tries to convince others) that it’s OK to rort the democratic process to ensure a particular party retains power should be called a partisan hack. Partisan hacks are not political commentators.

Trotter would have been spitting tacks if the shoe was on the other foot and National won the election after spending $800K of stolen money, or had made up vote buying policy on the fly to capture the missing support demographic. – This is one example of the many “Labour good – National bad” crapola opinion pieces the twat has published over the years. He has a high degree of skill as a wordsmith, I’ll give him that, but he’s myopic and this is where he looses credibility.

Of course under the old regime he could keep repeating the same lies week after week in the MSM and people would start to believe them – in the blog world he would just get shot down on the continuous repetition of talking points like the partisan hacks who run the standard do.

How often has Trotter taken the “others did it too” line to justify the foul deeds of his glorious Labour party? This is juvenile logic which when crafted in some clever words actually makes people think the bad deeds were OK. Convincing people that what a party did was OK because ‘other parties also did it’ is hackery – a ‘commentator’ would skilfully point out that all parties who crossed the line should be held to account – not fob it off with a softly spoken “move on”.

I guess I should possibly re-word what I said, I actually agree he’s not a complete fool as such, he’s just a hack who has survived because he’s never really been challenged on his opinions dressed as facts presented in a non interactive medium. If I had suggested that Goff should replace H1 most people would call me a nutcase for suggesting a leadership change so soon before an election, just as Trotter deserves to be called a nutcase for this piece. The thing is Bryce, I think it would be excellent if H1 stood down before the election, but that’s not going to make me say Trotter is on the money and sing his praise. Just like the leftards who normally hold him up as an example of great commentary have abandoned him over this piece – they are showing they are partisan hacks who probably only normally like him because he says things they want to hear.

Your other question: I don’t think we have any “good” political commentators in NZ, they are all by and large partisan and that is where they start to fall into the hack category. I could name some that I agree with more often than not, just like I could name some I seldom agree with, but that’s just my political perspective, something I by and large try to keep out of judging the deeds of politicians.

January 25th, 2008 at 1:10 pm

‘Leadership now is a poison chalice that requires stumping for the merit of bad Labour legacies (s59, EFA). He will prefer not to lead a lost cause.’

That’s why Maharey jumped ship.

This whole thing does smack of the Labour Party playing musical chairs, and there may be more than one seat pulled out from under them when the music stops….

Trotter might come from the old school of print journalism, but I reckon he’d flourish online if only he could make that jump. But, in all seriousness, who do you you rate as political commentators in NZ? And I’m not just asking you to name those from your own side of the political divide – that would be too boring.

Bryce
http://www.liberation.org.nz