“The young cow who was driving the car instructed me where to go.” Clearly, not everybody appreciates the charm and grace of Leighton Smith NewstalkZB, Wednesday 18 December 2013
If you are stupid enough or bored enough or unfortunate enough to have been listening to NewstalkZB shortly before 11 o’clock this morning, you will have heard the following….
LEIGHTON SMITH: Ummmmm, ahhhhhhhh. What is the most important human right? Ummmmmmmm. Tell me what you think. I’ll tell you what I think later. Ummmmmmm, ahhhhhhh…. Joan is on the line. CALLER “JOAN”: It’s clear what the most important human right is, Leighton. LEIGHTON SMITH: Ummmmmmmmmmmmmm, ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Okay, what is it? CALLER “JOAN”: It’s quite clear what it is! The most important human right is the right to choose. I’m worried that these smart meters will let the government monitor my brain waves. It’s what the Bible says— LEIGHTON SMITH: Ummmm, ahhhhhhhh, funnily enough, I’ve just been watching some stuff from America about that very thing. Ummmmmm, ahhhhhhh….. After the break, I’ll tell you what I believe the most important human right is.
…..[Advertising break]…..
LEIGHTON SMITH: Okay we’re back. Ummmmmmm, ahhhhhhhhh, the most important, ummmmmm, ahhhhhh, human right is the right to free speech. All the other human rights depend on it. Ummmmm, ahhhhhh….
Smith droned on for several minutes, reading from an article in the scurrilous Newscorp rag The Australian. The item purported to be a defense of free speech, but was in fact just another attack against namby-pamby liberal panty-waists, and a demand for the right of people like Leighton Smith to call Muhammad Ali a “n*gger” on air, Tony Veitch to sneer at black tennis players as “monkeys” and for the likes of Paul Holmes to engage in foul-mouthed rants against “darkies”.
Forlorn hope I know, but I decided to at least try to get Leighton Smith thinking by sending him the following email. Perhaps it will send him into an angry live-on-air denunciation of this writer, i.e. moi, as has occurred several times in the past….
Free speech is good, but you are defending criminals like the Murdochs Dear Leighton,
You seem to be a little confused between the right to free speech and open reporting and the felonious and immoral practices of some media organizations—of which the Murdoch one is by far the worst but not the only one.
And it is not at all helpful for your credibility that you have been repeatedly quoting from theAustralian, which is perhaps the most extreme and ideologically rabid of all Murdoch’s papers.
Yours sincerely, Morrissey Breen, Northcote Point
So far—it’s now 11:36 a.m.—he hasn’t had a go at me, but he has taken the opportunity to have a blast at a young woman with whom he was engaged in an unpleasant contretemps in an Auckland car park yesterday. It was apparently a traumatic experience for the great broadcaster…..
LEIGHTON SMITH: The young cow who was driving the car instructed me where to go. This is the kind of aggression you’re getting! Mind you, that particular failure of a human being is like that 365 days of the year, no doubt!”
On a related topic. Neoliberal clique of the Labour Party show worrying support for right wing extremist Hosking on his new appointment to 7 Sharp. Ms King pitched in, saying: “I’ll tell you what, it will improve it.” Hosking replied: “Well, let us hope so, Annette. That is the aim.”
Now he can bad mouth all opponents of the Great Leader in the morning on ZB and in the evening on TVNZ. And he’s being paid a million to get the results for his good mates at Sky City.
My girlfriend (now wife) used to drive a Japanese import with a radio that only picked up FM frequencies between 70.0 and 90.0, so NewstalkZB was as far as it would go. I have traumatic (but strangely fond) memory of dropping her off at work listening to that failure of a human being‘s bluster.
Interesting that he’s now a staunch defender of the right to free speech. I have a vivid memory of him cutting off a left-wing caller who dared to mention the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights. That said, Leighton certainly exercised his right to free speech by continuing to abuse her and “pshaw” after he had cut her off.
Bob Jones is not just an arsehole, he’s a lawbreaker:
He’s not “ever so slightly” in breach of the law, and neither is The Herald:
In both publishing Bob Jones’ confession of a criminal act and then deleting it, they are are an accessory to a crime by attempting to cover up evidence/a confession:
He’s rich, so he’ll get away with it. The Herald will keep publishing his verbal poison because it’s clickbait.
If anyone pays money for The Herald, ask yourself what you’re paying for. If you are, you’re paying for scum who support rapists and delight in driving people to suicide. That is what you’re paying for, that is what you support. Look at their advertisers – do you support their sponsoring of rape apologists and people who drive others to kill themselves?
After reading the Herald Editorial on Brown it occurred to me that it might have the opposite effect from what they intend. When the 20 Councillors read it they have been given plenty of reasons why they must back off or they risk closing down effective management and damaging their own credibility in future elections.
Although I have resisted expressing an opinion on Brown, not being an Aucklander, I also think that the Herald editorial may have the opposite effect.
While a quick look at the over 200 comments (and likes) on the editorial suggest a lot of people in agreement with it, the Herald also have had a poll going since about Saturday with over 17,000 response to date. The results currently are 27% in favour of Brown resigning; and 73% against.
Sorry, I cannot seem to pick up a link, but here is a cut and past of the current results. The Poll is on the Herald’s main page.
“Have your say
Herald poll 17200–17250 votes
Should Len Brown remain mayor of Auckland? Len Brown: I’m staying
So says a majority of more than three dozen economists surveyed last week by The Associated Press. Their concerns tap into a debate that’s intensified as middle-class pay has stagnated while wealthier households have thrived.
A key source of the economists’ concern: Higher pay and outsize stock market gains are flowing mainly to affluent Americans. Yet these households spend less of their money than do low- and middle-income consumers who make up most of the population but whose pay is barely rising.
“What you want is a broader spending base,” says Scott Brown, chief economist at Raymond James, a financial advisory firm. “You want more people spending money.
Gen Lenhert (ret.), first commander of Guantanamo Bay detention facility calls for it to be shut down
Says that the terrorists have successfully changed America, for the worse. Also says that he was given the ability to apply the Geneva Convention throughout his command there, regardless of what his civilian superiors may have said, and he did so.
Clearly, not everybody appreciates the charm and grace of Leighton Smith
NewstalkZB, Wednesday 18 December 2013
CALLER “JOAN”: It’s clear what the most important human right is, Leighton.
LEIGHTON SMITH: Ummmmmmmmmmmmmm, ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Okay, what is it?
CALLER “JOAN”: It’s quite clear what it is! The most important human right is the right to choose. I’m worried that these smart meters will let the government monitor my brain waves. It’s what the Bible says—
LEIGHTON SMITH: Ummmm, ahhhhhhhh, funnily enough, I’ve just been watching some stuff from America about that very thing. Ummmmmm, ahhhhhhh….. After the break, I’ll tell you what I believe the most important human right is.
Dear Leighton,
Morrissey Breen, Northcote Point
Neoliberal clique of the Labour Party show worrying support for right wing extremist Hosking on his new appointment to 7 Sharp.
Ms King pitched in, saying: “I’ll tell you what, it will improve it.”
Hosking replied: “Well, let us hope so, Annette. That is the aim.”
17200–17250 votes
Len Brown: I’m staying
No 73%”