SONNY BILL TO FIGHT A SICKNESS BENEFICIARY??

Well thats the story we keep hearing.. Man has tennis elbow apparently... So if you cant work - how can you fight?

Are people really going to spend good money to see a sham fight?

Or is SBW gonna fight with one arm behind his back to make it a fair fight like..

Can a journo pop the question to the crooning bruiser?

Actually we think that there is only one real opponent for SBW - thats Whale our own adored blogging cyco.

He's been trying to get Mallard to front him in the ring but lets face it if SBW's opponent is really on the bene then he's gonna have to find a new sparring partner real fast and Whale looks the ticket.

DISSECTION

One of the lessons of the past week and the great Veuve Clicquot scandal was that it showed what an incredible force for communication and change that the social media has become.But you have to know h0w to use it as it is a pretty unruly and hungry beast with a very short attention span.

This is best exemplified by just who ended up carrying the story.

Take for instance this tweet

latest: JancisRobinson @bustedblonde Congratulations! Social media have the power to leech multiple kilos of Veuve C from tight fists. bit.ly Retweeted by you less than a minute ago

Thats gold in social media. Jancis Robinson has 40,000 followers on twitter. They are all people who have a serious interest in wine and food around the world. And she likes New Zealand and New Zealand wine.

So who were responsible for the story gaining a foothold in the social media. At the core were the bloggers. Whaleoil ( who started and led the whole campaign , his ability to get stories into the mainstream media is now well established), Kiwiblog, and Cactus and a host of other bloggers who quickly followed suit, were central to the story getting legs. They all have considerable weight in social media, while for the purposes of this campaign BustedBlonde just has the weight!

Many of them twitter and facebook as well. So its about using multiple channels and quickly.

You have to be bloody nimble and it helps if you have a core team as we did.

So did we have a plan? Nope not really. Just some ideas and some tactics. Its very organic and you need to have faith in your intuition.

Then came facebook. That cant be underestimated and its like an infection and of course there is Twitter. If you want to get your message out quick and it gets onto someone site who has 40,000 followers like Jancis then you have critical mass very quickly.

Take for instance this.

August 26 at 1:03pm

I see NBR finally responded!
I briefed a US mate of mine, Colin Clarke, who is commentator on social media strategies and he wrote this, I should let him know NBR has made a move. Well bloody done you. http://marketingsense.wordpress.com/2010/08/25/when-a-social-media-campaign-goes-bad/

When A Social Media Campaign Goes Bad « Marketing Sense

marketingsense.wordpress.com

An interesting case study has recently emerged in New Zealand that underscores the power of social media… and how it must be wielded CAREFULLY.

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So this happened two days ago and and already the analysis of the clicquot competition and the social media response and its impact are flying around the world at lightening speed.

And then there were the emails. And by all accounts there were a few direct to NBR ( we have seen some). And of course TV3.

It defies all the old rules of PR. Its not about planning its more about plotting. n.

So whats the damage to NBR? - bugger all we reckon. As soon as they made amends and publicly people were heaping on the praise for the putting right.

And Veuve? Well the damage might last a bit longer. They were involved in a competition that was supposed to be all class.

I havent seen the winning entry but I bet its all lovely and worthy and romantic . It will tick all the brand boxes for Clicquot.

However the competition was so badly designed and executed that it ended up being all about ass. It provoked crassness. Then when the judges got crassness and not just from our entry but dozens of others as well, things went pear shaped.

For us Champagne is all about fun. And for the last couple of weeks we have had lots of it.

And we have learnt quite a bit as well.

THE NOT THE VEUVE CLICQUOT SITE

Oh dear, Veuve Clicquot wont appreciate this fan page on Facebook.

go here to find the latest on the Great Veuve Clicquot NBR scandal.

FIZZ GOING FROM VEUVE CLICQUOT

Home

1. bustedblonde
   and of course whale wont be drinking the widow cliquot http://whaleoil.gotcha.co.nz/2010/08/24/n-b-r-loses-its-veuve/less than 5 seconds ago via web
2. bustedblonde
   and clint as well! no veuve clicquothttp://clintheine.blogspot.com/2010/08/who-can-trust-national-business-review.html1 minute ago via web
3. bustedblonde
   and keeping stock wont be stocking veuve clicquothttp://keepingstock.blogspot.com/2010/08/nbr-fail-veuve-cliquot-fail.html?spref=fb3 minutes ago via web
4. bustedblonde
   and cactus aint happy with veuve clicquothttp://asianinvasion2006.blogspot.com/2010/08/great-veuve-clicquot-robbery.html4 minutes ago via web
5. bustedblonde
   poor veuve clicquothttp://gonzofreakpower.blogspot.com/2010/08/bad-mana.html4 minutes ago via web

WHALE LIFTS THE LID ON ACT DEBACLE

Well, well, we thought as much.. We have met few people we have loathed as much as Simon Ewing Jarvie.. He is a prize prick and as Whale has now shown - a duplicitious arse with an overblown sense of his own piss and importance.

He doesn't have much cred in Defence circles either..

Heather Roy had aspirations above her station and may well have been seduced by SEJ macho politiks. His fawning will have engorged her ego.

Kiwiblog has, as usual an insightful analysis of the Defence paper and the caucus speech at the heart of the issue.

Rodney has not handled the aftermath of this all that well but as Whales info has shown - he is definitely not the villain of the piece.

Politics is a brutal business. And tough talking, tension and full and frank discussions can be found in all parties. ACT is no different in that regard.

However, we are not sure they can come back from the brink. We hope they can. We like the fact that they put a bit of steel in the economic spine of the country.

SAVE THE WHALE

Our blogger mate Cam aka the Whale has doggedly pursued the issue of name suppression. We agree in principle with what he is is trying to do - greater transparency around name suppression.

So because he is fearless we want to draw your attention to his need to raise a war chest to fight the good legal fight. Its going to cost a lot. But at the end of the day all he really wants is a better deal for victims and greater accountability by criminals..

So we have put the widget for his fund up top on the left .. or you can go here for more info.

So we urge you to help us Save the Whale..

OCH AYE

Whale Oils best effort yet.. Total piss take of Reynolds and XT advert...

Its brilliant!

we bow to the whale......

BUSTEDBLONDE

Hello all,

I have had a few emails asking why Roarprawn has not been entered in the Air New Zealand Awards for bloggers ( real bloggers). Well as Busted is a little bit of bother which hopefully will be resolved soon, she decided that it would not be appropriate to enter.

However, it appears that Roarprawn could still be a wildcard in the awards which are here

As Busted can't do or say much for the moment, here are our links to some of her best work in the last year.

I like Bustedblondes impressions of Ngai Tahu politics such as this post here. I am Rangitane so I am always interested in what our neighbours in the south are up to.

And I definitely want to hear more about this issue. Scampi may be a tad historical but by Jove it has all the makings of a great yarn.

And who could forget this post about the downside of being a mistress. ( Busted seems to know an awful lot about being a consort) That post spawned an international threat of legal action because some woman claim to own the word Mistressology. The entire VRWC corner of the blogosphere came to her aid and slam dunked the Pommie blogger.

She has such an interesting family. He mother and father seem  to live every day like there will be no tomorrow. This post shows a real soft side to Bustedblonde.

And she has been a very strong supporter of Maori TV. That was apparently one of her most read columns.

She is fervently pro whaling, leaving no room for doubt. She scored a world exclusive piece of footage on the Ady Gil crashing into the Japanese whaling vessel. It was watched on You Tube over 45,000 times in less than 2 hours - before it was taken down - but not before the activists re edited it and put it up on you tube where it was viewed by millions. Busted then put it up again with reworked commentary and today it has been viewed 18,000 times.

So I am sad the Busted never got to enter the Real Bloggers awards and I hope that this list of posts will show that she would have been an admirable contestant.

Toodle Pip

WHALES TALE

Bustedblonde has been a mate of Whale Oil, Cameron for quite some time now. She has told us that Cameron is a unique individual whom she proud to call a mate.

Now we don't know him that well but BustedBlonde has asked that we re -post Cactus Kates column about the shock blogger and his current troubles. BustedBlonde says many people who have a tough exterior, also have big hearts and that's Cactus to a T. She has written a poignant post about Whale.

Cactus and BustedBlonde may not always condone what Whale has written but I am pretty confident they will remain forever loyal to him.

BB says that what Cactus has written is very true.

You will find it here

with a growing number of comments.

And Kiwiblog has some comments

as does Keeping Stock

And here Cactus's post for you to read as per BustedBlonde instructions .

HoS appears to have been reading the sad plight of my mate and the mate of many bloggers, Whaleoil aka Cameron Slater.

Today is probably the most truthful article yet on Whaleoil because it was written with cut and pasted words from his wife and best mate aka Spanish Bride from his blog.

I've only known Cameron for a few years and all the time I have known him has been under the mantra of Whaleoil. Unlike SB, I have not known him as Cameron, before his spiral into depression.

I don't know all the background of his fight with Fidelity and what led up to his depressive state, because I wasn't there. SB was. She remarks that he was a different man before the events leading to his illness. I believe that now totally.

There is no one else I have ever met quite like Cameron as Whaleoil. His behaviour is outrageous. Friends compared notes and said that this is just him. It is not. What makes me astonished though with Fidelity's conduct is that they do not seem to have at any stage lead him to get help. That is medical help and counselling for rehabilitation. It used to be humourous watching Whaleoil be outrageous. It is now not so fun anymore once everyone has worked out he has a genuine problem.

The answer with Doctors has always been to prescribe more bloody pills. Whaleoil is on more pills than patients at mental homes. I know this because unknown to him I checked his dosage on his pillpackets and asked someone I know who works at an actual mental hospital. He is sedated by a cocktail of these pills which leave him tired, moody and disconnected with the world. When I realised his dosage, I knew the seriousness of the black hole he had fallen into. He's tried to come off the pills, that too has had bad consequences.

I hate pills as a solution for depression. They are not and they are over-prescribed. I hate watching all too many friends zombie around on them. They are not real people while sedated under the latest and greatest profit minded cure to make everyone "happy". The underlying problem still remains and I can't see any joy on being reliant on a pill to be happy, or even stable enough to get out of bed. It takes away the human nature of being happy and sad and managing both states.

Whaleoil does not think consequences, SB has highlighted that all too clearly. He will be fine sitting with you in a bar watching you drink (contrary to popular opinion he does not drink regularly and I've only seen him drunk once) then the slightest irritant across the bar and he will be talking about smacking another person's head in. Change the topic and his attention away and he's forgotten five minutes later of even being angry.

While medicated and unassisted emotionally with any form of therapy, he simply cannot work. The easiest question for doubters that he can be integrated into the workforce for a 40 hour week is this: would you want Whaleoil working in your office? Five minutes with him and any HR representative would instantly dismiss his job application. Fidelity's treatment has turned an otherwise creative, intelligent mind into a zombie who now firmly believes he cannot work. At the moment I am on the side of stating that he cannot.

Whaleoil is a great friend because he cares about his friends, but an unreliable one. That is, even the slightest task you know he may not do it on time. As the reliable party in the relationship you have to organise everything around Whaleoil not being able to perform his part. This frustrates him when he realises what has happened.

Insurance companies are not paid to care. I feel however they are paid to follow contracts and assist their clients back into the workforce so they are not made to rely on payouts. There's no doubt in my mind that Cameron Slater as Whaleoil is one of the most clinically depressed people I have ever met. While the original event leading to this depression may have been minor in the scheme of things Fidelity and the medical professionals who treated him from that point in time have failed miserably and created Whaleoil as we all read him today on his blog.

Fidelity created the monster that is Whaleoil. There is no doubt about that after watching him the past few months. Even when Fidelity were still paying him, the posts were written when he wasn't actually getting better. On a few good days, a Whaleoil post can be brilliantly coherent, well-reasoned and rational. On a bad day a Whaleoil post can be the most offensive thing on the internet.

There is only so much that friends and family can do for Whaleoil. The frustrating thing is that no one can wave a magic wand and make him better. It has gone past that and I've seen everyone try. His close family we can see have tried everything. His wife and kids are amazing in the circumstance, their love is unconditional.

Whaleoil needs serious medical attention from medics without a conflict of interest from working for an insurance company or more medics who border on being criminals in my view - the depression script writers. They should be given Oscars for their script writing abilities. He needs a time out, away from the stresses of modern life getting back to basics of routine and normality. But most of all he needs help and therapy to re-connect with himself, his old self. The one that his wife speaks of but most bloggers would never have seen.

Cameron Slater.

Heard that he is a fucking great bloke.

If Fidelity Insurance found that bloke, I'm sure they would have a case closed and not look like the bunch of cunts they will be made to look like when it is disclosed they haven't done a single thing, other than medication, to try and find him.

Busted reckons that Cactus is on the button.

BLOGGER BUDDIES

Wow, we posted on an attack on Roarprawn over the use of the word Mistressology. We came out fighting  but so did the rest of the NZ blogosphere.  Thanks to Whaleoil    Cactus  who will put the fear of death into the poor woman , Motella, bless his cotton sheets ,   the effervescent Home Paddock  and the lovely boys at No Minister for backing    us up..  And all the lawyers who offered us support and advice.

However we are a bit miffed at being called large by Whale Oil - we would have preferred  biggish... and after two weeks running around an island every  night for 5 hours up hill and down dale we are a little less biggish.

Here's a very old photo of someone we all love and know well  who is doing what Whale said.  Just to show that its for real like.... 

 So in tribute to the fine work of the NZ blogosphere  we will write about mistressology  when the mood takes us .

And real mistressology  not some new age cosmic get in touch with your aura  pommie clap trap.

$3.4 MILLION ON SHAGGING!

We are speechless. That is very expensive tail.

Versalko was just ahead of us at High School in Invercargill. He came from a really nice family. We were suprised and sad at learning what he had done.

Whale Oil has done some numbers on how much sex you could get for $3.4 million.

Its quite a bit....

And the ASB has moved to reassure people that they have tightened up practices and procedures in the wake of Versalkos offending...

WHALE HAS CRASHED

Just to update everyone - Whale Oils site has crashed - it has NOT been taken down. Cameron says it crashed as soon as Stuff referred to the story on their front page.

WHALE HAS A BIG SWINGING DORK

Geez - we waited today with baited breath for the post we knew would come from Whale Oil. Sadly we know the MP who is rumoured to be at the centre of the latest sex allegations as reported here at the Herald.

We find this one very sad ( if its true) because we have had a bit to do with him over the years and thought he was one of the good guys.

We think that Whale is bloody brave, but in this incident the victim could be a family member and if that is the case we can see some justification for suppression.

However, we have also read the post of Lisa Lewis today, who writes about being abused at a young age and wished that at the time the name of the perpetrator was made public.

Its clear to see that this debate will continue for some time and its a hot issue - Gotcha - Whales website has crashed and our site is getting many hits searching for anything we have published on the MP who is alleged to have been charged with sex offences.

WHALE EXPLAINS WHY

Here is the very succinct and to the point of why Whale has pushed the envelope on the issue of name suppression.

Click HERE

WHALEOIL - HERO OR DORK?

We will be watching with interest the outcome of the audacious Whale at Gotcha who breached some suppression orders of a couple of apparently semi famous people. Whale's Gotcha is not for the faint hearted.

With think we push the boat out at times but Whale pushes it out and opens up the throttle.

Now there are those out there who will think that Whale is doing all this purely for the publicity and its no secret the Whale is happy to blow his own spout so to speak. And everyone is listening as he has, we understand, broken Kiwiblogs stranglehold on the NZ blogosphere

But make no mistake he also has a strong sense of justice and he makes no secret of what he believes in.

We have spent a bit of time with him here and there over the last year or so and he openly admits to suffering depression.

He also claims to be mad and seriously after a few hours in his company its not hard to believe that a psychiatrist would certify him as bloody barmy at best and completely certifiable at worst.
But just because he suffers from depression doesn't mean he is stupid. He is highly intelligent actually quite likeable and above all fearless.

For that we have a great deal of respect and admiration.

We too have a bloody problem with suppression orders. They should be only used to protect innocent victims.

So we think that this is an issue that needs debating. And we thank the Whale for being the one to really get the country thinking about what is a very serious issue about fairness and our court system.

So Hail to the Whale!

BEST OF 2009

2009 has been a mixed bag.

We have new mates and we lost some good mates

We stopped blogging for a while then we started back up again .

We have a new job.

The son and heir is passing his helicopter exams and Ma and Pa have been hitched for 50 years.

So who is the best of the best for 2009.

Okay we think that the speaker deserved the best slot for his transformation of the running of the House. No argument there.

Best Minister? Probably Gerry Brownlie. He has made some ballsy calls on the energy front. His decisions have the potential to change the economic face of NZ. We are not sure that ordinary NZers have yet grasped the potential.

Judith Collins has to come a close second. She has police in her steely grip and we are the better for it.

Best Journalist? We reckon there are a few who for different reasons have done a bloody good job this year. Fran O'Sullivan, Ian Templeton, Rob Hosking are all up there .

Then who is the best columnists? Well its Hooton for starters. His columns are must reads and incite the mandarins and spinners alike. And he just gets it right.

Best blogger? Cactus on business is hard to beat. Bernard Hickey is pretty good and Kiwiblog on policy and oogling.. No- one does online girly oogling like D P Farrar.

Whale has to be noted for his fearlessness. He has a touch of the crazies but he is the Rottweiler of the right wing blogs and Gotcha is starting to do some good work ...

We have to pay tribute to Brent Wheeler who had made us think so hard about some economic issues that it makes our brain hurt.

Best paper? NZ Herald is our first read of the day. NBR is next and we dip into it quite a lot and Stuff is good but it seems to have lost the race against the Herald. And we always read TransTasman.

Best Labour politician? Well that's gotta be - we actually no one has really stood out. Grant Robertson is probably the exception. Most of the female Labour politicians are old school, social manipulators not empowerers.

Best Maori politician? Tariana Turia. First and last. However we think that Ururoa Flavell is starting to get some cred.

ACT- Well the jury is out on that for us.

To more urbane issues.

The Best coffee in Wellington is served at Mixed business on the Terrace.

The best wine bar is still Beaujolais and it still serves some of the finest lunch food around.

Best Restaurant is Zicos, followed by Arbitrageur who are happy to accommodate our rolling lunches with a continuously changing cast.

Best venue is Dockside but the food aint what it used to be.

Best new place - Ortegas fish shack and bar.

Best urban bar - D4.

Best wine list - Wine Loft.

Best Beer - Montieths Pilsener.

CLIMATE CHANGE SCANDAL BREAKING

It started here in NZ after Investigate magzine confirmed that some leaked emails circulating on the internet, from one of the worlds leading climate change research centres in Britain were not a hoax. Its a very curious tale of hacked emails that appear to question the integrity of the the Climate change promoters.

The story is now global and in the main stream..and Gotcha has the best summary in the blogosphere.

PUBLISH AND BE DAMNED

We have been a bit busy today but managed to catch some face time with a good mates talking about texts, jail, buying up forests, help the government with its courageous new policies, Maori politics, fish, shagging, the government giving away land to Maori and we still managed to hoover the house and cook dinner.

Anyway we just read Cactus Kates blog on some secret squirrel emails from some very worried senior staffers at the Herald...

It's disturbing stuff. Interesting in that the blogs have worried Herald Editor Tim Murphy enough to resort to commenting over at Gotcha about it . He also deemed it serious enough to set aside a few column inches in the Herald to say that his journos were still fearless and unfettered. Bollocks.

Well we know that the Herald still has some of the finest reporters in New Zealand among their ranks but some of the emails definitely point to a softer line being taken since the days when we were a scribe. Take this:

1. Conservative editorial approach

Editorial could take a more conservative approach to the subject matter and content of the risky or contentious articles. Where editorial identifies an issue or risk in an article the relevant passages could be proactively removed, or rewritten internally, to remove the perceived risk, as an alternative to obtaining legal advice on the risks of publication.

The above bit is the one that causes us the most concern. Hell, when we earned a living riding the white charger down the inky black road, the boys at Izard and Weston were our friends. In fact we never really thought we had done a decent story unless we had to get them to give our copy the once over before it went to bed.

So Mr Murphy is being a little precious when he says the emails don't really show any change in editorial policy. They sure as shit do.

The emails that Cactus has in her possession clearly show that writing a story that pushes the boundaries is being actively discouraged.

As blogger we know for a fact that is happening. Bloggers are often given material journalists can't get past their editors. They leak stuff to us knowing full well it wont get a run in the dead tree press.

We used to say that all good stories need a home. These days the best of them are finding the first rays of daylight on blogs.

We here at Roarprawn have broken many stories about Ngai Tahu, its leadership and even clowns and thats just a few tiddlers in the last few weeks.

So we reckon that Mr Murphy's quick reaction to Cactus's revelations shows he is bloody scared.
The story is being extensively run on blogs both left at Red Alert
and right like Whale at Gotcha and Inquiring Mind

And the fact Murphy himself has given the story legs by devoting some time to refuting it in his own publication says that he may be the master of spin but a stranger to the truth.

Sadly we find no joy that the publications the nations trust have their balls in the vice grip of the bean counters.

Blogs are rocking the establishment... how long before they rule?

HEY LABOUR, BILL LIU GOTCHA.

Well well , it seems some of our old snouts have been leaking to Whaleoil over at Gotcha. He has the Blog of the week here with some interesting information on Bill Liu.

We have covered this story often over the last year. We always reckoned it had serious legs and whales blog adds some more pieces to the puzzle.

We think there is a serious possibility that this story will outrank Philip Fields on the scandal scale.

TOO BUSY TOO BUSY........

To blog because we are on a mission involving important matters of state in Auckland. However, we think that due to the stirling efforts of Cactus and Whale at Gotcha - we really don't need to say too much today. They have the most interesting blogs this morning

Our queen sizeness is well known. However we dont comment on stories about health so we will refrain on offering our $1.27c worth on this issue but it would be fair to say that Whale and Cactus appear to have stumbled on an interesting anomaly.