The Saturday Rant-28 June 2008
Well it is Saturday again, and as usual it is not difficult to find topics for Adam’s Saturday Rant. The items are short ones this week, as I am still not feeling at my best.
Firstly
The media and John Key
What a load of nonsense has been written in the MSM about Key and his so called gaffe over the treaty and Maori Wars.
It is clear that the quote used was selective and that Newstalk ZB for whatever reason chose to stir up controversy. It is also the case that some of the broadcast media demonstrated bias against Key.
Yes we had the Maori Wars, but they came post treaty. The actual process leading up to the treaty was not one of armed conquest. Fortunately, Cullen was silenced when it was revealed that he had said much the same thing himself in the past.
The standard of coverage by elements of the media on this issue has not been good.
We are not well served for political coverage at times in NZ. Our media do not in the main go in for in depth reporting of issues.
Some of those that purport to do so are flaky.
Secondly
Sue Kedgley and the price of pumpkin and kumara
What a load of old vegetables. Nobody is compelled to buy the vegetables at any particular supermarket. As the Foodstuffs chain is in fact a co-operative prices can vary between stores. In addition, quite a lot of vegetables are sold directly to consumers via markets such as the one in Lower Hutt on a Saturday. Such markets exist in many places throughout the country.
Yet again Kedgley was demonstrating her anti business attitudes and prejudices. Like all businesses supermarkets are suffering major cost increases, plus the chains compete.
Supermarkets rely in the main on volume as margins are normally relatively slight.
As always it pays to shop around and pick and choose what you buy.
Yet the media gave this tiresome woman the oxygen of publicity. Increasingly it appears to Adam that the Greens are more and more promoting a line that sees profit as evil and business as inherently bad.
So when there are fewer businesses to threaten and regulate, with little profit, where is all the money going to come from for public services and social benefits for all the jobless brought about by Green policies.
Business is not a social service existing at the tolerance of the state. Business is a necessity as it provides jobs, pays taxes and is critical to economic survival.
The sooner more people understand that the better.
Thirdly
John Armstrong’s piece in the NZ Herald this morning.
My comment here is not about the article content but what appeared to be at least two lapses in sub-editing.
In 2 places in the print version of the article John Armstrong refers to Michael Cullen’s flare, when Adam suspects the word is flair.
In another place Armstrong refers to the Gideon knot of Waitangi Tribunal rulings, when I think he probably meant the Gordian knot.
Adam thought that sub-editors were supposed to pick up these sort of matters and ensure the correct word/phrase was used.
This kind of sloppiness is not just irritating, but extremely disappointing from a paper that likes to think of itself as a newspaper of record.
