Make no mistake! I find Cameron Slater a vile, vindictive, sleazy, little man not withstanding his bulky appearance. He reminds me of the fat slug creeping across a garden path leaving a trail of slime trying to get back under the stone to stay out of the sun when you turned it over.
He reminds me of an obese jackal trying to get to the maggot invested carcass left after the more “noble” predators have had their fill from a kill they feel is justified to feed them and their ilk but….
I actually think he should be entitled to keep his sources secret and here is why:
What’s good for the geese is good for the gander!
On Thursday 28 Nov 2013 an editorial appeared. The editorial was written by “REAL journalist” Patrick Gower and the subject was it seems Fake Moon landings and the fact that apparently a gentleman by the name of Colin Graig had uttered words to the effect of: “Maybe they didn’t.” Leading to an all out Facebook and Twitter flame war ridiculing of said Colin Graig.
Colin Graig from what I gather is a politician and the ” Christian” leader of a conservative party rejecting Gay marriage, Abortion and the anti-smacking law who says he is promoting good old fashioned conservative and Christian values. In other words he is not that much different from your average middle class, middle aged Pakeha male.
In fact it appears John Key thought he would suit as the replacement of, hopefully soon to be convicted but innocent until proven guilty, John Banks who, it has now been confirmed, has to stand trial over allegations of accepting donations in return for political favor and had indeed taken a bit of shine to Colin Graig.
At the Standard Blog Iprent the moderator of the blog defends his reasons for justifying denying Cameron Slater journalistic rights as follows:
Cameron Slater simply isn’t a journalists arsewipe. For him to claim the legal privileges, protections and authority that the journalistic profession holds within our political and economic community makes a travesty of the whole concept of a free and responsible press.
Now I’m aware that many of the marching morons that make up the more extreme sociopathic tendencies here and overseas tend to regard “free” as meaning they can do anything that they childishly want and that the responsibility as a outmoded concept. But they’re wrong.
A “free press” is one that is unencumbered by oppression or obligation to their sponsors about what or how to report. A “responsible press” doesn’t use their implied authority against individuals in a vendetta (bold mine). This is literally the argument going on in Britain at present. It is a common pattern with unconstrained and irresponsible organisations who taint all of their better behaved brethren with the stench of excess.
Now let me get this straight: If Cameron Slater uses his platform to vilify, ridicule or marginalize people he is not entitled to journalistic protection but if Patrick Gower does it, it is OK because his pulpit carries the name of the authorized current paradigm protecting press, being 3 News. And he can do so under the guise of writing an “opinion” piece called: Colin Craig & greedy Greens go crazy.
Writing in a fashion I find hard to distinguish from Cameron Slater’s highly emotive smearing and gossipy ways.
What is more is that the likes of Bomber Bradbury (who likes to think of himself as “the only REAL” journalist in New Zealand) and Marcus Lush another “REAL” journalist retweet this drivel adding their own hysterically comical (not) remarks to it in what I can only see as the promotion of an anti Colin Graig agenda on a very personal level having to do nothing with proper and responsible journalism. In fact Bomber Bradbury uses his blog as a platform to vilify Colin Graig even more in what I find very reminiscing of Whaleoil’s narcissistic and “irresponsible” ways while I’m sure that Bomber will be the first to scream blue murder if his blog will be called anything other than a professional journalistic platform!
Responsible journalism, I put to you, should be about the policies Colin Graig would like to put in place such as the repeal of the gay marriage act, the repeal of the anti smacking act and the way in which he would make abortions a thing of the past and while I would love to make it a thing of the past through responsible education on all things sex, I have a sneaky suspicion this is also something Colin Graig would love to disappear bringing in the Hellfire and Brimstone model of Christianity given half a chance.
What is interesting in all of this is the fact that no matter their political background or their place in the journalistic/blogging firmament all the people mentioned above be it Bomber Bradbury, Patrick Gower, Marcus Lush and Iprent (all your average middle class Pakeha males) choose to vilify Cameron Slater and Colin Graig and not once addressed the real issues at hand.
What is even more interesting is that they used the typical argument to deny every sensible citizen, which at some stage actually included Bomber Bradbury, who wants to ask questions about important historical events such as the events of 9/11 and the assassination of President JFK and yes, the increasing amount of dubious long lasting cloud forming trails left by planes, the right to do so by only referring to one of the more outlandish Conspiracy theories: The disputed moonlanding which I can assure you is very low on the list with most people questioning the official 9/11 CT and the implausible and easily disproven rapports on what happened in Dallas when they shot JFK.
The real issue at hand for example is: If Cameron Slater is ordered to give up his sources than what does that mean for the rest of us bloggers? Who decides what free and responsible is? (I’ll give you a hint: It won’t be us bloggers trying to address issues nobody else wants to address) Who holds crappy opinion writing “REAL journalists” such as Patrick Gower to what kind of “responsible” journalism?
Another real issue is that Colin Graig while he would have been able to hold Slater to account he can do nothing against the smearing of his character as a tinfoil head wearing crazy by an “Official REAL” journalist such as Patrick Gower. The fact is that Colin Graig in fact said he did not want to have an opinion on things as yet unproven which, I put to you, is a very sensible attitude to life’s unsolved riddles is completely ignored by the Whoop-ti-do of hysterical cackles of Bomber Bradbury, Patrick Gower and Marcus Lush and the finger wagging condemnation of uncle Iprent.
These forms of inequality and dishonesty can only be addressed and mitigated by leaving hideous misfits and narcissistic opportunists such as Cameron Slater to do their vile thing because shutting him down will inevitably be used to shut the likes of me and Bomber Bradbury and his bunch of merry man at the Daily blog and even Iprent’s the Standard down, if further down the road the economic situation deteriorates and our kind of political descent is deemed by the powers that be to be “irresponsible” . Think it won’t go that far? It was the argument used by Hitler, Stalin and Mao to name a few and we all know how that went.
Aotearoa: A Wider Perspective 