HIGH NOON

Following Simon Powers announcement today that he is out to tame " the Wild West of the Internet" we reckon that there could be a bit of a stoush looming.

We have often referred to blogs and citizen journalists on the digital media as the last of the Wild West as you can see here

I suppose that means that Cactus is probably Annie Oakley and we must be May Lillie crack shot and horsewoman.

While Power probably needs to review whats happening - who in tarnation advised him to set about making the bloggers and online community the enemy?

Our favourite uber political geek David Farrar so rightly says the way its been done will probably rub a few people up the wrong way. We agree.

So we hope that we get to have a say sometime during the course of the year. We like the idea of workshops to nut out a few ideas.

But at the end of the day one of the corner stones of the media in any form, is freedom of thought and expression. And that must be the corner stone of any thinking around the digital media - it is still the media and today the lines between digital and print and broadcast are becoming very blurred .

While we think that Whale Oils recent case shows we are not above the law we dont want any changes that impinge on our media freedoms.

Otherwise it will be the Battle of the Little Bighorn Bloggers with Power standing in for Custer.

THE LAST OF THE WILD WEST?

We think so. Today is probably more of an historical moment that many realise. Up until now the online media has been a free for all and no-one was just to sure where the boundaries were. So we, as bloggers, all tested them from time to time - some more than others and no-one more than Whaleoil. His personal crusade on name suppression has crossed the media channel divide between online and mainstream.

Every journalist worth their salt, while not agreeing sometimes with the way that Whale ran his campaign, believes in the principals behind it. If they don't then frankly they should go find a job writing slogans for greeting cards.

Whale has today been found guilty of breaching name suppression. And faced some hefty fines to boot. If the mainstream media had any conscience at all they would be chipping in to pay his fines.

We need laws in this country that are fair, just without a nod to race or status. But the support for Whales dogged campaign and the growing unease in the way that suppression was being granted showed that the law was indeed not being applied even handedly. Justice was peeking under her blindfold and depending on what she saw, she made a biased call on when veil of secrecy was applied.

Whale has done his bit. He showed courage when the mainstream media did not.

He should be applauded and supported for that.

BEST NEWS OF THE WEEK

All the Labour appointed directors have been given the DCM ( dont come Monday ) letters by Simon Powers.

Yeeee bloody ha .... Now we want to see some good financially savvy new faces in the boardrooms of SOES etc. It will be important as we head into these challenging times that we have people who know what they are doing on these boards.

KORDIA DELIVERS DEAD BIRD TO SOE MINISTER

Whale Oil often has us laughing out loud - he adds spice to some fairly meaty issues and this morning is no exception. Today his target is Kordia - the old Broadcasting Communications Ltd.

Now we have been doing a bit of delving into the performance of the SOE's, the government owned companies that often have some interesting monopolies. Some are ready for a bit of pruning.
Kordia is no exception. So its looks like some of the bloggers are going to put the heat on underperforming SOE's.
Kordias NPAT was $838k - a wee bit less that their expected $12mil and a lot less than the previous years $14mil.



Whale has made an excellent start.

Expect more to come.

Read here for the sad tale of a company delivering up a dead bird

UPDATE: NBR has just posted a story on the fact that Joyce wont be making an announcement on the broadband funding today as tipped by the Herald.
It mentions that Kordia is looking for a handout though - We suppose its expected when they are a bit short of the readies.

FUCKWITTED LAW

Today we join the blackout. sorry folks but the silly silly law means that you are guilty on being accused of breaching copyright. We like Home paddock are known to be cheerleaders for the Nats but this one has got us stumped. And she has a few words to say to the country's leaders. We have not seen any coherent response from them on this issue either. Its the only wrong step we have seen them make. That makes us grumpy. So today we will post nothing. See u Tuesday.

Go here


to find out more.

POWER TO THE MINISTER

Simon Power is the Minister of Corrections and he was tough in his condemnation of how soft prison life had got under Labour. And it seems that as Minister he is going to continue his no frills approach to prisons. We note that he says one prison had a gym that was so good it looked like you would be happy to pay a membership to use it. We, yip its true build a gym in a prison over 18 years ago. It was a skyline garage - un lined with some very basic weight gear. No fancy X- trainers or bikes or anything else - The boys could run around the yard if they wanted to get some aerobic action. It was extremely well used and never caused any issues - it was such a privilege that no one would do anything that would see its use restricted. So we are with Simon - lord only knows what the new gym looked like but we can attest to the fact that the basics is all that is needed.