This week there was great mirth over the fact that the National party showed their leader Christopher Luxon doing opposition leader type things meeting with businesses in Te Puke during the parliamentary recess, but it turned out he was actually on holiday in Hawaii.
The gaffe that launched a thousand memes and ample material for his critics.
Now even the most partisan will admit this looks like a genuine mistake, surely the infamous junior staffer just stuffed up - again.
But, and this is a big but, people in his team, his office, his caucus will have seen the story run showing the smiley would-be leader hard at work pressing the flesh in the Bay of Plenty on the 6pm news and known damn well this was misleading because he was actually sunning himself in Hawaii and none of them said anything, not a word.
Either as individuals or as a group numerous people associated with the National leader chose to say nothing and ride with it. Presumably fingers crossed and no one will be the wiser.
That is the sort of extraordinary arrogance we saw under the John Key administration where there would just be a shrug “someone got it wrong, meh no one cares anyway”, when they had fully expected to just get away it.
And if these people won’t put their hand up and say “bit embarrassing, turns out that Te Puke clip was recorded last week we should just be clear he is actually on holiday in Hawaii”, what odds do you think they’ll mention it in future if something is really wrong and they need to speak up - zero.
Many people had been speculating for days as to where Christopher Luxon was. His deputy was doing all his press and no one had said he was on holiday.
Honestly this was a missing persons case that needed the super sleuths from the “Where is Clarke Gayford?” movement* on the job. Strangely they didn’t seem interested.
*movement is actually the collective term for these folks.
I guess actually looking into what the opposition leader might be doing or saying was pretty uninteresting compared to making up stories about the Prime Minister’s fiancé and the class A drugs/the ankle bracelet/the nanny/etc. Just ask NZME!
Yes, speaking of arrogant organisations that think they can get away with saying any old bollocks with no accountability NZME ended the week fined for spreading pork pies, for telling utter lies, for being dishonest bought-and-sold partisan hacks for the interests of the National Party.
A New Zealand media company has been forced to make a payout to Jacinda Ardern's partner Clarke Gayford after broadcasting unfounded rumours of his criminality.
It is not clear precisely what was broadcast about Mr Gayford, but both he and Ms Ardern have been increasingly targeted by conspiracy theorists following lengthy COVID-19 lockdowns.
Anti-vaccine movements are awash with unsubstantiated rumours about Mr Gayford's supposed lawbreaking or infidelity.
In April, a plane flew over Auckland with a banner reading 'Where is Clarke?', a reference to an alleged court appearance for Mr Gayford.
The quote above is from the Daily Mail. Yes, that Daily Mail. Quite possibly the worst gutter trash newspaper on the planet is sneering and looking down their noses at NZME in much the same way Christopher Luxon does at the working poor, or what he calls “bottom feeders”.
And if you think the whole Te Puke/Hawaii confusion had made many on the left happy the announcement about NZME caused an outpouring of joy and great delight to those of us who would rather spend a week applying sun tan lotion to Chris Luxon’s head, so he doesn’t get sun burnt in Te Puke, in July, than read the political fantasies of Audrey Young or Mike Hosking.
It is the absolute arrogance. Picture a split screen apology - Christopher Luxon on one side and a representative from NZME on the other “There was no intention to mislead, no one at the top knew anything about this, this was just a junior social media staffer making a simple mistake. We’ve learnt from it so we are moving on” It is hard to know which apology would be less credible.
Of course that is a fantasy scenario, NZME would never own up to it. In fact on their pages and in their air waves it didn’t even get a mention, like it never even happened – part of a cash settlement is of course not actually having to admit you were wrong.
A compliant media slagging off Labour and an inner circle around the National leader more than happy not to tell the truth about his activities - they really does sound like the Key years.
So why did they not tell the truth? I don’t mean NZME - yeah right! I mean every person associated with Chris Luxon who chose not to correct the record but just to cross their fingers and hope no one else noticed?
Could it be that some of them decided that whilst they were speaking of their newly found concern at the cost of living for the poor, which they would like to solve with tax cuts for the rich, it wasn’t a great idea to show Mr Every-Man New Zealand sunning his well fed self at a luxury resort on a pacific holiday, cocktail with a little umbrella in hand.
“I find that when the cost of petrol, the cost of even an out of season vegetable like a lettuce, is getting me down and there is no end in sight that a five star vacation is just the thing to clear away those winter blues. My family and I like to do this each July”.
Pan to wide shot of a familiar looking ex Prime Minister’s son riding a jet ski through a pod of frolicking dolphins at the Pacific paradise. He gives a thumbs up and speaks to camera “you do the mahi, you get the toys” and winks before zooming off in the hope of riding over some endangered sea turtles.
Who else just thought they could get away with it? Will Smith, Harvey Weinstein Boris Johnson, Bill Cosby, Donald Trump… now to be clear I am not suggesting any of these men, and it does rather seem to mainly be men, would demean themselves so much as to work for NZME. But clearly they are all guilty of doing things they decided on balance that they could just get away with.
There seems to be a penchant for successful wealthy men, like CEOs, to be rather flexible with the truth when talking to staff or customers. Almost like a thrill, a feeling that they can just straight out lie and no one will call them on it. To be fair I got the impression that John Key was so removed from reality and the truth that he wasn’t even aware any more that he was lying.
Whether it is Mike Hosking on ZB telling lies about who can vote for a political party on the eve of an election or Christopher Luxon’s team deciding “nah just let people think he is in Te Puke, who would possibly think that was made up?” there is an arrogance that they can just get away with it with no repercussions.
And mostly they’re right!
But why bother lying over this and risk losing a lot of political capital and credibility with seemingly nothing to gain? I mean John Key was in Hawaii so often he probably qualified for residency and no one gave a shit.
Its almost like Luxon actually has something to hide, like who he was staying with or who he was meeting. Thank goodness for an inquisitive fourth estate – oh…
The thing is mud sticks, which is why they throw so much brown stuff themselves. Christopher Luxon will not be living this one down any time soon and NZME - well to be fair I’m not sure it is possible for them to tarnish their reputation further than it already was.
I mean the whole fine for telling lies was nice, but the actions that lead to it won’t really have come as a surprise to anyone.
And what’s worse is - they would have gotten away with it too, if it weren’t for you meddling kids!
Great Writing, well done you! Keep up the great work.
Well put and please keep it up. There is going to be a long nasty lead in to our election. We will so need people like yourself to point out some truth.