Sunday 21 January 2018

Come back Kim Hill, urgently! (Oct. 19, 2013)

Come back Kim Hill, urgently!
Saturday Morning, Radio NZ National, 19 October 2013
Kim Hill’s Saturday morning show, along with Chris Laidlaw’s and occasionally Bryan Crump’s, is one of the few times that New Zealand audiences can hear top-quality conversations with interesting people about serious topics. So the many fans of Kim Hill’s show are always concerned when she is on leave, as she is now. Will the replacement be up to it? Will she maintain Kim Hill’s exceptionally high standards?
Well, it turns out that Kim’s replacement today is one Susie Ferguson and, unfortunately, she is just not up to it.
Susie Ferguson first came to Standardistas’ attention after she lazily and recklessly recycled official black propaganda against a political dissident….
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-10062013/#comment-646597
Shortly after that, she came to our attention again, this time by her obtuse and foolish questions to a movie distributor, who treated her with barely restrained contempt….
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-25072013/#comment-667846
(Aficionados of disruption strategies will note our friend McFlock‘s inept attempts to derail the discussion.)
This morning, after 8 o’clock, she read out the lineup for the morning, including this gem of crazed political correctness: “After eleven, breast cancer and what it’s like for a man when their partner is diagnosed….”
Then it’s on to business. Her first guest was Professor Martin Jacques, a British expert on China and author of When China Rules the World: The Rise of the Middle Kingdom and the End of the Western World.
Remember, Suzy Ferguson is quite happy to parrot the most prejudicial and demeaning language cooked up by government spin-doctors to taunt political dissenters in the West. This morning, however, she appears to have changed her spots about human rights: her questions, even about business and economic matters, all come with an anti-Chinese Government slant. Eventually, her crass questioning gets under the skin of her guest….
MARTIN JACQUES: The Chinese will not be lectured by the West. I have not heard you say ANYTHING that acknowledges the immense progress China has made since 1978.
…..[Awkward hiatus]…..
SUSIE FERGUSON: I’m asking you why you’re such a fan.
A little later, the crass and insidious comments continue….
MARTIN JACQUES: The internet has revolutionized Chinese knowledge.
SUSIE FERGUSON: But in a limited wayyyyyy….
[…..A little later…..]
SUSIE FERGUSON: As Chinese power increases, how do you think the West will react? [She seems unfazed by Dr. Jacques’ irritated silence and presses on] I mean, do you think the West will take it lying down?
The “interview” winds down to an ignominious end, but Susie Ferguson’s mission is not over yet. She takes what I imagine she thinks is revenge by reading out a few telegrams….
SUSIE FERGUSON: There are quite a few texts and e-mails. He’s provoked quite a bit of feedback has Dr. Jacques! Walter writes: “China executes more people than any other country. What they’ve done to Tibet is what they could do to us.” Neil writes: “We should be very cautious….”
Appointing Susie Ferguson to Saturday mornings, even if it is just for a couple of weeks, amounts to gross failure in a time slot listeners have come to presume will be four hours of quality radio.
Come back Kim Hill, urgently!
  • Lanthanide8.1
    Thanks for linking to those older threads, Morrissey, somehow I managed to completely miss the multiple examples of how non “word-perfect” your “transcripts” truly are.
    I now feel justified in reflexively scrolling past your comments.
    • Morrissey8.1.1
      I now feel justified in reflexively scrolling past your comments.
      When I first started putting up transcripts on this forum, you were full of praise for them, and you recognized that I did capture the essential quality of the discussions.
      Your disaffection with me came suddenly, and it had nothing to do with questions of accuracy. It came after I had the temerity to lampoon people who you supported. For instance, there was my transcription of an interview with the hapless Hekia Parata, back before she was Minister of Education….
      http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-30082011/#comment-369467
      For some reason you have failed to convince anyone on this forum of, you backed the hapless Ms. Parata and her deepwater drilling plans. You also objected to my transcript of a outlandish, bizarre television appearance by Air New Zealand CEO Rob Fyfe, when he assured New Zealanders that Tokyo was “perfectly safe” even while the Japanese government was on the brink of ordering the evacuation of the city….
      http://thestandard.org.nz/meltdown-at-fukushima/#comment-314634
      Your objections to my transcripts are ideological. You need to be honest.
      • Lanthanide8.1.1.1
        🙄
        • Morrissey8.1.1.1.1
          Oooooh, now that was hardly an intelligent rejoinder. Can we do a tad better than such a miserable effort, do we think?
          • Lanthanide8.1.1.1.1.1
            I didn’t bother replying because you start out with such an obvious diversion that I literally stopped reading.
            So I’ll reply up to the point I stopped reading:
            “When I first started putting up transcripts on this forum, you were full of praise for them,”
            Yes, because I *assumed* they were actual word-for-word, or very close, transcriptions. I’ve done several transcriptions of various things myself over time and I know how much effort goes into making them. So I was thankful that someone was transcribing snippets from National Radio, snippets that 95% of the time I don’t get a chance to hear, so was glad for them to be recorded.
            My praise lasted up until I actually heard an interview myself that you had “transcribed”, and I discovered just how loose your “transcriptions” were.
            “and you recognized that I did capture the essential quality of the discussions.”
            More flowery waffle on your part. I didn’t “recognise” that you “capture[d] the essential quality of the discussions”, I thought they were actual transcriptions, as I describe above.
            Skimming the rest of your woeful reply, I see you seem to think that my “dissatisfaction” is something to do with me supporting Hekia Parata: not at all, it is entirely to do with you not actually transcribing segments with any semblance to reality while claiming that you did.
            But hey, if you want to keep up this little fiction in your head, go right ahead. I think both of our reputations on this blog won’t disabuse any 3rd parties as to the real truth of this situation.
            • Morrissey
              I didn’t bother replying because you start out with such an obvious diversion that I literally stopped reading.
              “Literally” stopped reading, did you? You know, embellishing a lie in such a childish manner doesn’t change the fact it’s a lie. “Literally”. As they’d respond on the Panel: Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!
              ….because I *assumed* they were actual word-for-word, or very close, transcriptions.
              They were accurate, and they continue to be accurate, and you know it.
              Skimming the rest of your woeful reply, I see you seem to think that my “dissatisfaction” is something to do with me supporting Hekia Parata: not at all, it is entirely to do with you not actually transcribing segments with any semblance to reality while claiming that you did.
              You are, to put it politely, disingenuous. You were outraged that my transcript had shown up Parata in all her bumbling incoherence and vacuity. The highlight of that grim interview was when she claimed that the National government’s oil drilling “policy” had “a variety of various variables”. You actually support the moronic policies she was so ineptly espousing that day, and even more moronic ones than that, as shown by your defiant insistence that the Fukushima catastrophe was being over-hyped by greenies.
              But hey, if you want to keep up this little fiction in your head, go right ahead. I think both of our reputations on this blog won’t disabuse any 3rd parties as to the real truth of this situation.
              I am more than happy for people to compare our respective credibility, or lack of it. My transcripts ARE reliable—-I couldn’t dream up characters who exhibit the cruelty, moral turpitude, vanity, pomposity or stupidity of people like Chris Trotter, Stephen Franks, Garth McVicar or any of the other people who I pin down for posterity.
              You would be quite justified if you had pointed out that I make minor errors now and again, but you have unwisely chosen to exaggerate, demean and distort what I do. I am not a liar, I did not make up Hekia Parata’s hopelessness, or Rob Fyfe’s surreal brand of idiocy. You for some bizarre reason support those fools. Don’t try to pretend that your attempts to undermine me are anything more than ideologically motivated spite.
              • Te Reo Putake
                I’m still waiting for that apology, you lying sack ‘o’ shit.
                • Morrissey
                  I’m still waiting for that apology,
                  I apologize for implying that you supported Trotter’s endorsement of southern lynch law. I knew you were better than that.
                  ….you lying sack ‘o’ shit.
                  Oh come on now, I think we can operate in a less juvenile fashion, surely?
  • richard8.2
    She was right to quiz Jacques on China’s human rights record.
    In our rush to exploit the Chinese people for our own benefits, we are too quick to overlook at the actions of the governing regime that facilitates this exploitation.
    To quote from a Guardian review of Jacque’s book:
    Western states frequently do not meet their own standards any more than China does. But I agree with Rousseau, Kant and Paine that all human beings have a sense of self and are thus worthy of equal respect as individuals, as I agree with Aristotle and Plato about the importance of due desert underpinning justice. There is a universal hunger for these values which does not stop at China’s borders because of some mystical adherence to Asian values. We all want to live lives we have reason to value – whether we are Chinese or British.
    • Morrissey8.2.1
      She was right to quiz Jacques on China’s human rights record.
      Of course she was. And she was wrong to parrot the U.S. Government’s demeaning language used to attack dissenters in the West.
      Professor Jacques reminded her that China has greatly increased its standard of living, but she petulantly refused to even acknowledge that.
      • millsy8.2.1.1
        “Professor Jacques reminded her that China has greatly increased its standard of living, but she petulantly refused to even acknowledge that.”
        Perhaps you should ask the millions of homeless Chinese if their living standards were greatly inrcreased.
        • Morrissey8.2.1.1.1
          Perhaps you should ask the millions of homeless Chinese if their living standards were greatly inrcreased.
          I’m not defending the Chinese government. I leave that to outfits like NewstalkZB.
    • joe908.2.2
      She was right to quiz Jacques on China’s human rights record.
      Indeed.
      The country with the second highest absolute numbers of enslaved is China, with an estimated 2,800,000 to 3,100,000 in modern slavery. The China country study5 suggests that this includes the forced labour of men, women and children in many parts of the economy, including domestic servitude and forced begging, the sexual exploitation of women and children, and forced marriage.
  • millsy8.3
    We should all be wary of the Chinese and its toxic mix of Stalinist communisim and neo-liberal capitalism.
    Chinese do not have trade unions, environmental regulations, labour laws or social safety nets, and its massive slave workforce keeps wages down all over the world.
    As I said before on this site. It is not Reagan or Thatcher that western boardrooms should be thanking. It is Deng Xiaopeng.
    • Morrissey8.3.1
      We should all be wary of the Chinese and its toxic mix of Stalinist communisim and neo-liberal capitalism.
      You are correct, millsy. We also need to understand why the Chinese have nothing but contempt for people like Margaret Thatcher, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, who presume to lecture them about human rights.
    • Colonial Viper8.3.2
      China is where the US was 90 years ago. It’s a work in progress.
      BTW what the Chinese are doing has very little to do with Stalinism or neoliberal capitalism, or any hybrid of the two.
    • chris738.3.3
      I’d like the USA to remain as the dominant superpower but I’m not bothered if/when China take over as was shown with how they’ve handled Hong Kong they seem quite pragmatic
      • Colonial Viper8.3.3.1
        I’d like the USA to remain as the dominant superpower
        In a lot of ways this would be a good thing but we have seen now is the US is essentially captured as a state within a state which cannot even govern itself or look after its own people. It’s not good to see.

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