Paul Holmes

via voicable.org

It is always interesting to have a look at what people were looking for when they use a search engine to visit Whaleoil.  The majority of the searches are obviously directly for the blog name, my name or some combination of it.

With about 60,000 searches being delivered to Whaleoil last month, the actual traffic from search engines is negligible to the 1,000,000+ pages that were served up, especially when half of those are looking for me or my blog by name.

But it still remains fun to have a look back.

Around the time of Sir Paul Holmes’ knighting and death, these searches actually outperformed searches for the man’s name itself   Read more »

Remember the email I received from a reader pointing out that Bryce Johns’ editorial that was supposedly a tribute to Sir Paul Holmes was in fact an insult?

You know the editorial where he boasted of it on Twitter?

Bryce Johns tweeting about his “tribute”

As “honest a piece as you’ll read anywhere”? Calling Sir Paul Holmes inimical is an honest tribute apparently.  Read more »

Last week Herald on Sunday editor Bryce Johns engaged with me in a snippy and testy email exchange…where he tried to suggest I wasn’t ”a decent journalist, trained and skilled”. Of course I have never claimed any such thing…but clearly he is upset and has set about proving just how decent their journalists, trained and skilled are. At least I know the difference between inimical and inimitable, even if I’m not a decent journalist, trained and skilled.

The argument was over the name of Antonie Dixon, and flourished as his “proof” a freshly minted birth certificate, obtained 3 days after their story ran.

Last night the NZ Herald ran a story about Barry Hart failing in his appeal for being struck off.

And look what should crop up in Edward Gay’s article:

Anyone would think editors would have their stories were correct and written by  ”a decent journalist, trained and skilled”.

Which brings me to another matter…of all the pictures of Barry Hart they no doubt have in their archives why did they pick one of Paul Holmes to throw up on their home page for the Barry Hart story. Are they making some point about the dodgy criminal defense lawyer or Holmes with that picture?

A reader emails about Bryce Johns’ editorial:

Gong hei fa xai and all that. Just back from a glorious 2 week break and catching up on some of the recent posts. I saw the one from yesterday about Bryce Johns’ editorial – what a patronising cock. I couldn’t help notice an appalling lack of education from a “decent journalist, trained and skilled” in the second paragraph of his Holmes editorial.  Read more »

David Fisher tweeted this distasteful, disgraceful and shameful tweet this morning:

Read more »

Broadcasting legend Sir Paul Holmes has died this morning:

Sir Paul Holmes, the controversial broadcaster with the cheeky grin and quick wit, has died at home, surrounded by family.

Holmes’ family issued a statement at 9.30am.

“Sir Paul Holmes passed away peacefully early this morning surrounded by his family at home in Hawkes Bay, as he wished to be.

“Sir Paul had been in poor health since having heart surgery earlier in the year. In recent months he had also been suffering from a resurgence of prostate cancer.  Read more »

We started our Saturday by paying our respects to Norman Schwarzkopf Jr., the hard-charging US Army general whose forces smashed the Iraqi army in the 1991 Gulf War.  He died aged 78.  At The Standard 2012 Worst Political Blog Mike Smith is told some home truths about long term grass-roots Labour families heading for the Greens.  A quick vid on how to put out a boat fire the Kiwi way is next, followed by a vote for Best Minister.  The winner, at 52%, is Judith Collins.  The Whale Week That Was summarised all the stories this blog covered in the previous seven days.  A quite active Saturday Debate (for the time of year especially) led a post calling for nominations for Best Political Blog.  Those who see WOBH as any sort of threat to them (and those that don’t too), should take heed of this Malcolm Tucker quote: “marshal all the media forces of Darkness to hound them to an assisted suicide”.  A CNN piece showing Teachers in Utah taking a class on gun use shows some common sense around the gun debate.  A reader has taken yesterday’s US Fiscal Cliff graphic and created one for New Zealand – great work.  As Cameron Slater predicted from the outset, the Aussie Hoax DJs will not face charges.  The NZ Herald continues to amuse – this time a car crashed into a poll.  The blog then introduces us to two sexy taxidermists showing you don’t have to look like a front row forward to deal with dead animals.  And you’d think we’re picking on an incompetent NZ Herald, and you would be right.  This time they have Jesse Ryder beating himself at Eden Park in Wellington.  Then a hilarious story about a Queensland woman who fell into the longdrop and was there for two hours before being discovered by her husband.   Turns out that during the Falklands War the French tried to send missiles to Argentinia behind Margaret Thatcher‘s back.  Commerce first eh?  The last post of the day highlights a report of a man holding up a Countdown Supermarket with a hammer.  Our readers get fired up about the idea of hammer banning.

Read more »

It’s that time again when having a Queen has some payback – the New Years honours list.

It’s nice to see Paul Holmes recognised for his services to Broadcasting and the Community.  Not many would argue that’s undeserved.

Another one “long in the making” is Owen Glenn for putting his money where his mouth is.  Shat on from a great height by the Labour party, this man was bigger than that and continues to put hard cash into New Zealand.

Apart from the obvious celebrities, it has someone on the list, without whom – in a matter of speaking – this blog would not exist.

Read more »

ᔥ NZ Herald

Paul Holmes is forthright on the SkyCity deal:

Of course, Key is not helped by a speech in which the chairman of SkyCity, Australian Rod McGeoch, who won the Olympics for Sydney and then got dropped for some reason, boasts of SkyCity’s close ties to “high-ranking” Cabinet ministers.

What a foolish remark to make. This looks like as inside as you get when you are trading. And that’s the trouble with the whole thing.

It’s a funny way for Government to do business. But in the end, and Key knows this, who else is going to build a convention centre right under SkyCity’s nose, right there in the city of Auckland? Wattie’s? Golden Bay Cement? Waipuna Lodge? Forget it. SkyCity owns that part of town and there’s no point disputing it.

And you know what? The public doesn’t care. It’s a beltway issue, one to excite the sensitivities of the boys and girls in the gallery. Round at my place, no one really cares.

Mind you, I can never credit the numbers of people I see pouring in and out of that casino day and night, year after year.

It’s a mystery to me. The gambling gene I never got. Got plenty of others, though.

ᔥ NZ Herald

Paul Holmes explains why National is winning and Labour losing the argument on Paid parental leave:

In the end, people are realistic. They hear the numbers and they know what’s realistic and what’s not. People are happy that we can afford $150 million annually for 14 weeks’ paid parental leave, but they believe English when he talks about the destabilising effect of a paid parental leave bill rising suddenly to half a billion dollars a year.

We know that any dramatic increase in paid parental leave from 14 weeks to six months would be paid for by borrowings.

Meaning more debt. English is confident that argument will win through.

Labour will emphasise the value of mother being at home with baby for as long as possible.

And this is a good argument which no one seriously dismisses, but even Helen Clark was firm with Leila Harre, the champion of paid parental leave, that you can’t have nirvana overnight. Especially now that the country is in the doldrums economically.