Lies, damned lies and transcripts

LawsWatch has a very open comments policy, accepting all sorts of opinion both in support of and against the actions and utterances of the Mayor. Mostly we let these pass without comment, as any innaccuracy is quickly seized upon by other commenters and corrected. But we were particularly intrigued by a comment added to the last post regarding the "Morning Report" item this morning looking at reaction to Michael Laws' comments on River Road:

Anonymous said...
Not even available on RNZ's website. i heard it too: he didn't get "roasted". He repeated the comments and said that they were accurate as did the Wanganui Chronicle in its editorial. there is some very subjective wish fulfilment fantasy going on in this blog. sad that no-one would have been listening given that its Wellington Anniversary Day.
2:05 PM, January 22, 2007

The blunt statement that the piece wasn't available on RNZ's website was quickly corrected. However, as that RSS link is likely to change tomorrow when new stories are added, here is the link direct to RNZ's mp3 file (2.6Mb).

Eventually though, that will disappear too. But as part of our role as archivists of Mickey's lunatic outbursts, we've preserved a copy for posterity here. So if the direct link stops working, use that one.

So having dispensed with the first lie (or inadvertent inaccuracy, if you want to be charitable) let's look at the more subjective, but much more insidious, claim: that Mickey "didn't get roasted".

Of course you can listen and decide for yourselves using the links above, but we've had a Watcher transcribe pertinent parts of the item. While by no means every word spoken is reproduced below, we have not excluded anyone from the transcript.

We should also add that names were transcribed as they sounded and were sometimes a little hard to hear. We apologise to anyone whose name is misspelled and will happily correct it if you let us know in comments or by emailing us (use the link on the right - "send us your scuttlebutt"). Actual quotes from the RNZ item are in blue; summarisation is in black. Emphasis is ours.

Rory Smith has been chair or deputy of the district's tourism organisation for a decade, but can't make sense of comments like this by Mayor Michael Laws.

(Mickey raves about River Road being like a "3rd world country")

Rory Smith says that's not the river he knows.

(Mickey rants about crime)

Tour operator Rory Smith is again mystified. "There's no targeting of tourists up the river, I can say that quite categorically..."

Len and Gillian Moorhouse (operators of a farm lodge on the road): "We never hear any bad words about it (from international tourists)".

The Moorhouses say Mr Laws seems misinformed about the River Road Community of 300 and what its visitors want.

Jula Teke (Ngati Pamoana): "They (tourists) want to see the people. They want to see Maoris".

Jula Teke says the Mayor is irrelevant. "I don't really like to give him much of anything... of any recognition because when people talk like that about a whole lot of people... what do they deserve? Nothing".

Mickey denies it's about race. "I'll say this one more time, slowly, so you can understand...")

The head of Jerusalem's Sisters of Compassion, Sue Cosgrove, says the Mayor's words offer nothing to her mostly Maori neighbours. "Sure, a lot of people are on benefits, but it only diminishes people to have such statements made without real knowledge of the people. And just to see a headline like that in a way it just sort of speaks of the Mayor".

Not counting the reporter, who seemed to like what he saw on his journey up the road, the entire cast of this short drama were critical of Mickey, including three tourist operators, a Maori spokesperson and a nun.

Roasted? Stick a fork in Mickey, he's done.

Update (6.30pm): Meanwhile in other news, the Mayor of a small town has been assassinated. The entire population are being treated as suspects. "He was an unpleasant man who ran this place like his personal kingdom. He made life difficult for most of us but for a select few he made life impossible," one resident said.

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Let us eat cake

According to some superstitions, if you burn a white candle in the shape of a particular person, you will engender "peace & tranquility, fidelity, honesty" in them. So we've been whittling away at a large white candle, creating an effigy of Mickey to place atop LawsWatch's first birthday cake.

Yes Watchers, today is the anniversary of the first-ever post to LawsWatch - 1 July 2005 - when we quoted from the Human Rights Commission's little book on freedom of speech. The same little book waved about by one Michael Laws as his defence at the Code of Conduct hearings.

Already, signs of what was to come were evident, with hyperbole from both sides of the debate apparent in the reaction to our appearance on the scene:

The presence of a micro-nazi like Laws in any elected position is anathema to democracy. Lying to Parliament is Treason and should be prosecuted accordingly. By this measure Laws already deserves the death penaly, or life imprisonment, or perhaps a pat on the back and a celebrity career.

...and...

Go away all you commie drongos. What a nasty pack of smearing, lying, dishonest pack of losers you are. Disgusted.

It only took a couple of weeks for the Chron to notice, and the blog shot to prominence with a ringing endorsement from none other than Michael B Laws, Mayor of Wanganui, on 14 July 2005, under the banner headline "Mugged Mayor says he loves the humour":

Mayor Michael Laws (labeled the "Diva of the Ditch" by the creators of lawswatch.blogspot.com and the merchandise) thinks the Laws Watch range is hilarious. The blog is selling t-shirts, hats, tote bags, coffee cups, calendars, postcards and boxer shorts emblazoned with the words Laws Watch, along with the mayor’s face, at www.cafepress.com/lawswatch...

"I love it and I think it is fantastic," Mr Laws said. "It has a sense of humour which has been missing from the COC (Concerned Ordinary Citizens) people forever. Both me and my secretary will definitely be getting a couple of mugs..."

"I think it’s hilarious and funny. It’s the kind of thing which has been missing for art activists in Wanganui. So I’ll definitely get a mug and I need another running T-shirt and one of those ones would be great," Mr Laws said.

Of course, like so many public statements uttered by Mickey, that was entirely false. While several hundred dollars worth of merchandise has sold, none of it has been charged to credit cards bearing the name of Laws or his secretary.

Alas it took less than six months for the love to fade and for Mayor Hyde to be replaced by Mayor Jekyll (to steal an analogy from a recent commenter), with a clearly tetchy Laws launching a vitriolic personal attack on those he thought were responsible for the blog. The blistering effectiveness of this attack in exposing nothing other than the fact that Mayor Hyde is simply a role played occasionally by the "real" mayor - Mayor Jekyll - is evident in the fact that another six months have elapsed and LawsWatch is still here.

Watchers may wish to celebrate by purchasing a pair of underpants adorned with the Diva's physiognomy, available along with a variety of caps, bags, buttons, sticker and even a doggy t-shirt, at the LawsWatch store. We'll be clustered round a bonfire of remaindered copies of "The Demon Profession" and "Dancing with Beelzebub", having a wee dram or two.

To mark this auspicious occasion we present a "Best of LawsWatch Art" retrospective. Thanks for making it this far with us.

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