Duncan Garner

The Teatapes have been published. A short time ago I was sent an email that had a Soundcloud link and a Youtube link (uploaded by 2Johns2Cups) to the tea tapes. They are easily found, but I will not link to them until the legal position of the tapes is clarified, at this point in time it is still an illegal recording and it is still subject to a Police investigation.

However, I have listened to them and now you can too if you are of a mind. You will now know that in stark contrast to the sensational media reporting of the tapes at the time that there is nothing “explosive” on the tapes at all.

TV3, Duncan Garner, Patrick Gower and the staff of the Herald on Sunday should hang their heads in shame for their News of the World style  tactics in publicising this and changing the focus of the election from issues into a sideshow perpetrated and manipulated by them for political gain.

Winston Peters has been proven to be a liar. Nothing on the tape even remotely suggests what he breathlessly intimated.

This whole episode shows the parlous state of some media outlets in NZ.

It is curious that the tape has been released on the same day as the Prime Minister’s first major speech of the year. Proving that this whole stitch-up has been a political act from beginning to end, shamelessly milked by media outlets desperate for sales and corrupt politicians desperate for votes.

The nominations were unequivocal.

Duncan Garner – one commenter notes:

…knew there was nothing of note in the “tea tapes”, so while he had opportunity to do some real journalism and ask real questions that affect the nation he couldn’t get tea bags from his mind.

Patrick Gower – Inventory2 notes:

for his tirade against “dirty deals” under MMP, which all happened to involve right-leaning parties, whilst ignoring the fact that Labour kept Jim Anderton in Wigram for years by standing dud candidates, and that the Greens were openly encouraging people to give the electorate votes to Labour, and in the case of Kevin Hague, actually bragging about voting for another candidate rather than for himself. Had Gower been as acid-tongued towards the Left as he was to the Right, he could have been nominated for best journalist; as it stands he is a partisan hack.

Brian Rudman – constant whining about the spending of more and more public money on his pet projects, notably a theatre.

Barry Soper – One commenter summarises:

He has a cultivated, pompous accent, wears bow ties and has created the neologistic title of Chief Political Reporter. Just plain dislikeable as a person.

Second, he is demonstrably thick. No explanation required and his tiresome waffle which plagiarises the analysis of others dilutes the quality of the Radio Network commentary.

Thirdly he is a Helen Clark sycophant. I recall him saying on several occasions that Prime Minister Key had approached him and said “You don’t like me Barry do you” to which his sagacious and insightful advice had been something like ” you should study Helen Clark and learn how to be Prime Minister”.

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Phil Goff yet again goofs up with his numbers.  This is the third time he’s botched it.  First at the Christchurch debate, Second in a pre-rec with Duncan Garner on Friday.

Then again today on Q + A under questioning from Guyon Espiner.

Please Phil, make it stop. He just isn’t credible anymore on the finances of the country.

Phil Goff still can’t show us the money.

After more than two weeks to get his numbers right, this gaffe from Goff is inexcusable.

He clearly doesn’t have a head for numbers, which is a total disaster for someone vying to become the PM at a time of global economic uncertainty.

We’ll see the full interview on the Nation later this morning. But this is remarkable. Duncan Garner had to give him the figures!

It’s astounding….even when he looks them up he gets the numbers wrong. The man is tits.

via the tipline:

Despite all their efforts to help Winston Peters and promote themselves, Duncan Garner and Patrick Gower must be a bit disappointed with their efforts.

This is the second poll today that also shows Labour still slipping and the Greens hoovering up their support.

Labour must be despondent, there isn’t a single thing they can do to lift their ratings despite the best efforts of the media to assist them this week.

A Guest Post from a lawyer, via the tipline:

I was just reading another article where Duncan Garner again offered to show a transcript of the illegally obtained recording – this time to Don Brash.  I thought to myself surely if it is an illegal recording then it must also be illegal to publish it.

Sure enough:

216C Prohibition on disclosure of private communications unlawfully intercepted

So it is fairly clear that s216B of the Crimes Act has been infringed yet all week the media, and TV3 in particular, have been asking leading questions on what has been said – basically disclosing the contents of the private communication. Note that the definition is wide it includes “the substance” - and that’s before we even get to disclosing the existence of the illegal recording.

Now I guess, in relation to the latter, the various media can argue they did not know it was illegally obtained – the HOS was all very innocent about it so it was ok to publish.  That is a defence if it is believed.

But given the matter is now in front of the police a lack of knowledge can not be argued.  Of course it may still be argued that s216B was not infringed (good luck but the standard is a high one of beyond reasonable doubt and stranger things have happened).  If that occurs then there is a complete defence.

However if reality and the law collide and the recording is illegal then Duncan Garner has probably already fallen afoul of the s216C as the disclosure was made intentionally and in the knowledge that it was in breach of s216B.  There is not a lot of law on this section but I would expect knowledge to be knowledge of the circumstances it was obtained, even reckless as to whether or not illegally obtained – otherwise the law would be meaningless.

Secondly he appears to be blatantly attempting to break the law by handing out transcripts.  I can see no defence under the section for handing out transcripts.

Obviously this opinion is on an all care no responsibility basis as I can only spend so much of work time researching media malfeasance – and given it is off the cuff I would prefer not to be named if you want to push this angle.

In 2008 there was a secret tape scandal, again it was Duncan Garner who led the charge on that as well.

His words in 2008 are interesting given the parallels of 2008 campaign with this campaign, including the personal smears on John Key by Labour. I blogged his words back then:

Duncan Garner who was complicit in those attacks knows this to be true because he finished up his latest post with a sneak preview of the latest TV3 poll that will show Labour not gaining a thing from all of a beat up and subtlely hinting that it was Labour’s plan all along.

So National has been on the front foot this week and that may just help them in the polls. The secret tapes played out badly for National and especially for Bill English. They may take a small hit – but I wouldn’t bet on it. Many voters don’t like how the information was gathered.

So Labour might not do as well out of this as it had hoped. Helen Clark was hoping the ‘secret tapes’ would be a turning point in Labour’s fortunes. If it’s not, what’s her plan now? Does she have one? Labour’s told people how dangerous the Nats are. But perhaps no one’s been listening.

I would bet that Labour’s focus groups are saying teh same thing they have said all year. Stop the nasty, stop the personal attacks, it doesn;t work. I’ll bet that both Labour and National have polled the tea-tapes issue in the last few days and I will bet that they say the same thing. People aren;t interested in it.

Labour again have banked it all on a secret tape scandal, aided and abetted by a nihilist media. Labour have gambled all their remaining cash on a last ditch personal attacks series featuring John Key. Labour will rue these decisions in 9 days time.

Every day that passes now with the media focussing on 8 minutes of boring tapes also is a day not focussing on issues Labour desperately needs focus on. Every day sees John Key using Phil Goff’ lines about focussing on the things that matter to Kiwi voters against him as Phil Goff continues to slander and smear.

Tracy Watkins seems to have her head screwed on right, rather than sensationalising a silly 8 minute chat that was illegally recorded she questions those who are ramping up the issue:

It is time for Key to seek the release of the tape, or a transcript, and, if the conversation was as bland as he says, the public will form their own views about the motivation of those who hyped it up.

From what we know so far the conversation was titillating, rather than scandalous.

Key appears to have made a comment about NZ First having no future because its supporters were slowly dying off.

It’s the sort of comment a political commentator might make without raising an eyebrow – though injudicious coming from a prime minister.

There also appears to have been discussion about the future of Don Brash.

The two men probably went over the same ground that has been widely canvassed in the media in the last few months: the ACT party is in disarray, Brash barely has the confidence of the party any more, that if there could have been a move against Brash before the election there would have been, and that the party is pinning its hopes on the likes of star candidate Catherine Isaacs to carry the torch in the future.

She is dead right about Don Brash, he promised so much and had he continued with the fight and vigour that he had when he rolled Rodney Hide then he wouldn;t be int he position of being talked about like a silly old grand-dad who has lost his marbles. The simple fact is that John Key doesn’t particularly like Don Brash, he knifed him for the leadership after all and John BAnks is such a natural politician who still has energy and fight that discussing a doddery old tool who can’t stay on message is hardly a “game-changer”.

As for suggesting Winstn’s bewildered and deluded fan base are dying off,  well that’s true.

The funny thing with this whole attack that Winston and Phil goff have joined in on is that they are vilifying John Key for telling the truth when they have based their campaign around John Key telling lies.

I predict that within 24 hours Duncan Garner, Patrick Gower, and Bryce johns along with Phil Goff, Trevor Mallard and Winston peters are all going to look like tools, and will stand accused of aiding and abeting illegal behaviour and sensationalising the banal.

Of course while they have been sensationalising the banal they have let the Greens get away with their illegal campaign activity and blindly accepted the Sgt. Shultz excuses of Russel Norman. Contrast the light touch the media have handed out to the Greens with the vilification of the Exclusive Brethren in 2005. The Greens have demonstrably broken the law the Exclusive Brethren broke no laws.

This storm in a teapot story is making me angry.

TV3 is milking it for all its worth, and the tipline is telling me that Bryce Johns  from the Herald On Sunday has been bragging about the illegal taping. Perhaps while he is bragging about that he might enlighten the media to the complaints he has had to deal with regarding the Prego incident and Bradley Ambrose/White.

It’s beginning to look like a personal crusade from some in the media who clearly want to spice up the election campaign, boost their personal profile, and sell a few newspapers or advertising minutes.

Thanks to the illegal behaviour of those with the tapes, we now all know that John Key appears to have said Winston’s support base is dying off. Um, hello – this is not news.

As for the media behaviour, I guess this is what we should come to expect.  TV3 and Campbell Live are big fans of the secret recording – Garner played it for all it was worth at the last election and took tapes from a Green activist who he refused to name.

Why did Garner refuse to name Kees Keiser?  Because Garner loved the attention and didn’t want to have his source challenged before he’d created as much mess as he possibly could.

Garner and his mate Gower are off down the same path this election. Forget the European crisis, let’s make the election all about us. Forget the Greens illegal promotor statements, this is all about us.

As self-appointed TV personalities, Garner and Gower could themselves become targets for people with secret recordings in the future – and they’d only have themselves to blame.  Someone with Garners predilection for the ladies could well be caught in a secret recroding stings pants down.

Public interest?  Give me a break.

Well I certainly hope for their sake that they remember the way they’re behaving if they ever go to a bar or restaurant or some chicks hotel room and have a private conversation or worse that gets taped.