Mike Joy kills his own credibility

Mike Joy wrote at The Spinoff:

After two decades of fighting to halt the degradation of freshwater in New Zealand, you would think I’d be celebrating the fact that water is taking centre stage in this election. Briefly, I was. Yet after raising issues about our disastrous water quality for so long, I find myself now being used as a political football. This has been especially galling after my experiences with dirty politics from the National Party in the past.

Three days ago I made a ‘friends only’ post on my personal Facebook page saying I believe we should be voting on ideas and policies not personalities and tribal affiliations this election. It also said I like some TOP policy. I had no idea what was coming.

My Facebook post was immediately picked up by TOP. They issued a press release based on my ‘endorsement’. At the time of writing, their Facebook post about it has been shared 511 times. They didn’t seek my permission in any way. This use by TOP of my personal Facebook post, and the resulting attacks from people disappointed by my ‘betrayal’, saddened me so much I decided to close my private and public Facebook pages. The very point of the post was about keeping personalities out of this crucial election.

But Sean Plunket on behalf of TOP responded with a copy of this e-mail:

So Mike Joy actually e-mailed TOP a statement they could use, and then he writes a post complaining they used his Facebook status without authorisation.

He now says that he “forgot” he sent the e-mail.

He’s done a pretty good job of destroying his own credibility.