The media perspective

It 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.