Chron(ic) silence
Still no answer, Mr Maslin? It's a simple enough question. Don't the residents of the town you serve deserve to know whether their primary source of news is being run without fear or favour?
Or does anyone in a position of power / and or influence in poor old Wanganui take some sort of oath to treat the people with contempt?
Comments on this post are now closed.
77 comments:
Yeah c'mon Mas, have a little fun in the twilight of your career.
Jeez -- lay off the Chron. What would you have us read? The crappy River City Press with its breathlessly stupid weekly rambles by Deputy Dotty? For heaven's sake. Let's face it, the Chron improved 250% the day it told Laws to f---k off. It deserves some brownie points for that doesn't it.
Indeed... 250% might be a bit generous, but we'd concede that, having been smitten for the entire campaign, the Chron did realise that the Diva doesn't respect anyone in the morning.
Which is precisely why we're trying to find out whether he's trying to stifle it. Where, for instance, is perceptive analysis of what happens at Council. Or any analysis at all?
Council news is the bread-and-butter of a small town newspaper. So if the reporting is confined to fluff like Dotty organising to play host to some Hollywood types, the paper is either stupid or scared.
We don't believe for one moment it's the former...
I noted their story on WDC committee reshuffle was a little more fleshed out than yours, but confined entirely to reporting the meeting. You're right, Lawswatch; apart from a couple of making-the-right-noises editorials, there's been sod all analysis. Folk have been saying they read it for the letters page.
Whatever the River Queen shamoozle is going to cost the lucky newly-rich ratepayers of Castlecliff and elsewhere, let's face it, it's just an excuse for the Diva et al to ponce down the red carpet and play at being stars for a night. As a mate of mine said, give the dosh to her and she'd do wonders for tourist revenue in this here town, with enough left over to send the Diva to Los Angeles for the premiere of his choice.
I'm inclined to agree. But what's LA done to deserve that, I ask.
Bitter, small, boring losers. You've got the lot in here, Carol.
At what point did the editor of the Chronicle become responsible to a blog run by an anonymous (and clearly obsessed) individual? Maslin wouldn't be seen dead in here. Just us losers.
Correct. Maslin is not accountable to anyone other than his employers (APN) & his readers. It's well understood that the Chron has the best market penetration of any provincial paper. If you don't think he's performing to your standards, buy another paper.
The bit of this thread that I don't understand is what the Chron have done wrong. They report accurately enough, covered the Code thing OK, report council meetings and give me enough info. I think its for this blog to substantiate claims, not for Maslin to deny them.
Let's take the Code of COnduct story: 1200 words or so. 1000 words to M Laws at the start of the piece, with 150 words to Rob Moodie at the end. You had to turn to the next page, in fact, to read it.
I read the article all the way through, and I thought we'd done ok 'cos we got the last word. Then I discovered that only 30% of people who read an article will finish it. Of those, a further 60% will lose interest if they have to turn the page. They teach this stuff in journalism school apparently.
Laws' press releases are pretty much re-printed verbatim. I bailed Sean Hoskins up about that "why didn't you ask for a response from me to Mr. Law's insults, Sean?" "There wasn't time, deadlines you know; we had to get the story out fast!" Oh, right, in case the River City Press scooped you, for example.
That's just the first two things I could think of.
Wanganui District Council, in the first political appointment in NZ local government history, has employed a professional spin Doctor, Helen Lawrence. So far she's been running rings around the Chron, as has Laws since he arrived.
If the claim is that Laws has sent nasty lawyer letters to Maslin, only Maslin or Laws can answer the question. How else can Lawswatch verify it? I mean, a Chronicle staff member told me about the letters, but that doesn't verify a damn thing.
Think most of the writ's were pre-election.
From one who knows ... there were/are NO writs, nor even any complaints to the Press Council. unlike Carol.
Did you see John Maslin's editorial piece in the Chronicle this morning? Gave it to Jill Pettis right between the eyes and quoting the DHB's own words. Why defend the indefensible? Pettis stuffed up. She holds Whanganui with a 2000-vote majority when Labour polled 43% last time and the National party 21%. National has won this seat twice before when there's been a two-party swing as the current polls are suggesting - Bill Tolhurst and Cam Campion - and they won harder seats because Wanganui was all urban in those days. This is not the forst front page editorial that Maslin has written agst Pettis. Remember his "where are you?" piece after the February storms last year?
Matt - every council has a communications officer. Look around a bit.
Sure they do. Bit of a coincidence that one of Laws' old colleagues just "happened" to get the job.
It was advertised. I even thought of applying. Kevin Ross did all the interviews altho' I think that Jill Jones job at council. She's the HR lady. You couldn't question Helen Lawrence's credentials, surely? An impressive CV including work for both National & Labour MPs and ministers. It could be worse: Council could have employed whoever is handling Trevor Mallard at the moment!
lol, good point. To some extent, why shouldn't Laws assemble the team he wants; it's more that the Chron. needs to lift its game to match.
Speaking of Chronic silence, no word from Laws (or whoever) about the approach to auction houses (Webb, Dunbar Sloan) with a view to selling our donated art.
No council resolution to support this action; no postal ballot from the (who needs enemies) "Friends". No Nicki Higgie failing miserably to convince anyone that this is the right thing to do. Just dumb stupid silence.
Oh, but the Chronicle's doing a brilliant job.
And no Sarjeant Gallery Trust Board, the only entity actually capable of raising funds. Create a problem where there wasn't one, then offer a "solution" no-one wants. Direct Democracy at work.
Can anyone go to the Sunday meeting, up the hill, and comfirm the black eye reports? Remember to duck any flying computers......
When does the NZ Frist party list come out?
What black eye reports? More unsubstantiated & false rumours, Carol??
You guys are wombats. Both Laws & Peters denied the BS last month about the NZF list. Started off I think by Laws writing the North & South magazine cover a couple of months ago. It was carried thruout all NZ so why was Wanganui kept off the list. You guys need to keep up!!
Sell all the Sarjeant art. It's crap.
Matt - the reason they didn't cover your Code response is because you weren't the story. You're a jobless nonentity. Come and be a student like the rest of us and at least try to live an honest life. Although the loan is sure stink.
Shit theres some vitriol in this group. If I can change the topic ... where is that Laws meeting tomorrow? I thought it was at the 'Town Hall' on Monday lunchtime. Forgive me, but where's that? It's not on any map I've got.
A mistaken fool said...
Matt - You're a jobless nonentity. Come and be a student like the rest of us and at least try to live an honest life. Although the loan is sure stink.
7:40 PM
Jobless, eh? Then what's all this money doing in my bank account - don't you realise that the only reason I don't tell you what I do is that I enjoy watching you spin?
Give it up, or alternatively, if you're really that interested, 'phone me and make an appointment.
Go-on, someone put him out of his misery.
Like the fact that Winston Peters and Michael Laws deny something means that it's not true. Uh huh. And Laws didn't deny it - he said he doesn't respond to rumours.
As to black eye reports, for about a year now someone has been spreading persistent rumours of a similar nature. I have yet to see a single one of them substantiated. Sometimes people in Wanganui just make shit up to cause trouble. Sad but true; it's been going on for years.
Anonymous said...
Sell all the Sarjeant art. It's crap.
7:37 PM
http://www.google.co.nz/search?q=%22The+Sarjeant+Gallery%22&hl=en&lr=&start=170&sa=N
Anonymous said...
What black eye reports? More unsubstantiated & false rumours, Carol??
7:35 PM
I'm not going to say why it can't have been Carol that posted the "black eye" rumour, because it's none of your business, but you are flat wrong when you assume it was her, whoever you are - it can't have been Carol. I realise that you think you can upset her with this constant carping, but I think you should consider the effect such a public display of malice has on your image.
Anonymous said...
From one who knows ... there were/are NO writs, nor even any complaints to the Press Council.
Bur what about threatening letters, eh? How many of those have there been? Pitbull got your tongue?
Can we hear more about the Vision party? Who are these poeple that are giving him the power, he should never have been allowed to hold again? Napier must be bewildered.
You're making some really strange associations here & they cast a black mark on the integrity of everyone who works at the Wanganui Chronicle. The facts are that Michael Laws has issued no writs, no Press Council complaints, no appeals to APN (the Chron's bosses) to rein in the 'paper. In fact, in the lead-up to the elections, the Chronicle published at least two articles that I read that outlined Laws' political past AND the circumstances of his resignation from Parliament. They even published the rather juicy letter of a Cr John Harrison fron Napier (The one who lost his defamation action agst Laws). Since the election, they've printed the letters & criticisms of all the Code complainants, the Sarjeant supporters, the Cooks trust board, etc. They've also - as balanced journos - printed both the maytor and council's sides of each of those stories.
More to the point, they obviously give greater print credibility to those who are elected and hold office. Jill Pettis, Michael Laws, Tariana Turia ... not surprising that. I've had enough of the Chronicle being defamed just because not every story they write or editorial they print happens to agree with LawsWatch, Carol and Matt. You're insulting a lot of good people for no good reason.
Yeah, who is this Vision party?
On the Chronicle: ask the good journos that are there and sympathetic to the arts - Mary Bryan, Laurel Stowell, Judith Lacy if any of their stories got spiked on account of a Laws threat. You misread John Maslin - that would make him PRINT the story. And the new ones - Hoskins, Kooubaradis, Merania ... they're not the kind of personalities to be cowered by anybody or anything. Lay off the Chron. They just report the news.
To answer earlier Q. There are 2 public meetings - neighbourhood one for St John's Hill at 2pm (Bridge Club, Parsons Street - got the flier in my RCP) and 'Town Hall' meeting at 12 noon tomorrow (Mon) at Concert Chamber, War Memorial Hall. Let's go to the St John's meeting & have some fun. Ask him about;
1. Macquarie Bank & the Port of Wanganui;
2. Castlecliff's rate rises and how they equal a nil rates increase;
3. The sale of Sarjeant art works;
4. The sale of Wanganui Gas.
He won't be having any more meetings after that lot!
Anon said:
"The facts are that Michael Laws has issued no writs, no Press Council complaints, no appeals to APN (the Chron's bosses) to rein in the 'paper."
And at least one letter threatening to sue for defamation over William Pearce's Port of Wanganui allegations.
How many others, if any, have there been?
Yeah but he didn't issue a writ. He said Pearce's remarks were defamatory because they alleged he had breached commercial confidentiality in talking to Macquarie about their alleged backing of the deepwater port. The matter was well canvassed during the Code, is available on the Council website, refuted pearce's allegations and the Chronicle itself has received no writs. Pearce I don't know - Laws may still be suing him. Probably could after I read the Code report and saw he offered no evcidence at all, What a twat!
Still doesn't deal with the earlier point that Anon made. That this blog is impugning every Chronicle journalist's integrity with no justification. How to win friends & influence people.
Sorry Micky,I think Carol's out of town this weekend. There are more poeple in here than you would like. And before you jump on me ... no I'm not Matt, or an art lover, or one of the Cookies, or Morg,or Port of W., or Friends of the Shoreline,or CoC, or the Brethren, the Boys in Blue, or Destiny Church, or the Film Festival ... ect. ect. Sorry if I've missed anyone?
Pearce is not being sued as it would open Mickey up like a can of beans.
Yeah right. Pearce is crazy.
I concur. Have a look at his website.
Not as mad as Mitchell-Anyon. Now THERE is crazy. His letters to the editor read like an acid flashback.
RM-A lol. William Pearce presented evidence at the CoC hearing: council elected to ignore some of the points he made as evidenced in their report.
Laws threatened to sue unless Bill made an apology and public retraction, and Pearce responded that neither would be forthcoming.
Laws said he intended to sue once the CoC hearings finished. I've read Bill's case and I think he has a point. Laws says he had no obligation to preserve confidentiality, but there are agreements in place between WDC and PoW that provide for it. What was Laws doing, in any case: elected officials make policy, not take action: that is the preserve of the CEO, and that is the area Council elected to ignore.
Anonymous said...
Yeah right. Pearce is crazy.
11:37 AM
And Michael Laws is a paragon of sanity and balance. Defamation rests on whether what you say is true, not whether Michael Laws says you're crazy.
The default setting for Laws and his supporters is to attack the messenger. This exposes how intellectually bankrupt they are: unwilling or (more likely) incapable of mounting a serious argument to defend their "policies". And why is that? Well it's hard to defend on policy when the leader makes it up as he goes along.
If the Chron. can't take a bit of criticism they're ill-equipped to do their job. They've been accused of bias (or at least sloppy reporting) by both sides, and that has to count for something. However, when, in the middle of one of the more contentious annual planning rounds in recent history, the elect to tell us what's happening to a chicken three days in a row, I'm sorry, but I think that's slack.
Everyone needs to lighten up a bit on the crit. front. As a designer with 17 years of professional experience, I can tell you that criticism is an essential part of improvement. Get used to it.
Not as mad as M-A...... Now THERE is crazy. His letters to the editor read like an acid flashback.
......see where your coming from my friend. It's just like Nickie H. and all those weird plants she grows in her back yard. Just an old hippy really.... surprized her and the Diva get along so well.
Yes, poor old Ross, he's worked his entire life doing exactly what he wants to, mostly doing what he loves. It's left him financially independant at 50, with the apparent ability to buy up a significant amount of Wanganui heritage real estate. Poor crazy Ross.
Certainly the Diva gave him the big tick when he asked him to join the Vision ticket.
Anonymous said...
Yeah, who is this Vision party?
9:29 AM
Alan Taylor, Bob Walker, Dot McKinnon & Michael Laws are the central committee (I think - please confirm this Mike). They make policy, and the Vision Councillors are contractually bound to obey them. I'm not sure how Vision policy is communicated to the untermensch, but it could be as simple as hand-signals at Council meetings for all I know. Note that Bob Walker is also on the Wanganui Labour Party election committee; the word is he got castrated when they realised he was in bed with Laws.
More artist scum who don't know their place: Christchurch Arts festival achieves record ticket sales. Don't want that shit in Wanganui. Not welcome here.
Stop hallucinating - M-A loathes Vision, they loathe him. And the day the guy is wealthy, will be the day he uses soap. I've come here for good rumours, not stupid ones. Lift your game, LawsWatch. So far I've learned nothing new or nothing I couldnt read in the Chron.
Missing the point, Matt. Your criticism of the local paper is UNFOUNDED. Just because they dont agree with you being priority number 1 news item doesnt mean they're deficient. Now - did anyone get up to the St Johns meeting. What's this about a black eye?
I'm not the only person who thinks the Chron. can do better, but if it makes you feel better to personalise the debate, then you should at least try to represent my position correctly. Or do I need to use smaller words? It sounds as though you're far more interested in nasty gossip any way.
Of course we're bloody interested in nasty gossip. That's what political blogs are for, stupid. To tell us things the mainstream media won't or can't. Like who are the celebrity snifter sorted out by the cops last week. And whether any of them reside close.
Todays Chron. article on the PoW is a bit of a laugh. They accept without question Laws' spin that PoW are "The proponents of a blue water Wanganui port concept". Bullshit. The deep water port is a theoretical stage five of a project that starts with an inland hub & industrial park. These wacky outrageous ideas, which have never been successfully developed anywhere else, honest, really didn't have Macquarie bank interested, oh no. Macquarie are on record as quoting the political problems as being the reason for their "withdrawal". Which is to say, Michael Brian Laws is the problem.
Incidently, when the river returns to its original route, going straight out to sea instead of the current right-hand bend, the deep water port will be a cinch from an engineering perspective. That's what you've got to remember about this project: it's an engineering problem, not a funding problem. One of the next 5 floods should do a great deal of the work for us. Who gets to do it is another issue. Who gets to profit yet another. Wanganui Inc., anybody? Lots of little sub-contracts to enjoy.
So what if Council is pushing its own development with Westgate? Are they scared of the competition? Why don't they simply make common cause with PoW? "Politics".
why does no-one tackle Laws over these things publicly? He has forums, town hall meetings etc and no-one asks him to justify anything.
Maybe because he has all the answers!
Maybe because he has all the answers!
Because when we do people in the audience start yelling abuse. Because when we do Laws makes personal attacks. When people know that they're going to be targeted personally they just get put off. I'm fairly sure that if I put myself in this position and he abused me I'd punch him out. Not a good look, despite the satisfaction it would bring.
Well even if he didn't its time to properly hold people to account. GO TO THE MEETINGS, ask him, assess for yourself. Why so lethargic, people??
Yeah right. You'd talk about punching him but you wouldnt We both know that & I dont even know you. I've been to 2 meetings in the last year & not observed Laws personally insulting anyone.
Not lethargy, simply a lack of desire to be abused. Or what are you suggesting, that we treat him to a dose of democracy Eastern European style? Dream on.
what personal insults did he make at these meetings? i'd like to get a handle on what we're talking about here ... whether he called you a wanker or simply disagreed with you.
He abused Delphine Turney at the first meeting and Rick Rudd at the second one. After that, people stopped going: what's the point when legitimate questions get met with hostility?
Laws makes people angry, and he thinks that's good. His supporters think that politics is about ruining other peoples projects, as evidenced by posts to this blog. Laws produced a set of figures at the fist mayoral meeting that Cr. Don McGregor described as "misleading". How can you argue with a man who is prepared to back up his arguments with bullshit numbers and a whiteboard? All you can do is assert that he's spinning, while getting yelled at by bullies in the crowd. See how far you get with that approach.
Why do people in the audience start yelling abuse?
Define "abuse".
Ask them. I just assumed they were rent-a-mob types there at Laws' instructions. Or perhaps they were the sort of people who post remarks to this blog like "we pay Laws to put the artists in their place".
Or perhaps they were the people who've been sending anonymous hate mail and making anonymous abusive 'phone calls to arts supporters.
Anonymous said...
Define "abuse".
11:31 AM
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=abuse
It can't be very nice being an arts supporter in wanganui if this blog is any indication. how did it get so bad? One man ie Laws can't have made that much of a difference, surely.
I think some people are simply jealous of creativity, and afraid of the things they don't understand. Laws taps into that confusion the way Winston Peters harnesses racism against "Asians".
These people have been there all along, but Laws has become their standard bearer.
Anonymous said...
Todays Chron. article on the PoW is a bit of a laugh. They accept without question Laws' spin that PoW are "The proponents of a blue water Wanganui port concept".
I just got a copy of the agenda for the meeting on Wednesday and it looks like just another case of incompetent reporting - and all Sean had to do was read the first two paragraphs of McGowan's report. The second paragraph actually says the "initial concept" was for a blue water port ... "later this was changed to 'inetegrated port and industrial park' which involved the developments of the industrial park in the first instance."
Surely it's not too much to ask that they just read the stuff they're supposed to be writing about and report it accurately?
Not only that, the story also failed to mention the agenda also has a progress report from Colin Cashmore's River City Port Ltd which says it has been evaluating future options for port redevelopment and is looking for "a partnership structure" with the council.
So once again the Chron beats up a Port of Wanganui story but only tells less than half the story.
Balanced journos you say??? Yeah right.
The Chronicle is more balanced than this blog will ever be.
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