You still wake up sometimes, don't you? You wake up in the dark and hear the screaming of the lambs – Hannibal Lecter
But there’s one thing about the media in this country. They don’t report the news any more – they interpret it. They predetermine winner and losers, goodies and baddies, and then bend the facts to fit their prior prejudice. – Michael Laws, Sunday Star Times, June 3
Without a hint of irony, Wanganui’s mayor smacked ‘the media’ in his Sunday newspaper column this week for 'not reporting the news anymore’. What’s more, they ‘predetermine winners and losers … then bend the facts to fit their prior prejudice’.
While Michael Laws was trying to refocus his reading public on his heroic dancing display with “leggy Lauren”, Watchers’ attention was elsewhere. Forget Mickey’s stumbling attempts to keep up with his Dancing with the Stars partner: on the Wanganui political dance floor last week, away from the lights and the beady-eyed judges, he seems again to have been rewarded for a perfectly synchronised media two-step that has kept from the public eye a scandal that would have aroused any self respecting newspaper to paroxysms of SHOCK! HORROR! PROBE! headlines and billboards.
By now well buried in the oxidation ponds of mayoral press releases that clutter the ratepayer funded WDC website, eagle-eyed Watchers followed the tell-tale smell to a little gem of a report titled Council inquiry into allegations of improper influence.
This, it would seem, was a scandal tailor made for Wanganui’s fearless daily. In fact, not only had the Chronic (through its GM) outed the perpetrator of the dodgy dealings to the council, but the Chronic was crying foul and casting itself in the role of victim.
With bated breath Watchers snatched their papers from their letter boxes, poured strong coffees and with trembling fingers opened their morning paper to see how big the type was that was used to break the story of the year about undue pressure being brought to bear on the editorial content of that very same organ by none other than the man whose praises the Michael Laws was singing six months ago for the cheap and nasty rebranding job perpetrated on an unsuspecting Wanganui.
But alas, as Watchers scrunched up the Chronic and used it to light their first fires of winter, they had to conclude that down at Taupo Quay our town’s fearless journos and management had, in their customary manner, decided that the citizens of Wanganui had every right to know ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about this scoop that they alone had set up!
Read the report, weep and Go figure, Watchers! It’s election year, after all, and clearly Ms Editor has made the bold decision to ensure nothing gets in the way of Mickey’s spin machine.
PART TWO: Michael Laws and ‘absolute sincerity’
In their weekend social intercourse around Wanganui and elsewhere, Watchers found some of the hoi polloi were a little surprised at reports in the Saturday Chronic and DomPost that Michael Laws “is reconsidering his earlier decision that he would be a one-term mayor only”. Then Mas attempts to explain the turnaround by assuring us that, not to worry: “Mr Laws said he was being "absolutely sincere" when he said the first time and again the second time that he was not standing "but I've promised people I will take their views seriously and give a decision later this or early next". (Next what? – Ed)
Watchers who know that Michael Laws is no more capable of ‘absolute sincerity’ than Antoinette Beck is of winning Dancing with the Stars noted at the time of the Women’s Daze ‘I’m going to be Mr Mum’ scoop that a little lie (“My family comes first”), easily reversed by another little lie (“I’ve been begged by so many people to stand again”) was a small price to pay for the acres of media exposure that followed. Just to pad out the Chronic's 'scoop', Mickey tells Mas “the approaches had come from commercial leaders, local iwi and individuals’. (When does Bob Walker count as a commercial leader? When does Rana Waitai count as local iwi? When do Bob Walker’s alter-egos count as individuals? – Ed)
A notably ungracious mayoral wannabe Dot McKinnon tried to put a brave face on the fact she’d been shafted and withdrew her candidacy, saying: "it would be a bit pointless going against Michael" in the October elections. (She obviously doesn’t think she’s got Mickey’s ability to manage the Chronic and keep the lid on the dirt! –Ed)
AND:
Randhir Dahya confided to Mas that "Everyone's encouraging me to stand, and I will do so” thus confirming his determination to ‘do a Chas’ and help deliver Wanganui into Mickey’s hands. (A fitting end to a career distinguished only by extraordinary talent for fence-sitting – Ed)
PART THREE - Perplexing poll problems
We are grateful to a LawsWatch anonymii for tipping us off about the back story to a wee morsel on the agenda for Tuesday’s 10am council meeting.
It is all around town that the Community Issues survey gives the thumbs down to the council and particularly the mayor. He tried to hide it but the CEO would not let him so if we want to be entertained we should get to the council at 10am on Tuesday and enjoy the humiliation. Dr Dave is asserting his authority and making this lame duck mayor suffer. - LawsWatch anonymous
Tucked away at the bottom of a mind-boggling (even for Mickey) piece of spin attributing what he says is a low number of submissions on the annual plan to widespread satisfaction with his regime, we’re told that the results of said community views survey will be presented at Tuesday’s meeting, at 10am, as a warm-up to Vison's yearly orgy of annual plan submitter abuse.
PART FOUR: Meanwhile, back in Guatemala
Last week we mused on similarities between Michael Laws’ fascist mini-state and that of Dr Ropata’s Guatemala. In view of the Chronic’s failure to run the David Mack revelations, Watchers were interested to learn that media freedom is very much an endangered species in both places, but the difference is that Guatemala has at least one newspaper that isn’t prepared to keep silent:
"We can't keep silent," reads a full-page ad in El Periódico, the most progressive of the three main national newspapers of Guatemala. Fear is still very much around, censorship is alive and well, and the media in Guatemala are still subject to threats and manipulation.
47 comments:
I would dispute the comment from 2:50 yesterday that we have another Chas on our hands. Chas was passive except when it came to getting himself re-elected. Laws and his fools have done so much damage that there will be nothing left except a big black hole of debt in another three years.
David Mack's cak-handed and corrupt attempt to suborn the fourth estate and subvert democracy is a perfect metaphor for Vision Wanganui. Corrupt, manipulative yes, to make the threats. Incompetent beyond belief, to threaten via e-mail.
You thugs really need to sort out your deniability issues.
Thanks for this post LW, really gets to the point, only wish other Wanganui people would read it.
We are grateful to a LawsWatch anonymii for tipping us off about the back story to a wee morsel on the agenda for Tuesday’s 10am council meeting.
It is all around town that the Community Issues survey gives the thumbs down to the council and particularly the mayor. He tried to hide it but the CEO would not let him so if we want to be entertained we should get to the council at 10am on Tuesday and enjoy the humiliation. Dr Dave is asserting his authority and making this lame duck mayor suffer. - LawsWatch anonymous
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Let us all get down there then to enjoy the spectacle. The meeting is open to the public and should prove even more entertaining than the Code of Conduct with this time an impartial judge.
Anon @ 5.14pm ...
ahem: Wasn't it the mayor who actually made everything public?
That doesn't quite fir the conspiracy theory does it LW?
anonymickey -
ahem: Wasn't it the mayor who actually made everything public?
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Read the front page again, fool! As always the Guyton St Gobbels you call the mayor did just enough to give himself an "alibi" by slipping the report onto the council website, without comment, knowing very well that the Chron had well and truly got the message about how Mickey and Mack expect them to treat any not-good-news stories about the regime.
That's in stark contrast to the way he makes other stuff "public" like broken toes, his views on gangs etc etc.
Surely if he really wanted to make it public and didn't want the Chron to feel compromised he could have ordered that it be published in full on Community Link, written to the paper summarising the report and providing a link to the website version.
Better still, he could have turned the whole thing into a lovely glossy brochure and delivered a copy to every household, perhaps with a simple "community survey" attached, ie:
1. Do you think this incident indicates the council is
a. incompetent or
b. corrupt or
c. both of the above
2. In view of your answer to the above who do you think should be sacked:
a. The CEO
b. Claire Cilliers
c. The entire council management
d. The entire remnants of WINC
e. The gas company chair
f. The entire gas company management
g. The mayor & deputy mayor
h. all of the above
How about this for an explanation of Mr. Absolute Sincerity’s latest. The Vision telephone poll showed no support for Dot and a tiny bit (from the irreparably thick) for Mickey. He thinks he will be able to fatten this up with a repeat of the last campaign and beating a few more vote-splitters out of the bushes. (Randhir and Ray, make no mistake, that is your role in this drama.) I bet Allan Anderson has had a call every night this week begging him to run.
There are a lot of people who will tell Laws they support him rather than be honest and suffer the abuse. He loves a good roll in the mud. He will be allowed to make this campaign into three months of it. Why did anyone ever think he would be able to give up an opportunity like that.
Randhir says “Everyone's encouraging me to stand, and I will do so”
No Randhir. Not everyone is encouraging you to run. You will be 73 this year and, if you miraculously managed to get in, that would make you 76 in the last year of your mayoralty.
The fact that you voted to throw 80K of our rates money into another ‘roofing the velodrome’ study shows you don’t have a clear picture at all of either the town’s finances or the social changes that climate change is already bringing. Have you forgotten about the first ‘roofing the velodrome’ study?
Let us all get down there then to enjoy the spectacle. The meeting is open to the public and should prove even more entertaining than the Code of Conduct with this time an impartial judge.
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Watchers please don't fall for this one.
The survey is good for him otherwise why would he stand?
Randhir has to be a threat to everyone whatever our opinions on his abilities. He keeps topping the council polls and was within a couple of hundred of toppling Chas a couple of elections back. If I was Laws I would watch him because he is polite, popular with the oldies and would be the first non-Pakeha mayor which would be a good thing for our ethnically diverse community.
ahem: Wasn't it the mayor who actually made everything public?
That doesn't quite fir the conspiracy theory does it LW?
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It's not a conspiracy, the council just employed a corrupt business man, so it's one bunch of jokers dealing with the other bunch of idiots in town.
Let us all get down there then to enjoy the spectacle. The meeting is open to the public and should prove even more entertaining than the Code of Conduct with this time an impartial judge.
The survey was not brilliant for the mayor, but enough for him to run ( with the help of the two old councillors ).. Dot had no chance.
I see your Mr Laws has no other job to go to, well Wanganui your welcome to him!
The survey was BRILLIANT for the mayor: what are you people putting in your drinks???
Can Antoinette Beck or a close relation possibly be connected with the latest survey?
Antoinette Beck - Antoinette smeck!! More like flesh and blood this time!
Some fool wrote ...
Can Antoinette Beck or a close relation possibly be connected with the latest survey?
10:05 PM, June 05, 2007
why don't you check out their research credentials and then claim all those people on the front page of the Chronicle this morning, urging the mayor to run again, are also fictitious.
Sometimes bad news just happens to be the correct news. John Martin should reconsider his not running for council if he's serious about being mayor of this city.
The chron shows the man in the street wants ML back for another term. Go Michael.
Well Mickey, it must be heartening to read the Chron front page today: someone actually still believes you've reigned in spending. Just goes to show that lying every time you open your mouth pays off.
I wonder how that guy's going to react when the penny (or should that be the $20M) finally drops, though.
Looks like your little town wants and loves their little mayor! The poor man with no where but Wanganui to end his days.
The survey certainly indicates that there are a lot of people in Wanganui who are (a) remarkably gullible or (b) too busy surviving to focus on what is happening to their town.
I wonder how many people the Chron had to poll before they found enough turkeys to back up the poll results. Well done Mickey and Mas – bullshit champions extraordinaire.
Anonymous said...
I wonder how many people the Chron had to poll before they found enough turkeys to back up the poll results. Well done Mickey and Mas – bullshit champions extraordinaire.
2:58 PM, June 06, 2007
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Face it, the guy is popular. There would be no point being a populist unless you were and most of my friends would vote for him again on the basis that he is either good for the city or entertaining. Jay Rerekura was on the front page too and he is not a redneck racist or dumb - he likes the guy for the same reason I do, that he's fun and that he's put Wangas on the map. Even my arts friends admit he is better than anyone else and they were not looking forward to Mr average v Mr Average v Mr Average for the mayoralty. Mayors are meant to be bigger than life and the guy is.
Who gives a toss about surveys and the cron interviews.
A liar is a liar is a liar, and always a liar. Mickey is a liar and always will be. Just showes if you tell enough lies some people will believe some of them.
God help us thinking people if Mickey is mayor again.
Of course that was a lie "I will be a one term mayor"
Dotty has been shafted. Silly girl, stand as an independant Dotty, Laws can't be trusted.
Eventually our rates will rise a huge ammount.
Call them annual charges or whatever but they are still rate rises.
Looks like your little town wants and loves their little mayor! The poor man with no where but Wanganui to end his days.
2:25 PM, June 06, 2007
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So Wanganui wins! ML could go anywhere, Wellington for example, but he chooses to stay in Wangas. Anyway what's wrong with ending your days in Wangas, lots of people do, it's a great little city. And ML is a long way from ending his days. Good on yer ML, stand again.
"So Wanganui wins! ML could go anywhere, Wellington for example, but he chooses to stay in Wangas. Anyway what's wrong with ending your days in Wangas, lots of people do, it's a great little city. And ML is a long way from ending his days. Good on yer ML, stand again."
Yes, he could go to Wellington, but do you honestly think the people of Wellington would make him mayor? The most politically savvy city in the country? Stop smoking that bad P
So Wanganui wins! ML could go anywhere, Wellington for example, but he chooses to stay in Wangas. Anyway what's wrong with ending your days in Wangas, lots of people do, it's a great little city. And ML is a long way from ending his days. Good on you ML, stand again.
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I agree he's good for the city but the feeling I get from my friends, is that he should have let Dot stand as she's done so much hard work.
Good on you ML, stand again.
Maybe it's not such a bad idea, but my question would be ... is Miss Lush standing by her man or will he be all along in Wangas.
Interesting letter in the paper today, a Laws supporter who didn't want him back again, bet there are many people feeling the same.
What a ridiculous piece of self-aggrandising twaddle. Laws has to stand again to stop Wanganui going backwards blah blah. What, by abusing Council employees and never turning up at civic functions, then lying to ram through his agenda?
Yeah right.
You people are putting the cart before the horse. He hasn't decided anything and Dot McKinnon obviously pulled out to put some heat on him. Read her RCP article today - I don't think its a done deal he will stand again at all.
First this 'one term mayor' becomes two then another ... we have another Chas in the making ... he looks like he's loosing his hair too!
First this 'one term mayor' becomes two then another ... we have another Chas in the making ... he looks like he's loosing his hair too!
4:28 PM, June 07, 2007
__________________________
You have got to be joking. On on both counts.
So could someone enlighten me?
What hard work has Dot been doing that should earn her the Mayoralty??
Laws/Chas, I can see a likeness, someone who needs this place more than it needs them.
I think Wanganui is in a sad state of affairs if we have old turkey neck back again. Maybe though he is running short of a few bob and decided if he does run again he gets to prostitute his family in Womans Day or Womans Weekly for another promising story.
As said before Mickey - take a hint. Leave. Surely you can follow Miss Lush to Wellington and do your radio show from there. And take your Vision team with you. Bunch of uneducated losers.
I think your right, there are shinny bits on his head, coupled with the bad breath his dancing partner reported to friends and it all adds up to a sad little man .... the Diva!
What, by abusing Council employees and never turning up at civic functions, then lying to ram through his agenda?
Yeah right.
3:52 PM, June 07, 2007
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I keep reading this allegation on this blog but never see any proof or employees named or the circumstances. Can you help me out?
Was it an ex-employee, for example?
I think your right, there are shinny bits on his head, coupled with the bad breath his dancing partner reported to friends and it all adds up to a sad little man .... the Diva!
10:26 AM, June 08, 2007
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You're confusing the mayor with yourself!
Tell me: how long have you been jealous of the guy and his popularity in Wangas and celebrity elsewhere? On behalf of us average Wanganui folk, why don't you losers do us the favour and leave town. You are obviously in the minority!!
I think he's brave standing again, the DWTS showed he was not popular, so it will be a huge risk to his celebrity.
Lie du jour:
"I write my e-coli for my website."
They just happen to "turn up" on WDC's site in the run up to the election.
Michael Brian Laws, mayor of Wanganui, is corrupt. If he weren't so abusive and incompetent he'd be dangerous.
Reading the Dom today confirmed by first thought about your mayor, once in power he will not let go, and he has no where left in the country that would be so foolish to take him.
Apart from abusing ML, does anyone have an alternative mayoral candidate who can a) beat him and b) has a plan for Whanganui?
Apart from abusing ML, does anyone have an alternative mayoral candidate who can a) beat him and b) has a plan for Whanganui?
4:36 PM, June 08, 2007
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No-one comes close to being as good as ML for the mayoralty and no-one else has a plan for Wanganui. Oh maybe one mayoral candidate has plans to plunge it back into the dark ages.
Anonymickey at 4:36 PM, June 08, 2007
and
Anonymickey at 5:53 PM, June 08, 2007
_____________________________
Do you boys all belong to the same team? Save your electoral lies for the dumb fuckwits who vote for you, wouldya?
There you go - the WC printed the Mack story. Is it likely to have any impact whatsoever other than on Mr Mack or the legal case between Mack and WC manager A Jarden?
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