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November 4, 2012 3:58pm by David Farrar

Slater on The Nation

A very good segment on The Nation with Truth Editor Cameron Slater, Bill Ralston, Brian Edwards and Rachel Smalley.

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Comment77

NZ Politics
Cameron Slater
The Nation

Comments (77)

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jaba

the Whale rattled Edwards .. this will be a great read with a very worried beltway
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November 4, 2012 4:13pm
Shunda barunda

“Socialists don’t pay much Brian”

Ha ha!
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November 4, 2012 4:45pm
Shunda barunda

“Remember Brian, I’m telling the story now”

I might actually buy a news paper if he keeps this up.
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November 4, 2012 4:52pm
Dave Mann

Cameron completely dominated the segment and the poor girlette hostess was completely sidelined in the conversation which developed between her ‘own’ panellists! Great TV and the whale did well.
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November 4, 2012 5:05pm
Redbaiter

Three against one.

Two boring tired old media commies and one mindless commie bimbo against Whale.

Always the way they do it.
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November 4, 2012 5:19pm
iMP

I liked the capitalist Tee sell-out. He should send Edwards and Ralston one each for Xmas.
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November 4, 2012 5:25pm
dime

the arrogance of the traditional media baffles me. no wonder they are a dying breed.
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November 4, 2012 5:45pm
Sonny Blount

God they were pathetic.

Ralston’s attitude that mainstream journalists in NZ are actually doing anything was laughable.
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November 4, 2012 5:59pm
Scott Chris

I give him 6 months. He won’t last.
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November 4, 2012 6:01pm
orewa1

Classic! If he survives the first few months, he just might make a real difference.
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November 4, 2012 6:19pm
DJP6-25

Shunda barunda 4:52 pm. Yes, I’ll have to ask one of the rellies to buy me a copy. I’ll even bookmark their website if there is an online edition. This is great news. In theory, the paper’s readership will rise, and ad revenue will follow. The key of course will be in having editorials and articles that treat the readers and advertisers like they’re something other than filthy capitalists who deserve a one way trip to the Gulag. They might take a leaf from the Japanese and Korean dailies. The articles from local journalists are ‘just the facts’. Their name and email address is at the bottom. They don’t editorialise. The socialist stuff comes from their foreign content.

cheers

David Prosser
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November 4, 2012 6:21pm
Mark

Cameron will be a breath of fresh air to the media. Will be a subscriber for sure.
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November 4, 2012 6:22pm
bhudson

Reid,

The “toy thrower” was ‘Bomber’ Bradbury apparently. I am sure he wouldn’t have quit if he had not been overlooked in favour of his blogger rival. (Well, OK, the extreme left vs. right views between the two of them might have contributed a little.)

…enslaved through learned helplessness…

I was talking to a National Party candidate a couple of days ago. His wife was accosted during his campaign, presumably because she is Maori, and questioned as to why she was supporting the (implied) racist Tories.

Her, off the cuff, response was “welfare has enslaved my people for long enough.”

I was told the silence was deafening.

[Edit: Reid, you killed your comment]
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November 4, 2012 6:24pm
Manolo

Edwards, that tired old leftie, repeating the mantra of her adored Helen Clark.
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November 4, 2012 6:25pm
duggledog

I agree Scott. I don’t think it will work either, much as I agree with what Cameron said about the newspapers and state of journalism currently.

Bit disappointed with previous posters like Red’s comments about Edwards and Ralston; you may think they are has-beens, but at least they Have Been. Unlike us eh
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November 4, 2012 6:28pm
Reid

Thanks bhudson, now I know it was Bomber I probably should have left it there, just thought it a bit off topic.

His ego probably couldn’t handle the fact Cam was now his boss. What a loss.
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November 4, 2012 6:29pm
bhudson

What a loss.

Reid,

In fairness you should have offered a [/sarc] tag for some of the readers…
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November 4, 2012 6:32pm
Elaycee

Amusing that the left has commenced to bleat about Slater – before he’s even been at the helm of a single publication!

This could be fun.

Popcorn…. 😀
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November 4, 2012 6:39pm
nasska

Elaycee

The wailing from the socialists should reach a crescendo on Thursday with the first issue under Whale’s editorship. I may even lower myself & read the bilious rantings which will fill ‘The Standard’ about the injustice suffered by the socialists losing their death grip on the NZ media.

One small weekly wrested from the liars……could radio & TV follow suit one day?
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November 4, 2012 6:50pm
blondewithaniq

Cameron wouldnt know the Truth if if harpooned him.. Parata & Brownlee may be easy targets to take down because it is so transparently obvious how detached they are from those in their ministries and bureaucracies and the mounting opposition to them because of who they favour over Cantabrians….
If he begins to buy his lattes in Sierra and potted Bennett for the only developments she is actually interested and engaged in, and then did an editorial on the lack of democracy in the planned Auckland Council move one might be able to stop laughing at his new position..
As it is, blogger to editor may find him back in court in a blink if he forgets the difference between accountability and name suppression.. Wont be subscribing.
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November 4, 2012 6:59pm
Pete George

That was a good bit of publicity for the rebirth of Truth, Cam did well.

Whale has been given an opportunity to change the face of political coverage here. It will take him a while to get things changed the way he wants, and it will take some notable scoops. We’ll see how successful he’s been in six months or so, I don’t expect a lot as the year fizzles out.

Part of the success will be how much support it the new Truth gets, both in print sales and in online participation. We can all help generate interest and get something groundbreaking in media happening, by getting involved. It won’t always be pretty and things won’t always work but perseverance and engagement from us plebs can make a difference here. There’s little to lose by seeing where this can be taken, and helping nudge it along..
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November 4, 2012 7:26pm
bc

It was a good interview.
I’m not sure why some people have turned the interview into a Cam Vs “Lefties” battle, though. It didn’t come across that way to me. There seemed to be a genuine interest in what Cameron was going to do with the paper. After all it was an interview, not a puff piece.

You have to love Redbaiter’s take on it at 5.19pm:
“Three against one. Two boring tired old media commies and one mindless commie bimbo against Whale.”

I bet ole’ Red thinks everyone except himself is a “commie”!
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November 4, 2012 7:39pm
Kevin

It will be interesting. I suspect being national party royalty he will struggle to criticise the laibor lite socialists.
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November 4, 2012 7:43pm
Nostalgia-NZ

It’s odd how you see the situation differently than what CM said himself nasska.
He’s got a market to hold onto and to expand, like he said incremental changes not little pearlers for you to get your jollies off on.
It could be a breath of fresh air, from his account he’ll be breaking stories. His priority will obviously be to his job not point scoring but general strategies to increase critical readership which he pointed out. I thought Ralston and Edwards were fairly generous and possibly a little in awe in CM’s intention to in some ways to not only turn back the clock but to link blogs with print media as he said was also the case currently overseas.
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November 4, 2012 7:43pm
bhudson

bc,

I agree that Ralston (and to an extent at least) Edwards tried to turn the interview into a conversation, rather than a pure confrontation. Edwards did appear to try to strike a few points, but I think that was more old media vs. new media, than left vs. right, as such. (To which, Cam’s response about Fair Go being much more relevant when Edwards had it really floored him; he had nowhere to go, having tried to trap Cam in the premise that Truth’s old “stand up for the battlers” line had been usurped by Fair Go and Target.)

I thought Raltson’s point about Cam referring to churnilsts and repeaters, and now having to manage some, was pertinent and not overtly confrontational.

Certainly, if it were a boxing match, Cam would have won the points decision. I did wonder as I was watching it if he had missed the ‘conversational’ vs. ‘confrontational’ signals and perhaps missed an opportunity to converse instead of (what appeared as) lashing out because he felt cornered.

Those that looked for a stoush would have scored a clear win for Cam, I am sure. Those that weren’t, probably far less so I imagine.
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November 4, 2012 7:50pm
Steve (North Shore)

Poor Rachael, well out of her depth. Truth is WhaleOil’s opinion? well girl we listen to your opinion every Saturday morning.
Pot/kettle and all that shit
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November 4, 2012 7:57pm
Elaycee

nasska:

I may even lower myself & read the bilious rantings which will fill ‘The Standard’…

Good of you to take one for the team. Please be sure to provide some feedback… 😀
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November 4, 2012 8:02pm
nasska

Nostalgia-NZ

Can’t see where you’re coming from. Granted change will be incremental but the socialists will not see it that way & that was the point to my comment. Bomber has already thrown his toys out of the cot so I can just imagine the reactions of Prentice & his queer mates.

That’s what I’m looking forward to.
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November 4, 2012 8:03pm
bc

Agree, bhudson. Cam did seem to be going in on the defensive, and to that extent he held up his own.
I didn’t see it as a left wing vs right wing either, as you say more old media vs new media.
Having not read the truth, I’m no doubt stereotyping but I see truth readers as the ‘blue collar workers’ type. Cam doesn’t really strike me as their number one supporter. It will be interesting to see how it goes.
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November 4, 2012 8:03pm
Hamnida

Mr Whale and the Truth are a good match.
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November 4, 2012 8:04pm
bhudson

bc,

I do admit to reading the Truth on occasion when I was a lad. As I recall it only ever had two points to make.

And they were both found on the same page…
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November 4, 2012 8:06pm
Kea

I see truth readers as the ‘blue collar workers’ type. Cam doesn’t really strike me as their number one supporter.

Good point. But I ask who is the supporter of Blue Collar workers in NZ ?

It is certainly not the Labour party. ( unless they are Maori, crippled, lesbian, solo mum Blue Collar workers)

NZ is a bleak place for us working stiffs. There is no party that is representative of the working masses. The left have gotten so far up on their ideological horse they now regard their traditional supporters as ignorant red necks worthy only of taxing into poverty.
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November 4, 2012 8:14pm
pq

Slater was very impressive indeed, he showed Edwards as tired and bleating and also Ralston completely forgettable.
Slater thrashed Edwards over the value of David Gareth, by suggesting that some forgiveness after thirty years could be a good idea.
I wonder if it would be a good idea to get rid of the girl pictures out of truth, its pretty 1950’s stuff.
There was no value in Bomber, he is obsessed, and completely irrational.
Is Barnsley Bill in Slater’s line up of journalists. Slater said he also had three left wing journalists, but others not announced yet.
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November 4, 2012 8:16pm
bhudson

Kea,

Well given the Labour Party (and the Greens) want to increase the cost of living of working New Zealanders by trying to artificially raise the cost of imports [lower the exchange rate], I struggle to see how they can possibly claim to represent the workers!

I can just see them at the ports, the manufacturing floors, the bus depots, and in the offices with the cleaners late at night… “Vote for us so that everything you spend your income on is more expensive!”

I think they’ve lost their way somewhat…
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November 4, 2012 8:20pm
Hamnida

You Neolibs are so blinded by individualism that you didn’t pick up on Ralston and Edwards mocking Mr Oil?

Oil wasn’t on the show as a serious guest, he was there for a bit of a laugh.
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November 4, 2012 8:20pm
Kea

I wonder if it would be a good idea to get rid of the girl pictures out of truth

We got ourselves a poofter boys. Lets get him ! 🙂
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November 4, 2012 8:22pm
Nostalgia-NZ

To be truthful nasska I wouldn’t have a clue who bomber is or the significance of him spitting the dummy if that’s what he did.
I’m not captivated by all things left and right.

But generally I’m pleased you’re looking forward to the reactions of Prentice & his queer mates who ever they are. I’m sure there is a word for it.
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November 4, 2012 8:22pm
nasska

Nostalgia-NZ

Obviously you had a sheltered childhood….I’d hate to spoil it for you now. 🙂
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November 4, 2012 8:25pm
Nostalgia-NZ

‘We got ourselves a poofter boys. Lets get him !’

Standards are raised once again.
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November 4, 2012 8:26pm
Kea

I agree bhudson and now we have pq trying to stop the working man looking at titties.

It is a grim place indeed in socialist NZ. 🙁
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November 4, 2012 8:26pm
Nostalgia-NZ

Things were pretty quiet nasska.
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November 4, 2012 8:26pm
nasska

Kea

You’re probably right….camp as a row of army tents I’d say! 🙂
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November 4, 2012 8:27pm
Kea

Yep nasska, no doubt pq likes the cock. Probably a commie too and hates baby Jesus. Where is Red when you need him ?
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November 4, 2012 8:29pm
nasska

Lock up at his current institution is 8.0pm Kea. 🙂
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November 4, 2012 8:31pm
Kea

I miss him.

He is off line for just a few hours and already KB is over run with commies who hate titties (& baby Jesus).
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November 4, 2012 8:34pm
SPC

A lower dollar is good for keeping people in work, a higher minimum wage places upward pressue on wages between $15 and $20 an hour.

That Labour MP’s are prepared to pay more for imports, that many on lower wages cannot afford, is takling one for the workers.
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November 4, 2012 8:38pm
nasska

He sort of grows on you Kea. When you strip away the bluster, the bullshit, the profanities, the personal abuse there’s nothing there but it does make the rest of us seem sane by comparison. 🙂
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November 4, 2012 8:41pm
Kea

Yes I agree. Redbaiter is onto it. Although he thinks I am a marxist, christian hating, homo & crim hugging leftie 🙂
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November 4, 2012 8:44pm
bhudson

SPC,

So you’re trying to say that workers cost of living rising is them (the workers) taking one for the workers?

Imports may be things that workers cannot afford, but they are not things that workers can put off buying. Think petrol and clothing to start with. Then move in to the constituent components of everyday items such as plastic – you can forgo the Coke bottles, but milk comes in plastic bottles. Even the cheapest mince is wrapped in plastic.

And electronics are not only simple consumer items. So while mobile phones will rise in price, more costly for the workers will be all the optics and electronics that go to maintain the existing landline and mobile networks, and which are required to build out the newer generation networks. So the workers can all look forward to not talking to each other again.

To paint imports as luxury items for the wealthy only is absolutely ludicrous. The reason we struggle to get into surplus is partly consumerism, but mainly that so many of our supply chain inputs are imports.

And Labour and The Greens want to make those more expensive. Not only will that raise the cost of living for households, they will also increase costs for businesses. So much for helping the manufacturing sector!!
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November 4, 2012 8:52pm
kowtow

That interview was great as girl Rachel was left right out of it and the guests got on with it.
She did manage to get her opinion in at the end with her opinion on page 3 girls. She was earlier trying to make the point that opinion didn’t count in “journalism”, she’s no journalist.

I don’t agree with a lot of Slater but he’s definitely a breath of fresh air and Bradbury is a complete arse.
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November 4, 2012 9:06pm
Adolf Fiinkensein

Everything has to do with timing and the timing is just right for Mr Slater and he alluded to it in that interview.

What used to be responsible, serious newspapers of value have subsided into the gutter of tabloid mediocrity.

Oh what a turn up for the books will it be if he can turn Truth into a ‘Newspaper of Record.’

The Truth, the Whole truth and Nothing But The truth. No. A name change might be in order. The New Zealand Times or maybe the Wellington Post.

Won’t actually be all that difficult. Just get some decent columnists who are not pushing political agenda and he’ll get circulation.

He needs one on the economy, one on sport, one on politics, one from Australia, one from USA, one from UK, one from Singapore and one from China.

Hell, I’d pay $5 a week to buy a paper like that. There used to be one in Australia called The Bulletin.

Don’t be surprised if it is resurrected as Fairfax goes broke.
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November 4, 2012 9:13pm
V

Will Whale appoint dpf as “cut & paste” editor? 🙂
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November 4, 2012 9:15pm
hj

Here’s one for Woodlice:

SWG Report:
The Government’s role

– Serious consideration of the impact of the level and variability of immigration on national saving, and the impact that this might have on the living standards of New Zealanders. There are indications that our high immigration rate has pushed up government spending, house prices and business borrowing.

– Improving data on household and business saving.

http://www.treasury.govt.nz/publications/reviews-consultation/savingsworkinggroup/pdfs/swg-report-jan11.pdf
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November 4, 2012 9:15pm
adam2314

bhudson (2,508) Says:
November 4th, 2012 at 8:52 pm

” The reason we struggle to get into surplus is partly consumerism, but mainly that so many of our supply chain inputs are imports. “.

You are partly correct.. consumerism… Paid for by hard working Kiwi’s.. As they use the credit extended by Aussie Banks..

Those Banks took more out of NZ in profits than the entire profit of the companies on the NZ stock exchange..

A bit off topic .. but it had to be pointed out.. The answer to that problem is in our own hands..
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November 4, 2012 9:16pm
bhudson

adam2314,

No. You ignored the very real fact that so much of our supply chain (cost) inputs are imports. That, far more than the Australian Banks that poured capital into NZ to keep us alive during the GFC, is what places so much pressure on our BoT [along with our consumers’ tendencies to spend of course]
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November 4, 2012 9:19pm
Luc Hansen

Hamnida (827) Says:
November 4th, 2012 at 8:04 pm
Mr Whale and the Truth are a good match.

Mr Whale and truth is a different matter.

It’s impossible to exist as both a MSM persona and an at times irrational and borderline defamatory blogger.

One will need to give way. It will be fun watching.

I thought he just bullied his way through the interview as is his modus operandi, but Edwards scored a good hit with his gossip from the Green Room – a bit naughty as well but Cam can’t complain about that, can he?
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November 4, 2012 9:19pm
adam2314

hj (3,187) Says:
November 4th, 2012 at 9:15 pm
Here’s one for Woodlice:

SWG Report:
The Government’s role

– Serious consideration of the impact of the level and variability of immigration on national saving, and the impact that this might have on the living standards of New Zealanders.

If all of these immigrants are filling jobs that need experienced and skilled people..

Why are so many of them living in state houses ??

Why are so many of them lining up for check out jobs ??
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November 4, 2012 9:24pm
Hamnida

I wonder who the 15,000 New Zealanders are who buy the Truth?

I’d forgotten the paper (if you can call it that) still existed until this week. I thought it went bust in the 1990s but that must have been something else.

Is the “paper” subject to Press Council regulations? If so, I think there will be some issues.
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November 4, 2012 9:29pm
Steve Parkes

You guys are adorable. Slater did okay, but many of you seem to see some great victory over the msm. Bless.

Certainly, if it were a boxing match, Cam would have won the points decision.

I dunno, but reasonable people could disagree about which side ‘won’ in a rhetorical, points scoring sense if we want to look at it that way. Slater looked awkward on a couple of occasions (“What is a real opinion?” “That means wha… w.. what I believe..)

But I agree with bc – I don’t think Edwards or Ralston were trying to be all that confrontational. And anyway when one of them did have Slater in a spot, the other often undermined the point by moving on to their own point. OTOH Slater was unnecessarily defensive to perfectly legitimate lines of enquiry.
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November 4, 2012 9:35pm
SPC

bjhudson

If manufacturers want a lower dollar, and they do – it’s because imported compinents of their production cost are only a fraction of their total cost and yet all of their sales revenue is improved by a lower dollar.

The working class spend less of their money on imports (think housing food and power) than others and they are being offered a higher MW – that places upward pressure on wages in the $15 to $20 an hour category – as manufacterers who export pay a premium above MW to get the right workers.

A lower dollar and higher MW is a combination good for both manufacturers and workers. When National realise that, maybe they will do better on jobs.
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November 4, 2012 9:51pm
bhudson

SPC,

You refuse to acknowledge the supply chain costs of a lower dollar. Talk about consumers housing costs? What happens to their mortgages when the Banks are buying credit with a lower value NZ dollar? What happens to the cost of transportation when not only petrol, but all imported products: rubber, electronics and car parts are costing more? What happens when imported food (e.g. fruit) costs more?

Aside from those consumer costs, business input costs will be increasing. Aside from credit as mentioned above and fuel, any component that is imported, or has constituent components that are imported, will increase in cost.

Which leads to a conclusion which can either be painted as an unintended consequence, or a Labour sell out of their roots… What export sector will benefit most from a lower dollar and harmed least (or not as much as many) from the increased cost of imports?

Farming.

Labour are proposing to increase the cost of living for workers so that farmers’ profits will increase. I think you will struggle to find that in the little red book of 1916.

Meanwhile the manufacturing sector will remain as stagnant as it is now, with its exports worth less per unit due to a lower value dollar, while inputs increase in value due to the lower dollar for imports, and due to the increase in minimum wage you desire (which places upward pressure on wages right up the chain.)

That threatens competitive advantage which faces the business with the choice of increasing prices (which undoes the positive effect of the lower dollar value), or reducing profits, which forestalls growth and additional employment (and quite possibly leads to retrenchment to maintain profits – fewer staff doing all the work.)

And that is even without considering the inflationary pressures of the Greens plans to print money. Just how well did that work out in the Weimar Republic? In South America? In Zimbabwe?

The Labour and Greens plan will (at best) result in flat exports, with no increase in employment and with increased costs of living for households and increased costs to businesses. More likely is reduced employment and conditions as employers are forced to cuts costs to maintain profits and competitive advantage in the face if increased costs from a devalued NZ dollar.
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November 4, 2012 10:08pm
Reid

OTOH Slater was unnecessarily defensive to perfectly legitimate lines of enquiry.

Where did he do that Steve?
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November 4, 2012 10:12pm
Steve Parkes

The “toy thrower”

Here’s something on the toy thrower.

http://www.whaleoil.co.nz/2011/08/why-i-wont-be-on-citizen-a-anymore/

That’s what you meant, right?
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November 4, 2012 10:12pm
Reid

Well Bomber was a toy-thrower Steve. All of us are sometimes. So what?
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November 4, 2012 10:17pm
bhudson

No Steve. I was referring to Martyn quitting because he was annoyed that his blogging rival (nemesis) had been appointed as his boss, at the paper he had been contributing to and which Cam had had no involvement.

Of course you knew that.

Josie Pagani doesn’t seem to struggle with the idea of working for an editor with very different political views to hers. Perhaps she has more (metaphorical) cajones than Martyn.

Perhaps you and Bomber might want to give her a call? You might learn something…
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November 4, 2012 10:17pm
Steve Parkes

Reid,
The sales Q from Edwards, for eg, which got turned into another dig at the “left” media.
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November 4, 2012 10:28pm
Reid

Well who cares Steve. I saw that not as a diversion but a progression on the same subject for Cam was saying how he would differentiate the paper into an uncovered segment, and if you know blogs, you know this is a recurring theme, all the time, ergo there’s a train of thought in the market that’s not tapped.

I thought personally the most telling segment was the first where Cam explains Churnalists and Repeaters and when you read Stuff and NZHerald etc it frankly is, mostly that, isn’t it.
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November 4, 2012 10:39pm
Tom Jackson

If Slater gets obsessed with trying to create a Murdoch style right wing tabloid, the paper will likely fail. There is not enough support for a popular newspaper with that sort of politics in New Zealand, and beating up on Labour and the Greens is something that we don’t really need help with (those parties seem to have adopted a right wing philosophy and are thus fairly bootstrappy when it comes to self immolation).

On the other hand, there is a market for a muckraking, hold-them-to-account, defend-the-little-guy, newspaper and for some actual real journalism. I think Cameron Slater could manage that just fine, if he can resist partisan temptations at least some of the time.
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November 4, 2012 10:40pm
SPC

bjhudson, does the dollar value really impact on the mortgage cost paid by homeowners? Care to explain how? Fixed term rates will not change.

(not that low paid workers own homes).

Despite your prevarication, you apparently do comprehend that the imported cost component of manufacturing (and other expoerters) is less than 100%, the sales component is 100% so manufacturers are better off with a lower dollar. This includes local industry competing against imports as well. No wonder the manufacturing sector advocate for a lower dollar value.

This allows these businesses to afford higher wages. A high dollar is one reason for low wages.

Ironically the industry sector with the most to gain and who employ the least workers – farmers are the least keen on a lower dollar. Probably because they make their real farming return money on the untaxed CG of rising and value.
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November 4, 2012 10:43pm
bhudson

SPC,

does the dollar value really impact on the mortgage cost paid by homeowners? Care to explain how? Fixed term rates will not change.

The propensity for fixed rates has shifted to floating with the low interest raes we have enjoyed for some time now. Any devaluation of the NZ dollar means that the cost of money borrowed off shore by banks (principally used to shore up the long term liability of a 20+ year mortgage) will increase – i.e. interest rates will increase.

They will increase immediately for those on floating mortgages (which is now a larger group) and when the fixed terms expire (which will typically be between 1-3 years.) What is more those on fixed terms will be fixed with what they have today because any change – relocation or rennovaiton – will cost them more.

Of course the imported cost of manufacture is less than 100%. But the profits are geared to the costs as they are now. So any increase in cost (even for only parts of the overall process) place pressure on prices or margins. Competitive pressures tend to militate against price increases, so cost cutting becomes necessary to maintain margins; stagnant or decreased employment. Businesses that do choose to increase prices will see any front-end (sales) advantage of a lower dollar eroded by those higher prices.

Those businesses will most certainly not be able to afford higher wages. In fact the opposite is almost certain.

As for farmers and capital gains… Quite frankly you need to get your head out of the party political manifesto. While farmers do benefit from capital value over time, the reason they invest in land and plant is to increase productivity; to increase output, revenues and profits. Now.

The idea that they borrow enormous amounts and pay swathes of their income in interest solely for a future capital gain is nothing but a myth used by the Left to perpetuate the idea that farming is neither productive for society, nor a capital inside business (which therefore demands macro economic gearing in favour if investment and low interest rates.) These are just that; myths.

Farmers do call for a lower dollar. What they are not demanding is for highly interventionist tactics of earlier days to try to artificially create that. Perhaps because they appreciate the consequential impacts. Perhaps because they know it won’t work – NZ doesn’t have the capacity to achieve that artificial manipulation other than by sending the printing presses into overtime. And that little idea of Dr Norman’s would be an absolute disaster (unless, perhaps, you own a few warehouses of wheelbarrows.)
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November 4, 2012 11:01pm
Steve Parkes

Reid,

Well Bomber was a toy-thrower Steve. All of us are sometimes. So what?

Ask Slater, he used the term.

If he and anyone else that has used that or similar terms for Bradbury’s leaving Truth are not intending it in any way critically of Bomber, then fine. However, I have a suspicion that it was intended somewhat critically – and so the reminder of Slater’s own toy toss is apposite.

Well who cares Steve. I saw that not as a diversion but a progression on the same subject for Cam was saying how he would differentiate the paper into an uncovered segment

Slater was downplaying the ‘left/right’ thing at times during the discussion, trying to pitch his editorship role as being a bit of a Kiwi battler for the everybloke. Yet here he gets this question that wasn’t particularly presented as a left v right question, and he turns it into a dig at “left” media sales/success. So it’s an example of what I was saying: defensiveness rather than discussion. He should have had a positive vision for his new venture, and this early question should have been his opportunity to launch into it.

bhudson,

Josie Pagani doesn’t seem to struggle with the idea of working for an editor with very different political views to hers.

Yeah that’s fine. I just found the hypocrisy in the implied criticism of Bradbury’s decision amusing. I don’t otherwise care much one way or other about Bradbury dropping his Truth opinion piece. I thought Trotter made an interesting point in the comments to Bradbury’s Tumeke post.

http://tumeke.blogspot.co.nz/2012/11/cameron-slater-as-4th-journalist-of.html
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November 4, 2012 11:43pm
Barnsley Bill

The working classes in this country are very poorly served by Labour and the media who parrot their lines.
Time to wake up people. Labour is not Labour any more. They are not the party for the average Joe and stopped being that after Norm Kirk went.
Since the 70’s it has steadily become an organisation with two aims.
To serve and protect its top table of special interest nutters and weirdos.
To enslave the working man, turn him into a client of the state who is completely beholden to Labour for the very air he breathes.
It truly is the Party Workers Party.

Most in the media have come through a system completely dominated by left wing doctrine. School, university and beyond.

There is room for a tabloid that speaks directly to the working man without the PC nonsense and “its not my fault” cult that successive governments have allowed to fester within our country.
Working class winners are consumers. The advertisers will come and with the Sunday News being put down the time is right.

I am confident that Cam has what it takes to steer the team at Truth through the rebuilding phase and to produce a “viewspaper” that will have most of us nodding in agreement when we read it.
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November 5, 2012 8:41am
Barnsley Bill

I have heard a whisper that there is a new commentator already in place to pick up the burden that Bomber carried on his mighty shoulders.
Apparently Barton Madbury will be writing a regular article on a wide range of topics including Auckland real estate, dealing with IRD for child support payments and how to get taken seriously by screaming hysterically at everybody while blaming it on whitey.
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November 5, 2012 8:49am
labrator

Looking forward to the changes. Congrats again to Cam and David Garrett as well. Now if they could get Rodney Hide and Bob Jones to jump ship from the Herald it’d make for a great weekend read! I think losing the skin ads will need to be a priority if they want to expand readership though.
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November 5, 2012 8:56am
Mark

This is a massive challenge for Cameron. A newspaper that has a circulation of 15,000, relies heavily on the sex industry for its advertising revenue, whose current market is in all probability labour voting, league supporters not to mention the section of society looking for pay as you go sex. Now you have a right wing blogger is going to take the paper and try to make it into a leading political commentator from the right.

Cameron is also coming from an internet medium to a print medium.

This is a massive task for anyone but it will be bloody interesting to watch as his influence starts to mould itself into the paper and its culture. It may well be that the truth will start to head back to the more hard hitting journalism it was better known for in the 1970’s than the crap it spouts these days.

Hopefully he can also wean the paper off the sex industry as its major source of advertising revenue to that you can buy the paper without people considering you are scouring the advertisements for a cheap trick in K Road or Vivien Street..
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November 5, 2012 9:13am
backster

It should be worthwhile buying even if just for the strip I hope he will feature for the left ‘View from New York.”
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November 5, 2012 10:46am
KevinH

The challenge for Slater is to get the readership up over the 15000 it currently has which means that he will have to court controversy to be successful. No doubt the paper will lurch to the right with exposes’ of any left leaning politician high on the agenda, therefore Slater will have to be careful because he could be sued for libel if he gets his facts wrong.
However having Slater at the helm is not sufficient a reason to attract me to reading the Truth, it always has been a slighty smutty rag and will possibly get worse under Slater’s tutelage.
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November 5, 2012 1:09pm

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