BSA on Holmes & Hobbit Interview
April 6th, 2011 at 9:59 am by David FarrarThe BSA has rejected complaints from Pat Bolster and Anne Latimer over Paul Holmes interview of Helen Kelly over the Hobbit debacle.
I saw the interview, and Holmes was merely doing his job – applying the acid to a politician (and the CTU President is most definitely a politician). And the reality is, that Helen Kelly had shown appalling judgement around this issue with her comments over Peter Jackson etc.
But anyway I always wonder who actually complains to the BSA – is it just a concerned citizen, or a repeat complainer or political activists?
A quick bit of Google and it turns out Anne Latimer likes to campaign for Labour on the North Shore.
But even more interesting Pat Bolster is actually employed by the CTU!
I don’t know why Helen Kelly didn’t just complain herself, if she thought the interview was unfair – rather than have one of her staff do it, apparently as a member of the public.
April 6th, 2011 at 10:12 am
Anne Latimer’s association with Labour isnt much of a problem, imo. There is enough distance there.
Pat Bolster on the other hand should have stayed the hell out of it. No good would come of the complaint, even if it was upheld. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
Imagine if an employee of a bank complained about a harsh interview their CEO got on bFM. The left would be screaming about fascist corporate fat cats crushing dissent by abusing tools for the protection of citizens.
But to the Left, this case is completely different. Because it just is.
Vote:April 6th, 2011 at 10:15 am
Astroturfing has become second nature to the union movement.
Vote:April 6th, 2011 at 10:36 am
O what a tangle web we weave
When first we practice to deceive
Isn’t it sad when the left gets caught out doing the same things it accuses the right of doing dishonestly. So much for the ethical superiority of the left that The Standard keeps telling us about!
Vote:April 6th, 2011 at 10:37 am
^^ This.
Vote:April 6th, 2011 at 10:52 am
But do the media ever report these connections!? Like heck they do, being as they are as complicit in this as the unions.
Why can’t they “just tell the truth”.
Vote:April 6th, 2011 at 10:55 am
By the end of the day: Helen Kelly will be bleating that the identity of the complainants has been leaked to the media “from the Beehive” as some cynical political stunt. And some breathless bimbo TV talking-head will be reporting it as fact…
Vote:April 6th, 2011 at 11:02 am
Looks like Pat Bolster is all kinds of useful. He/she is the Health and Safety Training Co Ordinator for the CTU.
Talk about adding value.
Vote:April 6th, 2011 at 11:41 am
Havent heard that term before.
Astroturfing is faking “grass roots” support, right?
Vote:April 6th, 2011 at 11:49 am
Right.
Vote:April 6th, 2011 at 11:51 am
Compliment of Wikipedia
Astroturfing is a form of advocacy often in support of a political or corporate agenda designed to give the appearance of a “grassroots” movement. The goal of such campaigns is to disguise the efforts of a political and/or commercial entity as an independent public reaction to some political entity—a politician, political group, product, service or event. The term is a derivation of AstroTurf, a brand of synthetic carpeting designed to look like natural grass.
Astroturfers attempt to orchestrate the actions of apparently diverse and geographically distributed individuals, by both overt (“outreach”, “awareness”, etc.) and covert (disinformation) means. Astroturfing may be undertaken by an individual promoting a personal agenda, or highly organized professional groups with money from large corporations, unions, non-profits, or activist organizations. Very often, the efforts are conducted by political consultants who also specialize in opposition research. Beneficiaries are not “grass root” campaigners but distant organizations that orchestrate such campaigns.
Vote:April 6th, 2011 at 12:01 pm
Interesting, Lynn Prentice at The Standard was banging on about astroturfing in this post last week
http://thestandard.org.nz/small-talk-on-party-activists-and-blogs/
His basic line was that it was a new tactic that the right was using to smear the left. Who looks like a hypocrite now?
Vote:April 6th, 2011 at 12:37 pm
Inventory2 10:36am. These people think ‘ethics’ is a county in England.
cheers
David Prosser
Vote:April 6th, 2011 at 1:00 pm
Inv at 12.01
Lynn is a deluded borderline socio-path tho.
Vote:April 6th, 2011 at 2:06 pm
Read the letters page of the Christchurch Press and about once a week you’ll see coordinated Labour astroturfing going on, with quotes, assertions and figures most probably supplied to each letter writer by Labour’s research team. Typically you’ll get a left wing councillor, the relative of a Christchurch Labour MP and a Labour candidate for local or central government all writing about a similar issue, with intersecting elements. As these letters have all arrived coincidentally on the same day they tend to be bundled together by the paper’s letters editor, with the most violent anti-government assertion distilled to make for an even more unflattering headline than the point being made in the letter. Job done, astroturf laid, and it doesn’t matter that the degrees of separation between the three letter writers are so few as to make it clear to even the most cursory observer of politics that it’s a coordinated effort.
Vote:April 6th, 2011 at 3:14 pm
I don’t actually see the issue – nowhere in DPF’s original post is there a hint of overt dishonesty from anyone involved. Pat and Anne have the same right to be offended as any citizen, and the same right to go to the BSA. As far as I can tell they haven’t questioned the decision of the BSA, nor did they ever intimate that their views represented that of the average public citizen. All this story shows is the system working as it should.
I also think DPF’s intimation that Helen Kelly explicitly asked members of her staff to complain as members of the public is a big assumption to make. Presumably those with ties to the CTU and/or the Labour Party felt more passionately about this particular broadcast; as such it should be no surprise that those who complained came from this group.
Vote:April 6th, 2011 at 6:10 pm
Auberon…I think most political parties run letter writing campaigns but Labour may be more organized at it..they also have organized people ringing talkback etc..
Vote:April 7th, 2011 at 6:57 pm
Gotta luv Farrar, he’s a conspiracy a day man.
As a CTU employee (he’s a man, BTW) Bolster should be legally banned from complaining to the BSA.
I was once involved in a BSA complaint. A TV crew had disguised their vehicle, harassed children in their home, tried to film a woman at work through the windows of her place of work – and the BSA ruled they had done nothing wrong…….
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