“Is it acceptable for a reporter to go on and on because he hasn’t got an answer out of the President?” Obviously Jim Mora thinks it’s NOT acceptable.
The Panel, RNZ National, Thursday 8 November 2018
Jim Mora, Penny Ashton, Bernard Hickey, Caitlin Cherry
The Panel, RNZ National, Thursday 8 November 2018
Jim Mora, Penny Ashton, Bernard Hickey, Caitlin Cherry
Penny Ashton gets very heated as she criticizes Donald Trump, in the face of Mora’s infuriatingly complacent, barely disguised support for the Groper in Chief. Mora’s disdainful and patrician attitude, and his infuriatingly complacent observations seem designed to goad, taunt, and vex her.
BERNARD HICKEY: Last time we had unemployment this low, mortgage rates were eleven per cent.
MORA: ELEVEN per cent?!?!?
PENNY ASHTON: And I heard that they were like NINETEEN or TWENTY per cent in the eighties a lot of the time.
……
MORA: Minor news, um, from the, um, MID-TERMS in the United States, before we get to the big issues. Fox News, under a headline “Democrat Agenda” featured Lenin with a red flag and a hammer and sickle—
PENNY ASHTON: Oh, good LO-O-O-ORD.
MORA: Unless that is FAKE news, but it seemed to be genuine. The celebrity endorsements by the way—I don’t know why I mention, perhaps it’s because you’re here—
PENNY ASHTON: [sarcastic snicker] Yeah! That’s right.
MORA: —FLOPPED. Um, from Taylor Swift and Beyoncé in Tenness—, Tennessee and Texas.
PENNY ASHTON: But DID they flop? I wouldn’t think you would say that Beto would—is that how you say his name?—Beeto, Beto?
MORA: Beto.
PENNY ASHTON: Beto—was a FLOP. Like he got SO CLOSE in a theoretically very red state. He also, it feels like he was starting his run for President, is what a lot of people are saying. I mean, and I just sort of think, that yes, okay they didn’t win, but it was close, and they rattled the cage, and I think that that’s SOMETHING.
MORA: It’s puzzling..[baffled sigh]… how come Beyoncé didn’t, uh, tell her millions of followers to vote for Beto until about four o’clock in the afterNOON?
PENNY ASHTON: I know, but also it’s so puzzling isn’t it, that that would be what it would take to GET you to do that, is something, but you know, there’s no point lamenting that sort of shenanigans, IS there?
MORA: And in a SIGN of the digital times, South Carolina’s state newspaper the Post had to go to press before the final result, and it announced: “Katie Arrington is going to Washington”. The first woman in Congress for twenty-five years in South Carolina, but in fact her lead was pulled ba-a-a-ack, and she ISN’T going to Washington. And, Bernard, you can imagine the agony of the subs as they tried to make that decision! [laughing]
BERNARD HICKEY: “Who-o-o-o-oops!”
MORA: Hur, hur!
BERNARD HICKEY: “Hold the presses!”
MORA: I know, they couldn’t hold them any longer!
BERNARD HICKEY: It’s like that famous headline, was it “Dewey Wins”? um, from nineteen—
MORA: Oh yeah.
PENNY ASHTON: And they QUOTED that I think.
BERNARD HICKEY: Yeah, yeah…
PENNY ASHTON: Yea-aah.
….Pause…..
MORA: Jeff Sessions has been sacked by Donald Trump, we’ll talk about that. And Donald Trump got REALLY upset with a persistent CNN reporter Jeff Acosta.
Jim Acosta: Mister President—
Donald Trump: That’s ENOUGH.
Jim Acosta: Mister President, I, one of the questions, if I may ask, on the Russian investigation, are you concerned that, that you may have—
Donald Trump: I’m not concerned about anything—
Jim Acosta: —where you may have indictments—
Donald Trump: —with this investigation because it’s a HOAX! That’s enough. Put down the mike!
Jim Acosta: Mister President, are you worried about INDICTMENTS coming down in this invest—
….Several seconds of hubbub as Trump’s aides attempt to grab microphone. Someone yells “Take his mike!”…
Jim Acosta: Mister President—
Donald Trump: [croaking in anger] I tell ya what: CNN should be ASHAMED of itself, having YOU working’ for them. You are a RUDE, TERRIBLE PERSON. You shouldn’t be working’ for CNN. Go ahead. ….[more hubbub]….
MORA: So Mister Acosta’s press credentials, ahhhh, have now been revoked by the White House, it’s claimed he placed his HANDS on the intern in the video from which this audio’s takennnn….
PENNY ASHTON: I watched it, she GRABBED the microphone out of his hand quite VIOLENTLY, and he put his hand out while she did that. And then people are saying online that it was ASSAULT. I mean, it’s, it’s like, oh honestly, it’s bad behavior all ROUND, it feels like to me.
BERNARD HICKEY: Yeaaahh, the, the, the photographs, I’ve seen the Reuters photographs of the incident, make it clear that he was simply trying to hold on to the mike.
PENNY ASHTON: Yeah. Yeah. And then she was being very rou—, you know,
BERNARD HICKEY: Mmmm.
PENNY ASHTON: Oh hey, he just, he’s just sort of such a repellent, I know that you’ve had, you’ve had listeners writing in, saying that your Panelists are so biased against Trump—
MORA: Yes, I’ll GET to that.
PENNY ASHTON: This is the man that said that, um, you know, he was gonna try and soften his rhetoric. And that’s what he comes out with, because he can’t help himself. And to me, it’s just, he keeps going on about CNN’s ratings dropping, but they’re NOT, so, you know, fake news, fake news.
MORA: Ha ha ha ha. Ha!
PENNY ASHTON: You are the fake news, sir, and this is what happens.
MORA: In—
PENNY ASHTON: How does it work? How do they dismiss people? Like, you know, I don’t know how it works in New Zealand. You’re in the press; if, if, if, you know, Jacinda goes, “Enough from you now”—
MORA: Yes I wanna ASK you that—
PENNY ASHTON: —are you supposed to STOP?
MORA: I wanna ask you that, because, in Trump’s, errr, errr, Trump’s CREDIT, he takes questions, lots more questions than Barack Obama or George Bush used to DO.
PENNY ASHTON: [skeptically] Well that’s interesti-i-ing.
MORA: Is it acceptable for a reporter to go on and on because he hasn’t got an answer out of the President? What do you think?
BERNARD HICKEY: Uh, I, I think it i-i-i-is, and it’s the job of the, um, responder to answer the question.
PENNY ASHTON: Mmm.
BERNARD HICKEY: Or at least make clear that they’re not going to answer the question because they don’t want to.
PENNY ASHTON: And not to descend into insults. Obviously.
BERNARD HICKEY: Yeah. And I must say, I’ve been in the press gallery now for six years, and have, you know, interviewed CEOs and Ministers for TWENTY years. I very rarely see a situation where someone walks out of an interview or refuses to answer a question. And John Key in particular, but also, um, Bill English, AND Jacinda Ardern all pride themselves on basically exhausting questions, i.e. stand there until the questions stop, and then leaving.
PENNY ASHTON: Right, okay. That’s certainly not his—
BERNARD HICKEY: And when they cut them off it’s actually really rare and noteworthy.
MORA: [audible intake of breath to indicate displeasure]
PENNY ASHTON: I mean, especially because people are ATTACKING journalists and things like this, you know, there’s actually been physical violence, and things, and he is INCITING this, and I just find it, I mean it’s what he DOES, isn’t it.
BERNARD HICKEY: It’s the next level, um, awfulness, and it’s really dangerous, actually.
PENNY ASHTON: Yeah, totally.
BERNARD HICKEY: I mean, there’s been bombs sent to CNN—
PENNY ASHTON: Yep.
BERNARD HICKEY: Ah, um, journalists have been harassed, and he’s created this environment where Saudi Arabia thought it was okay to, to kill and dismember a journalist who walked into their—-
MORA: Hang on! Are you trying to say that Saudi Arabia did that, ahhh, to Mister Khashoggi because of what Mis—
BERNARD HICKEY: Not beCAUSE of Trump, but they felt enabled to do it because of what Trump had said.
MORA: Okay, –t’s an interesting claim.
PENNY ASHTON: I liked the guy from—
BERNARD HICKEY: And they haven’t been punished by the way.
PENNY ASHTON: No.
BERNARD HICKEY: A major ally of America.
PENNY ASHTON: I liked the guy from NBC who immediately stood up for, um, so what’s that guy’s name again?
BERNARD HICKEY: Jim Acosta.
PENNY ASHTON: That, thank you. Acosta. That’s an interesting one for that situation isn’t it! Ah, anyway, he stood up for him and said he’s nothing but professional and a good guy, which I thought was great, immediately after that.
MORA: Here’s a little bit more audio of, uh, likely House Leader and leading Democrat Nancy Pelosi.
[cheering]… Nancy Pelosi: In stark contrast to the G.O.P. Congress the Democratic Congress will be led with transparency and openness. …[cheering]…
MORA: Is that the great FIB of politics? Along with the vow to be bipartisan and to end division?
PENNY ASHTON:
BERNARD HICKEY: Yes, yes. Like the current government’s um, pledge to, um, “reform the Official Information Act to make it much more transparent.” Nothing has happened. ….
MORA:
PENNY ASHTON: I think the way that they operate, as a nation, for their political system is crazy.It’s something like Democrats got seven per cent more of the popular vote in this election, you know, and then that doesn’t translate, does it, because of the way that their system is. It’s just—-
MORA: But it doesn’t translate in other countries, sometimes either.
PENNY ASHTON: Oh absolutely, I mean, sometimes, WELL! I mean, some, I feel like this one is one of the more, well, I suppose it’s the one that gets the most publicity. But the extremity to which people can be stymied. Like Barack, well everyone, you had somebody writing and saying “Oh what did OBAMA do?” He couldn’t do anything EITHER, because of the same system blocking things, being able to, you know,…[continues defending the indefensible for extended time]…