First Couple vs NZ Herald

The strain is showing on Helen Clark with her attacking the NZ Herald as being an enemy of Labour for the last 91 years!

Facing opinion polls putting her Government about 20 points behind National, Prime Minister Helen Clark said the Herald had run a silly campaign against the Electoral Finance Act and was a Tory paper which had shown no charity to Labour in the party’s 91 years of existence.

She singled out former cartoonist Sir Gordon Minhinnick for flaying Labour Governments last century.

In a TV interview, she said money linked to election-year ads might have been a factor in the Herald campaign against electoral finance law changes.

Where do you start with some stupidity.  I imagine over 91 years the newspaper has had many editors and owners.  Perhaps there is a secret oath of office they take to “never show charity to the Labour Party” as each new owner and editor is sworn in. Readers – feel free to suggest in the comments what the words might be for this oath of office.  Maybe all the staff have to swear it also?

The hilarious thing is I recall in 1999 that the then National Government was also infuriated with the NZ Herald, and convinced it was unfair to the Government.

Next we have Clark attacking a former cartoonist who used to make fun of Labour Governments.  How dare he the cad.  I call for state registration of cartoonists to regulate what they say.

Then the stuff on the Herald and advertising shows her typical paranoia about people who disagree with her.  She simply can not fathom that any of the opponents to the Electoral Finance Act could do so for sincere reasons of good faith. So she claims the Herald might be worried about lost advertising. Now for this paranoid theory to hold true, the publisher needs to have instructed the editor and all political staff to oppose the EFA. But it also means the lost advertising needs to be significant. I actually suspect the EFA will lead to more money being spent on advertising this year, but even if there is a reduction APN’s share of any reduction is probably no more than $250,000 – six full page ads. Now their revenue for last year was $1.314b so you know I really don’t think the publisher instructs the editor and staff over a potential loss of 0.02% of revenue.

The Herald also reveals that once again Peter Davis enters the political fray.  This is the surest sign of Labour in trouble when Davis starts writing letters to the editor!