Rodney’s onto it.
Perhaps it would help us all if Labour and the Greens drew up a list of whom the Prime Minister can and can’t text?
Key likes to text. I have kept a very touching one he sent on the birth of our daughter.
But although Labour and the Greens are apoplectic about the Government peeking at the emails and texts of suspected terrorists, paradoxically they want to monitor and censor what we say and do.
The right not to be offended now trumps free speech. We must tiptoe around the delicate sensibilities of the thought police.
It’s now not enough just to avoid saying anything remotely politically incorrect, you must sever all contacts with those who do.
Labour and the Greens have spent a great deal of time in Parliament pestering Key about his text contact with Whaleoil blogger Cameron Slater.
They are in a frenzy that Key has texted him.
They are shocked and appalled that he won’t rule out texting him in the future.
One thing you’ve missed Rodney – none of this would be able to be sustained if it wasn’t for a media that’s flipped behind this issue. Your column stands as a lonely beacon against a flood of deluded commentary.
In our great pressure-cooker of democracy the Opposition has been fearlessly teasing out whether Key’s texting is proactive or reactive.
Their great victory was to catch Key not accurately recalling whom he texted on what date.
Are we seriously saying, after National’s six years in Government, that the big gotcha is Key’s failing to recall a text, whether deliberate or not?
Surprisingly, Key won’t let Labour and the Greens dictate to whom he texts.
He thinks – very controversially – that he can text whomever he likes. That has enraged Labour and the Greens even further.
Why is nobody else saying this in the media? You and I know the public aren’t just over it, they’ve tuned out.
And Slater?
Well, he must be revelling in the publicity.
He has just again won Netguide‘s prize of best blog of the year.
The really amusing thing is that most media now refuse to have anything to do with stories that are published here. They do not want to be in a position where they promote my work.
Instead, they’re using each and every opportunity to put me and the blog in the worst possible light.
What they don’t understand is that they are simply creating a public expectation that isn’t matched by reality. People get curious, come to have a look at Whaleoil, and two things happen. One, they see news presented and dissected in a way they have never seen before, and two, they find a huge disconnect between what the media at large are telling them about Whaleoil and me, and what they find here.
Similarly, the more that Little and Norman wax lyrical about the evils of Slater, the more it reinforces readers’ beliefs that they are on the right side of history.
Of course, there is a fear running as an undercurrent. Especially in Labour. Little has inherited a time bomb that he will only survive by blaming it all on Cunliffe. Tick tock.
– Herald on Sunday
