Misleading headlines

When you see the Weekend Herald proclaim “Nats’ chief helps in fraud probe” you automatically think he may be in some way involved with an alleged fraud, and/or criminal wrong-doing.

In reality it transpires he is an indirect victim having lent $100,000 to a friend who invested with a man who seemingly is being investigated by the SFO.

It would have been nice if the headline reflected this, assuming that what has been reported is al there is to the story. To be honest seems a non-story to me.

In another Herald story, they profile Goodfellow’s baptism of fire. An interesting tidbit:

It is a rare glimpse: his now 92-year-old father, Douglas Goodfellow, has never given a public interview.

The family have managed to keep their low profile despite wealth and philanthropy on a massive scale – a Listener article from 1996 detailed how Douglas Goodfellow gave away $285 million to various unknown charities, the largest gift in New Zealand history at the time.

Goodness, that is a huge amount of charity, and done very quietly it seems.

The family are 16th on the NBR rich list with an estimated wealth of $550 million from interests ranging across fishing, finance and agricultural chemicals. The mild-mannered Mr Goodfellow – often compared to Ned Flanders from The Simpsons because of his moustache – told the Weekend Herald that recent weeks had been “difficult”.

I hadn’t heard the Ned Flanders nickname before, but sadly for Peter can see it catching on 🙂

Asked if the factional politics of the National Party in Auckland are “vicious” given the early pressure on his presidency, Mr Goodfellow prefers the word “robust”.

Ha, that is a euphemism!

He became the family’s first activist with the Young Nationals in the 1970s.

He recalled Tamaki MP and Prime Minister Rob Muldoon collecting him early one morning for an Anzac Day dawn service.

Good God. That could have been very traumatic!