Lunatic complaint of the week
November 22nd, 2012 at 11:00 am by David FarrarHouston, we have a winner.
Case Number: 2291 ALLAN GOLDEN AGAINST THE DOMINION POST
Background
The column published on September 1, 2012 discussed the impact of US astronaut Neil Armstrong’s moon landing and compared his achievements to those of cyclist Lance Armstrong, who had been stripped of his awards that same week because of drug cheating.Complaint
Mr Golden said the column was untrue because the moon landings did not happen and it was improper for The Dominion Post to suggest otherwise. He claimed that the columnist and The Dominion Post editor knew the moon landings were a fiction and they were propagating “false propaganda”.He said the column breached six Press Council principles, including accuracy, fairness and balance. He also cited principles covering children, discrimination, subterfuge, conflicts of interest and corrections.
Oh dear God. This complaint must have had the Press Council and the Dom Post staff in hysterics. Sadly they have to treat it is as a valid complaint. I’d be tempted to just ask the complainant for proof the moon landings were faked, but I suspect he would have then never stopped corresponding.
It is widely accepted that Neil Armstrong did land on the moon and The Dominion Post’s column is reflecting many reports over many years that have assumed the moon landings to be fact. Mr Golden believes the reports to be propaganda and The Dominion Post a willing vehicle for that propaganda.
The difficulty for the Press Council is Mr Golden has not supplied any evidence to convince it that the moon landings did not happen – except his own opinion.
I don’t think the fact of the moon landings really is an assumption.
Press Council members considering this complaint were Barry Paterson, Tim Beaglehole, Pip Bruce Ferguson, Kate Coughlan, Chris Darlow, Sandy Gill, Penny Harding, Keith Lees, John Roughan and Stephen Stewart.
That’s five minutes of their lives they’ll never get back.
Mr Allan Golden appears to be a serial complainer. I’ve found three other Press Council complaints and a BSA complaint. The BSA complaint was about a TVNZ news item that referred to the price of gold in US dollars rather than NZ dollars! Another BSA complaint from him is here. Of and a Press Council complaint here alleging a Fairfax conspiracy.
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November 22nd, 2012 at 11:03 am
Mr Golden will find good support here, DPF!
Vote:November 22nd, 2012 at 11:06 am
We knew he could rely on you Luc.
Vote:November 22nd, 2012 at 11:13 am
Cant they classify him as a ‘vexatious’ complainer and thus in future ignore his communications?.
Vote:If the courts can do this – then why not other bodies who are forced to listen to this sort rubbish.
November 22nd, 2012 at 11:18 am
Perhaps Mr Golden is aka Luc Hansen.
Vote:November 22nd, 2012 at 11:21 am
Don’t worry Bevan.
reid will be along soon.
He’s busy on GD with his Kennedy conspiracies!
Vote:November 22nd, 2012 at 11:26 am
Methinks Mr Golden’s ascertain regarding the moon landings bears a remarkable similarity to the shills who continue to maintain ‘what leadersip plot’.
Standard to note.
Vote:November 22nd, 2012 at 11:34 am
John Wayne’s not dead – he’s frozen.
Vote:And when they thaw him out, he’s gonna be pissed off.
November 22nd, 2012 at 11:43 am
Mr Golden will find good support here, DPF!
This from a guy who is steadfastly refusing to answer whether or not he denys the holocaust…
Vote:November 22nd, 2012 at 11:51 am
Hey, Kiwibloggers! It’s all John Banks’ fault.
(Everything, that is.)
Mary Rose, attendee Kirkcaldie & Stains’ Christmas shop
Vote:November 22nd, 2012 at 12:04 pm
@scrubone
wtf?
In fact, I have often pointed out here and elsewhere that Palestinians were and are paying the price for European persecution – genocide – of its Jewish population.
Your lies are pathetic.
Vote:November 22nd, 2012 at 12:30 pm
http://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2012/11/the_power_of_cartoons.html#comment-1051223
http://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2012/11/the_power_of_cartoons.html#comment-1051261
Now, I’ll grant you that I might have missed your reply. But I’m pretty sure I’d have seen it. Unless you can point to where you made one earlier, you cannot claim that I have lied – in fact I have been completely truthful. I asked, and you did not answer.
Vote:November 22nd, 2012 at 12:36 pm
But that’s beside the point, since the entire reason that I asked those questions was to see how extreme you were, after you denied what was well established history. So even on the comments you did make (as opposed to those you avoided making), you’re still the crazy history-denier person on this thread.
Vote:November 22nd, 2012 at 1:29 pm
If the moon landings were really a hoax, why didn’t the Soviets make a fuss about it?
Vote:Ask one of those conspiracy theorists that and they will either be lost for words, or tell you the Soviets were in on it.
That’s when you have to burst out laughing.
November 22nd, 2012 at 2:12 pm
Actually, Golden touches upon an important point in his “Fairfax conspiracy” complaint. Entirely by accident, I’m sure, and tangenital to his major complaint, but important nonetheless. It’s the bit that says:
Well there may not be a journalistic obligation but at times there is a strong moral one, such as when a person or company is accused of wrongdoing but subsequently cleared of it – either through some legal process or simply by new facts coming to light.
This isn’t a swipe at Fiarfax – whom I’ve found very willing to update stories if reading them in their original form would give the reader the wrong impression – but that’s sadly not true of many other media outlets, whose modus operandi seems to be to run with what is often nothing more than an unsubstantiated allegation and then argue, weeks or months later when the truth becomes known, either that the story is “no longer relevant” so does not need updating or that it effectively tells the truth as it was known on the day it was published and is therefore technically accurate even though subsequent information proves it to be incorrect.
That might have been defendable when all we were talking about was newsprint but today, when stories lay around on the net forever, waiting to be Googled by prospective employers, investors, regulators and the like it doesn’t hold up.
Since, as I said, Fairfax as a rule have been scrupulous in their handling of any such matters I’ve drawn to their attention I find it disappointing to hear their online editor doesn’t acknowledge an obligation to put things right, leaving open the possibility that they may not be as fair in future and giving other publications an excuse to say “Well neither do we”.
Vote:November 22nd, 2012 at 3:44 pm
I quite like this one complaining about Bob Jone’s opinion pieces.
Vote:November 22nd, 2012 at 4:20 pm
The so-called “Palestinians”, a mythical people who do not and never have existed, are in fact Jordanians, and the only thing they are paying for is being pawns in the Arab and Western extreme Left’s hatred of the Jewish people.
Vote:November 22nd, 2012 at 4:37 pm
Lee01,
The moon landings have been a reality since 1969.
Vote:Palestine has been a reality since 1920.
Transjordan was a reality from 1922, and was renamed Jordan in 1949.
November 22nd, 2012 at 5:01 pm
On the contrary, “Palestine” is a fabrication carved out of Jewish land, and those that believe in this historic fraud are just as batshit crazy as those who deny the moon landings.
Vote:November 22nd, 2012 at 5:03 pm
The Israel / Palestine bunfight thread is over <——- that way, lads
Vote:November 22nd, 2012 at 5:07 pm
@RRM
Why are you quoting Denis Leary lyrics?
Vote:November 22nd, 2012 at 5:50 pm
The so-called “moon landings” were faked. They filmed the footage on Mars.
Vote:November 22nd, 2012 at 5:55 pm
What happened to reid?
Someone tell him about this thread, quick. It’ll distract him from further damaging the Palestinian cause over —->there!
Oh, throw in a dead Kennedy reference – that’s sure to work.
Vote:November 22nd, 2012 at 6:53 pm
I watched the moon landings, although I wasn’t in the studio, it certainly felt like I was there.
Vote:Luc – if you wish one more time for a true believer in the moon-landings hoax to appear, I can guarantee you that they won’t.
November 23rd, 2012 at 6:36 am
The Press Council got it wong:
“The difficulty for the Press Council is Mr Golden has not supplied any evidence to convince it that the moon landings did not happen – except his own opinion.”
You could argue that Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy and Leprechauns are false on that basis, and everyone knows that just ain’t the case..
Next they’ll be having a go at polynesians who don’t have engineering degrees . . . .
Vote: