Public Address - Hard News (Home)

A Banner Evening | May 21, 2007 09:50

The first time I won a Qantas Media Award, I kissed my editor. To be frank, the winning column doesn't really rank amongst my best work, but it represented an early exploration of the internet in the mainstream media, and I was well pleased. It felt good to be inside the tent.

I felt a similar sort of satisfaction on Friday, when I won the first Qantas Media Award to be given for the best blog: this one, Hard News. I might be biased, but I thought the introduction of internet categories to the Qantases this year added real interest to an event that has always been about "old" media.

It was nice to see the Herald online team (best news website) gain recognition, and I was particularly pleased to see our friends at Spare Room pick up two prizes. With Scoop making finalist in the two news categories, it was also a banner evening for the Scoop Media sales network, of which both ourselves and Spare Room are part. We await your call …

I was also pleasantly surprised to see that the internet categories weren't tucked away in a ghetto at the beginning of the ceremony, but spread through the schedule, to emphasise their equal merit with the print awards; and also really impressed with Paul Reynolds' speech about the new media evolution. (I offered to run Paul's speech here, but discovered, to my surprise, that he'd reeled it off without benefit of notes). So, yes, it felt like something happened on Friday in Wellington.

The awards evening itself began in jolly fashion with Simon Collins and friends storming the stage with their "Save the Subs" banner in protest at APN's plans to consolidate and outsource much of its print- sub-editing and end, for me, when I set off to find my friends in town and visit a bar or two. We wound up, almost inevitably, at Mighty Mighty, where we ran into Mikee Tucker from Loop, who was in the midst of 48 Hour film-making.

Staying with the blog media angle, here's an important press release. Thanks to David Haywood for the legwork, Tze Ming for the idea and everyone else for participating:

PRESS RELEASE: NEW ZEALAND BLOGGERS OFFER SUPPORT FOR FREEDOM OF SPEECH IN FIJI

New Zealand bloggers from across the political spectrum are offering material support for Fijian blogs in the face of violence and censorship by the country's military regime. They are also calling on the New Zealand government to condemn, in the strongest possible terms, the regime's acts of violence and censorship against this nonviolent, grassroots blogging movement.

The Fijian military regime has declared anonymous pro-democracy bloggers to be a "threat to national security", and have attempted to block Fijian access to common hosting sites such as www.blogspot.com. Suspected blogger, Ulaiasi Taoi, was recently subjected to beatings, verbal abuse, and humiliation during a 24-hour questioning, according to The Fiji Times and Fijian news sites. The military regime now claims to have identified 20 more people responsible for pro-democracy blogs who will also be threatened with "questioning".

In support of the right to freedom of expression, a group of New Zealand bloggers are now offering access to their own websites for Fijian residents. The group is composed of prominent New Zealand bloggers from across the political spectrum, including writers of Just Left, Kiwiblog, No Right Turn, NZBC, Public Address, and Spanblather. They have agreed to publish guest articles by Fijian bloggers, and where possible will provide hosting on their servers for Fijian blogs.

The group is also calling upon other members of the New Zealand online community with an interest of freedom of speech (such as Scoop, nzherald.co.nz, and Stuff) to make a similar offer of material support for Fijian bloggers.

Blogs are one of the few news sources outside of the control of the military regime in Fiji, representing a vital channel of uncensored information for both Fijians and the international community.

Any Fijian bloggers wishing to make use of this offer should make contact through one of the above-listed websites.

There's some background courtesy of No Right Turn here and here. I hope we'll have material for you this week. It's important.

Also, Paul Reynolds has some fascinating stuff from his recent travels on his blog.

And, new in OurTube, the Androidss (from 1981!), and the clip for my favourite song of the year, SJD's 'Beautiful Haze'.

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Random | May 18, 2007 08:42

What a week! Intrigue! Freedom The Budget! But also, the first All Black squad in World Cup Year! At noon! In truth, there aren't really that many games between now and the tournament, and the "conditioned" All Blacks are looking manifestly short of a gallop.

The selection for the impending games against France C will probably not be much of an indicator for the final squad, but I trust Toeava will be in there and Nonu won't.

I'm telling myself that the Super 14 doesn't matter and it's really just like the Aussies dropping their guard before the Cricket World Cup - only to become unbeatable when it counted. I'm sticking with that.

Al Gore "hasn't ruled out" running.

While Bush and Blair heap praise on each other - and Bush kicks off their press conference with a joke - Chatham House releases an "unremittingly bleak" report on the present and future state of Iraq. It finds the country racked by "several civil wars" and on the verge of collapse and fragmentation.

I presume Coca-Cola is getting a good discount on the two billion songs it is purchasing to give away via iTunes in the European market. The huge promotion via iTunes may or may not have a bearing on the impending demise of the local Windows Media-based CokeTunes store. Meanwhile, EMI's decision to go DRM-free has earned an early bonus: Amazon scale.

Derek from Karajoz (yes, they finally have a website to go with the blog) notes that "the Aussies are paying $50 for a cup of coffee made from beans which have 'passed through' the systems of Indonesian Civet cats." Eeew …

Chris Bell from NZBC has a nice new home on the web for his writing and other activities. He'll even send PDFs on request.

And … busy day! Read Keith!

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He even has his Baldrick | May 17, 2007 10:04

Gordon Copeland's departure from United Future and consequent bid to revive a failed conservative Christian party is likely to end in obscurity, which is a shame given that, on secular matters, Copeland is a thoughtful and well-regarded member of Parliament.

He's presently the deputy chair of the Commerce select committee, and when I gave my submission on the Copyright Amendment Bill, he was notably engaged. Perhaps his performance on the committee will save his deputy chairmanship from being re-allocated along party lines.

If the United Future split presents some tactical challenges for Labour, it might also be extremely unhelpful for National next year. If Future New Zealand pulls 3% of the vote without winning an electorate, that's 3% unavailable to any centre-right coalition. If Taito Philip Field's party pulls a further 1% of the conservative Christian vote, so much the worse. National could win a clear plurality and still not make the Treasury benches. I think they'll have to be careful what they say about the Maori Party from here on.

Of course, it is faintly possible that Future New Zealand might make 5%. In which case, Copeland represents probably the most capable leader such a party could hope for. He even has his Baldrick - sorry - Baldock. I still find something a little tragic about a party whose flagship policy will be to restore the "right" to hit children.

So Michael Cullen picks quite the week for his Budget … there probably won't be a whole lot of Budget coverage from me tomorrow. I'm off to Wellington again in the morning, for various things.

Vanity Fair has an interesting meditation of on the Londonistan theme from Christpher Hitchens, and an explanatory interview.

Iraq's universities near terminal collapse.

The Fundy Post compiles some of Jerry Falwell's greatest hits, another blogger has a timeline, and Alan Wolfe at Salon observes that "Jerry Falwell expressed great hate for a lot of his fellow Americans. It is no wonder that so many of them will greet his death with something less than love."

And here's something handy: New Scientist rounds up the 26 most common myths and misconceptions about climate change. All the denier faves are there.

Oh, and a little shakeout in digital music sales: reader Steve King reports that CokeTunes is closing down on August 10. Can't complain about a lack of notice, then …

There's also another interesting news story to come about digital downloads in NZ. Under embargo at the moment, but I'll tell you when I can.

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What's on David Bain's iPod? | May 16, 2007 09:20

PC World's Annabel McAleer has managed to extract news of iTunes NZ's pricing for new DRM-free, higher-quality tracks from Apple: and the pricing isn't pretty. A single-track purchase will cost $2.49 - a premium of 70 cents over the non-DRM, 128k version.

If this sounds a lot, it is. PC World compared the premium to be charged here with that at iTunes Stores elsewhere in the world:

US: normal US$0.99; DRM-free US$1.29 = 30% premium
Europe: normal €$0.99; DRM-free €$1.29 = 30% premium
UK: normal £0.79; DRM-free £0.99; = 25% premium
NZ: normal $1.79; DRM-free $2.49 = 39% premium

Apple, which has been understandably shy about revealing the premium pricing, has offered no reason for the extraordinary hike. The recent strength of the New Zealand dollar against the US further extends the pricing gulf between the US and here. I couldn't find any Australian pricing for comparison.

Even assuming that Apple keeps to its promise to sell non-DRM album downloads at the same price as the lesser versions, we're paying significantly more in New Zealand than US consumers are paying.

The DRM-free files will for the moment only come from the EMI catalogue, but it seems certain that a good deal more, including catalogue from at least one more major label, is coming this year.

The locally-based Digirama told PC World it's hoping to make the new files available at its present price: $1.75. I hope it does well for them.

Meanwhile, hints at preparations for iTunes movie and TV sales in Australia.

And Forrester Research releases a report declaring that paid video downloads are a dead-end. It's going to be an ad-supported world. Someone call the advertising industry back from lunch.

And could someone at the BBC please sort out its online video? John Sweeney's controversial Panorama programme on Scientology has screened in Britain, and is theoretically able to be viewed here, but I couldn't get the Windows Media version to play. The comparison with the brilliant PBS site does not flatter the Bebb. Technically able readers may prefer to go for the torrent.

I watched it last night, and it certainly casts a different light on Sweeney's screaming fit. If I'd been constantly followed, spied on and goaded by the nasty little bastard the Church of Scientology had on Sweeney, I'm not sure I'd have responded very well either.

And, finally, amid the national outbreak of Bain-mania, as mobs of reporters clamour to ask David Bain variations on the "how do you feel?" question (although I did quite enjoy Campbell Live's deconstruction of the scrum), when will someone ask the question that really matters?

What's on David Bain's iPod?

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Mr Brown | May 15, 2007 11:06

I lived in London for five of the Things Can Only Get Better years, when the British Labour Party seemed cast as the perennial Opposition. You got a fair idea of who were the sharpest minds on the Labour side.

I would always despair of Bryan Gould, who would almost invariably get flustered and lose a televised argument with his government counterpart. But I developed a great regard for the dour Scotsman Gordon Brown, who seemed unflappable and fiercely smart.

Tony Blair hadn't been invented at that point, and even when Neil Kinnock's successor, John Smith, died suddenly, it was far from evident that Blair would come through and take the leadership contest from Brown.

So now, Brown finally gets his chance to lead the party - and not only has he seen a modest poll surge, but his pitch is quite appealing - most notably, after the experience of recent years, a promise to dilute the royal prerogative of Downing Street and return influence to the Parliament. Yes, it's a dig at Blair, but the fact that he has come out with a platform that would curb his own power in the name of Parliamentary democracy is impressive.

Now, Brown has a leadership challenger, which is well and good for internal party democracy (if not outside the party - the voters elected Labour, not a president).

There's an interesting story here about Googling Gordon Brown, but I don't think that the fact that the top search result on Brown's name is his official Treasury page rather than his leadership campaign page is actually a bad thing.

Not getting a poll surge, of course, is Helen Clark, who actually slipped behind John Key in the preferred Prime Minister category of Sunday's TV3 poll. It's not only worrying news for Labour, but also a vindication of Key's style in the face of the wailing and gnashing from nuttier elements of the National base, who assailed him across the blogosphere (and even on his own website) for his compromise on the Child Discipline Bill. I suspect those people will have some more wailing and gnashing to do yet.

There's some good discussion on yesterday's post about the Investigate story, which can hardly get more bizarre. I won't expand on it in today's post - I find these people a bit creepy, frankly.

Elsewhere, Forrester Research declares paid online video models like iTunes have no future - it's going to be all about ad support.

New New Rules from Bill Maher. I love that man.

Bill Moyers' Journal on PBS has been superb - and you can watch it in reasonable fidelity on the PBS website. Notable: The Cost of War and a balanced and informative story on Pat Robertson's law school, Regent University. Also, interviews with Reason magazine editor Nick Gillespie and seasoned disbeliever Jonathan Miller.

Okay - having spent over five hours yesterday at the hospital with one of the kids (nothing at all to worry about in the end, but it was worth checking) I have some catching up with work to do ...

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