The nickname for Kevin Taylor, Captain Panic Pants is gone forever after yesterday’s Live Chat with John Key.
John Key described his efforts like this when asked a question:
So, dear readers do we find a nice pixie name for Kevin Taylor or do we just call him Pixie Kev, or Captain Pixie Pants?
The Pixie Name Generator suggests “Leaf Lover”
Captain Panic Pants, Kevin Taylor is no Malcolm Tucker. If he was he would have not even bothered whining to the Broadcasting Standards Authority because to do so and lose would be worse than complaining in the first place.
The Prime Minister’s chief spin doctor has had his complaint over a TV news story knocked back by the Broadcasting Standards Authority (BSA).
Kevin Taylor complained to the BSA over a One News story that aired on May 11 about an upgrade to the Government’s BMW fleet.
Taylor said the teaser and news item implied a link between a donation by a BMW dealership and the fleet upgrade. The story had suggested some sort of “dodgy deal,” which amounted to an unjustified attack on Key’s integrity, Taylor said.
However, the BSA rejected the complaint, saying the story did not state as fact that there was a link between the car deal and the donation received by the National Party from a BMW dealership. The item had included “clear statements refuting any suggestion that there was a link”.
I have a box set of The Thick of It that Kevin can borrow if wants to learn a trick or two.
Now what was that quote about coffee machines?
Following on from the theme of Kevin Taylor aka Captain Panic Pants being inept in comparison to media specialists like Mike Munro (who managed to keep Helen Clark in touch with humanity), and Bevan Burgess (who sold Roger Douglas’ economic reforms as a bigger plan to make New Zealand a better place, even when it meant hurting people in the short term), lets consider the drama surrounding the removal of the Ecan councillors.
This hurt National in the polls in Christchurch. There was a massive and ongoing negative news cycle where the left decided to hammer away about democracy and how evil National was to remove direct representation.
Of all the dramas in the media, Ecan was the most easily avoidable for anyone orchestrating a proper media campaign. Ecan was a terribly dysfunctional council that was dead last on ratings of councils because they failed to achieve basic goals. They couldn’t process consents, they couldn’t come up with a water plan, and as a council they couldn’t be trusted to do anything more than bugger up anything and everything they were responsible for.
Ecan had been inept for nearly two decades. They had been so inept Trevor Mallard and Labour had seriously considered replacing the council in the later years of the last Labour government. This was well documented, as was Ecan’s ongoing failures.
Any media strategist thinking ahead to the inevitable conclusion, Ecan councillors’ sacking, would have used this to good effect. There would have been a three month campaign where Ecan was systematically and publicly held to account for its failings, so by the time Nick Smith had to sack them, the public were convinced that sacking was the only option. Labour would have been drawn into it, with their cabinet papers from 2007 and 2008 looking at Ecan released and talked up, so Labour couldn’t attack for fear of being called hypocrites.
Instead Captain Panic Pants did nothing. He let the Ecan councillors and the left dominate the media, and made it seem as if National were evil for removing elected representatives. Weeks of protests hurt National in a crucial swing area, and Captain Panic Pants needs a good slapping for failing to take the initiative on this, leaving a messy situation to get messier.
I’ve had a good long think about the so-called Whaleoil Effect.
Justice Minister Simon Power has asked the Law Commission to review the adequacy of regulations around how the internet interacts with the justice system.
“I’ve ordered this review because it’s imperative the law keeps pace with technology and that we have one set of rules for all news media,” Mr Power said.
“At the moment we’ve got two tracks – conventional media and the so-called ‘new media’ – intersecting with the justice system, and it’s not sustainable.
The “new media” category includes the likes of bloggers, and professional journalists and regular citizens who use the likes of Twitter to report events in real-time.
“It’s a bit of a Wild West out there in cyberspace at the moment, because bloggers and online publishers are not subject to any form of regulation or professional or ethical standards,” Mr Power said.
“Issues I’m concerned about include how trials can be prejudiced by information posted on websites and seen by jurors, real-time online streaming of court cases, breaches of court suppression orders, and re-publication of a libel.
“Because of the enormous scope of this whole issue, the terms of reference for the review have been tightly defined.”
It will focus on whether either of the two existing industry watchdogs – the Broadcasting Standards Authority and the Press Council – could provide a suitable vehicle for regulating unregulated forms of new media.
At first I was against his idea, but after a good deal of thought and some research into what this would all mean I have come to the conclusion that bloggers should support this fine initiative from Simon “FIGJAM” Power.
There are two reasons to support it.
Firstly, because it legitimises bloggers. if we are to be members of the Press Council and subject to the Broadcasting Standards Authority then there really isn’t any viable objection to bloggers becoming members of the parliamentary Press Gallery, or any valid argument that we aren’t in fact part of the media. Prize cocks like Kevin Taylor wouldn’t then be able to ban bloggers from attending conferences as media. To do so would exhibit inherent bias on his part, a bias he doesn’t show to the mainstream media pinko luminaries like Damien Christie or Vernon Small yet he does against bloggers ostensibly from his own side. It will be an own goal and one set up by FIGJAM.
The second and more delicious prospect for this blogger is that under the rules and guidelines governing the Press Council and the Broadcasting Standards authority is when someone has a complaint they must first make their complaint to the broadcaster, which in my case would be to me. Long serving and loyal readers all know what happens when people make complaints or send legal letters to me. They get published. In total. The next step in the procedure would be for the broadcaster in question to conduct an investigation into the allegations. So I will be conducting an investigation into myself…sweet. Can’t wait for the results of those investigations…which of course, in the interests of communication and transparency will be published almost immediately.
So yes, with some thought and a little bit of research I can safely say that I am very much looking forward to the implementation of FIGJAM‘s new rules, that will once and for all bury any pretense that blogs are not media, broadcasters or press and will enable people to complain to the said broadcasters knowing that there are robust procedures that broadcaster must follow in dealing with complaints.
In fact so enamoured am I with his proposals I think I will put up a complaints procedure page and also start calling myself a broadcaster.
Boy, he’s cunning, that Simon Power, he’s even got me agreeing with him now.
Danyl Mclauchlan can be a pain in tha arse but he is perhaps the only genuinely funny pinko in the country. I literally snorted Mountain Dew out my nose when I read this comment on Red Alert about Captain Panic Pants.
Danyl Mclauchlan explains what Captain Panic Pants' job is
A beautiful quote, slapping both Pete the Meat and Kevin Taylor in one short sentence.
Tell me again why a country that spends huge amounts on nukes needs our aid?
Why would 3 old men think they can get more votes than an attractive chick who plays with machine guns? Hulllllo “Girls with Guns” anyone?
Is it true one likes a good spanking?
Are Audrey’s sources a little off….perhaps she talks to Kevin Taylor, that’ll explain it.
Aren’t the silly old men stupid passing around Top Secret documents?
Was the salacious gossip really necessary especially all of the 3 old men are still getting their legs over with various regular roots?
Will they lose their bottle ahead of caucus?
Why would you want to be the deputy of anything let alone ACT?
Does Bosco the Clown’s big plans for ACT involve boring the electorate to death now?
Seriously, does he think he can turn around ACT’s poor performance? ….gosh he did so well on the ETS….YAWN
PM: Our troops don’t torture – Looks like the “no prisoners” rule is now in place?
So pedos can have name suppression but jury details are there for all to see? Come on Pedobear, straighten out our laws.
Is Flailing Lenny now grasping at straws? 50 days to go and he is behind everywhere except South Auckland….not even the unions can get people to vote 4 times.
The problem with dead tree journalists and the media hacks that hang around our politicians is they haven’t understood the modern technology makes them scarcely relevant.
The classic example of the need for a constant stream of information, and building up a following of people is our mate the Manatee. He goes swanning off to some distant part of the world and posts his holiday picks and has an enthralled audience. I bet his mates in the third form at Scots College wouldn’t have believed it when he was being dunny flushed or stuck in a rubbish bin, but there you have it. His influence grows despite is piss weak stand on issues like outing Pedobear Power as a pinko who should be on the other side of the house.
Then today, Facebook reckoned it was JK’s birthday. It was the work of moments to send Lisa Lewis a message saying do version of Happy Birthday Mr President, and within an hour she had her version online. In under two hours it was on the front page of the biggest web site in New Zealand. Especially with pleasing comments like this;
“That’s one of the reasons I started my website for people like him. I get a lot of inquires, from people like John Key, that can’t actually walk in to a strip club without get in trouble with their partners or the media. Now they can watch my shows from the comfort of their own home or office.”
When will the MSM get it? When with JK realise his offsiders are letting the side down when the most prominent adult entertainer in the country has more Facebook friends than the highly popular prime minister?
And when will they engage an experienced, proven social media person instead of a muppet like Kevin Taylor who is once again reacting to something The Whale did? Bet he wishes he ever tried to cross swords with me.
The scuttlebutt about town is a speech by Winston Raymond Peters, 65, unemployed of St Marys Bay, scheduled for tomorrow. It is rumoured to be hard hitting and media are being pre-warned to expect fireworks.
The word out in media circles too is that with John Key announcing that he is prepared to deal with Winston Peters that the time is now ripe for a Lazarus like return of New Zealand’s most corrupt politician.
The contents of the speech seem to be an attack against the Maori Party and of course foreign investment. The oldies and fortress New Zealand thinkers are going to be rarked up the miniature mafioso.
The Media too are said to be pleased because politics under John Key has until now been almost yawn inducing, save for the temper tantrums of Chris Carter and the rooting of Richard Worth. they will welcome Winston Raymond Peters, 65, unemployed of St Marys Bay back with open arms, forgiving him for his lies, his deceit and his theft of $158,000 dollars.
New Zealand politics is about to become corrupt again and unfortunately we only have John key, or perhaps his inept press secretary Kevin Taylor, to blame for that. they have allowed the message to be passed to Winston Raymond Peters, 65, unemployed of St Marys Bay, that National is prepared once again to prostrate themselves before the miniature mafioso to cut a deal no matter how corrupt.
It looks, indeed, that Lazarus will return. At least it will give me huge motivation for the election next year. I will attempt to make it to every major speech of his and stand and ask where out $158,000 is that his party stole and never repaid.
I was reading an article last night from a blogger telling the GOP the 7 things they could do to help the right side of the blogosphere. I could have written this myself and replaced Republican with National/Act. It is a very good post though and has some very good ideas, if National or Act could even implement a couple of them they might find life a little easier.
On a semi-regular basis, I get asked by Republican “new media” staffers how the GOP can better work with the Rightroots. As a general rule, I find that these new media staffers are well meaning, get the blogosphere, and have a pretty good idea of what needs to be done. Unfortunately, these very same new media staffers almost universally have almost no real power whatsoever.
That’s because, in my experience, a lot of the Republican establishment in D.C. are scared of the bloggers on their own side (yes, really), have a top down messaging style, and they’re very hidebound. In other words, they have trouble understanding the new media; so at best, they treat it just like the old media or at worst, they ignore it entirely.
The second paragraph above is certainly very true of National.
Now, a few caveats — First off, I don’t want to give you the idea that nothing ever changes. At one point, you couldn’t even get a teleconference with a Republican member of Congress and now we’re deluged with them (more on that later). Also, they have gotten more sophisticated in handling bloggers. For example, the first time I remember the Bush White House reaching out to the blogosphere was when their comprehensive immigration push blew up in their faces. As I remember, they responded by inviting a handful of bloggers who agreed with them to a teleconference while leaving everyone else out. That worked out about as well as you’d expect. It’s also worth noting that there are some individual members of Congress who are very good at handling bloggers. Jim DeMint and Tom Coburn deserve special mentions although, to be fair, the House generally does a better job than the Senate.
So, all that being said, here are some suggestions for how the GOP can better work with bloggers.
Here in New Zealand communication officially with bloggers is non-existent. There are some MPs and Ministers though that are very good at understanding how bloggers can aid the cause. They are able to be counted on one hand though.
Now onto the 7 suggestions.
1) Funding help: There’s a weird dichotomy between the way the Left and Right view the new media. The Right views it as a capitalistic enterprise where individuals succeed and fail on their own merits. The Left views it more as a collaborative effort where they’re working as a group to advance their goals. This plays into everything from the way both sides approach stories, to fundraising, to raising capital for new media ventures.
That last item is one in particular that deserves some more attention. Most of the people on the Right side of the blogosphere are starved for funding. They can’t afford to improve their websites, advertise, expand, etc. because they simply don’t have the money to do it with. People ask why there’s not more journalism on the right side of the blogosphere. The biggest answer is that they simply can’t afford to do it. Even a lot of the more successful bloggers still need to have day jobs and the ones that don’t can’t even afford to rent a car, drive a few states over, and stay in a fleabag hotel for a couple of nights. The money needed to do those things is out there, but it’s being spent to fund losing campaigns, to help defray the cost of print copies of magazines, and to help think tanks fund blogs nobody reads and give fellowships to people without audiences.
Granted, the Republican Party can’t get away with directly funding blogs, but, they could put us in touch with big donors. They could also buy some ads, not only to reach out to their base, but to help fund the people on their side.
2) Some sort of centralized teleconference scheduling: There was a time when the GOP didn’t do any teleconferences. That was bad. Now, there are so many potential teleconferences that they sometimes overlap and it’s nearly impossible to go to them all. While it’s a positive that there’s a lot more access, it would be nice if it were more organized. If bloggers could actually look in one place and see what is coming up in the coming week, it would make it a lot easier to plan ahead to be there.
3) Feeding stories to bloggers: One of the worst kept secrets in the media is that many of their stories originate from their political contacts. The staffers do the opposition research, hand all of it to a journalist, the reporter writes it up, adds a little garnish, and then the story runs. The GOP needs to be doing much, much more of this instead of doing so many press releases.
Let me explain: On an average, I get 150+ emails per day. At least 75 are press releases from campaigns. The overwhelming majority of them are deleted without being read. That’s because you can tell from the title that they’re not interesting. A small percentage of these releases are read. Maybe 1 in 2500 actually leads to a blog post.
Here’s an alternative way of doing things: Do the research, shop it around to blogs, give it to one that’s interested, and let that blog release it as a news story. That way, it definitely gets out on at least one blog and let’s face it: blogger journalism has a lot better chance of drawing eyeballs and links than a GOP press release.
4) Promote Bloggers: Does the GOP do anything to promote bloggers? Do they send out an email to their mailing lists suggesting some blogs people might want to take a look at? Do they hand out flyers with a list of prominent blogs on them at the Republican national convention? Do they do anything to try to get more Republicans to read blogs? The answer to all those questions is “no” and that’s a mistake. The more people the GOP has hooked into blogs like Right Wing News, Redstate, and Hot Air, etc, the better off the party is going to be in the long run.
5) Access to aides: It’s surprisingly difficult to get access to congressional aides — and I say that as someone who has access to quite a few of them. Congressional aides can be immeasurably useful in providing behind-the-scenes info, the answers to unusual questions, and in giving insight into the thinking of their bosses. They’re also useful at building bridges with bloggers. Every member of Congress should have staffers with blogger contacts.
6) Listen to bloggers: Those teleconferences? Know what would be a good idea? If some of the members of Congress actually brought in bloggers just to get their advice. Granted, members of Congress know their own constituents better than right-of-center bloggers do. But, conservative bloggers have a much, much better understanding of the conservative base than members of Congress do. That doesn’t mean bloggers are always right. In my experience, bloggers tend to be overly wonkish and overestimate the impact of obscure issues on the public-at-large. However, I’d also note that bloggers regularly identify political trends that end up blindsiding Republicans in Congress. This happens over and over. I’d even suggest bringing in bloggers to work on fleshing out message points and brainstorming new websites. If you’ve got people who know the base, who’re willing to help, why not?
So, yes, members of Congress could learn something from actually working off-the-record with bloggers. It also would help with the next item.
7) Build a relationship with the bloggers: Currently, the Republican Party does very little to help bloggers, has no way to hurt them, and hasn’t bothered to build relationships with them. When you have bloggers who are generally well disposed towards you, buy ads on their sites, listen to them, give them access, and try to work with them. It creates the impression that you’re on their side, gives them a reason to give you the benefit of the doubt, and it means they’re much more likely to readily listen to your point of view.
You know, there isn’t a thing I would change in those suggestions. They apply as much for ACT as for National. Someone should sit Kevin Taylor down in front of this article and make him study for test on it as some remedial education and by way of an apology to me. It certainly won’t do him any harm and may well do him some good, at least before he gets the arse.
I think it is time for me to explain why I blog. I do it for fun. It sure as hell isn’t for any money.
When I a kid I would watch the news and spend my time wondering why repeaters didn’t ask the hard questions. Back in those days to engage in politics was to belong to a party, join a committee, go to meetings. The internet changed that forever, much to the chagrin of professional spinners who now have to contend with people like me who have a lifetime of political experience, are opinionated and have a rude and loud voice.
I don’t care if people don’t like the blog, it matter not a jot. I also don’t care if they don’t like me, trust me the feeling is probably mutual, and highly likely as there are very few people I genuinely like. Those who know me, know which category they are in, and yes there are some pinkos, deluded though they are, that I like and enjoy discourse with. Would I drink with them….maybe just one, would we be friends, i doubt it.
Which then comes to haters. These are the people who demonise a person because of their politics. They don’t argue the point or consider the debate. They are the ones who send me emails or post suggestions like get a job, lose weight you fat bastard or other similarly sand-pit type insults. Occasionally I post them so people can see just exactly what I have to put up with. The insults about depression or my business failure don’t hurt either, i have never hidden them and have always maintained an open book about my failings.
Speaking of failings, there is my academic record, Just in case my old English teacher reads this, which I doubt as he was the head of PPTA branch at my school, he once wrote on my report “A splendid exam result, achieved with little obvious effort”, which was his pinko, soft cock, back-handed way of saying I was a lazy student. I on the other hand took this as a compliment, that despite his monotonously boring teaching style and complete lack of enthusiasm for the subject I still managed to beat the next best student by 20 per cent and score 95% which necessitated scaling me down and him up so he could beat me. Both the other guy and I knew I was better at English but the fool ass teacher had to be right just that once. The problem was at school and later when I attended university to eat my lunch was that I prefer to do than read in order to learn. So according to academia I am a failure.
My schooling is, to quote Blackadder, “…a degree from the University of Life, a diploma from the school of hard knocks, and 3 gold stars from the kindergarten of getting the shit kicked out of me”.
So how do you, in this case I, handle haters. Well, Mashable had a post about exactly this. I will adapt it for me.
I put hits on, I’m bloody good at it, and I will keep doing it. If the pollies and the crims and the corrupt don’t like it, then tough. There is no point in being second at anything and that means blogging. I don’t want anyone to ever say that they hit harder than me.
I said to Kevin Taylor on the weekend that either he was going to be part of the solution or become part of the problem, either way I was coming through and he could stand in the headlights as I ran him down or side-step out of the way. He chose the headlines and I ran him down. Let that be a lesson to him and others, I drive a truck in the blogging world and I prefer over rather than round.
“Another way to phrase this is through a more recent quote from Elbert Hubbard,” Ferriss says. “‘To avoid criticism, do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing.”
This now appears to be the philosophy of the National Party. It isn’t a philosophy I subscribe to. It is the most major reason why I will focus on blogging and steer clear of party involvement from now on. I know enough about Peter Goodfellow to know that eventually I will be proved right and that is it as far as I am concerned. I no longer about the party organisation, if they was mediocrity, then so be it.
“Cato, who Seneca believed to be the perfect stoic, practiced this by wearing darker robes than was customary and by wearing no tunic. He expected to be ridiculed and he was, he did this to train himself to only be ashamed of those things that are truly worth being ashamed of. To do anything remotely interesting you need to train yourself to be effective at dealing with, responding to, even enjoying criticism… In fact, I would take the quote a step further and encourage people to actively pursue being thought foolish and stupid.”
I don’t get angry (much), and I definitely do get even (eventually) — But I do try focus on living well and that will eat at the hater much more than anything I can do. Every time I appear on TV or give an interview on radio, I know it burns the pinkos in their belly.
The slogan “Keep Calm and Carry On” was originally produced by the British government during the Second World War as a propaganda message to comfort people in the face of Nazi invasion.
Calm is something I do well under pressure. As my company was systematically raped and pillaged by my business partner, as I had to contend with him listening in on phone calls, double dealing behind my back, I maintained a calm exterior and maneuvered myself to the position of leaving with my dignity intact and him bankrupt.
The cost to me was physical and mental, but calm did prevail. Once I get through any initial anger to any issue, I always get into a cold calm and resolve and start to carry on and plan for my revenge. When I go quiet my enemies should fear me. Fidelity Life should be very, very afraid. I have never forgotten what they did to me, and I never will. A cold fury now drives me to destroy as much wealth of theirs in the same proportion to the wealth of my family that they destroyed. But it is with calmness now that I pursue them. They will pay, even if it takes me 50 years.
