John McLean: Partisan Penfold

Paula has stopped pretending...to be a proper journalist

Paula Penfold was once a pretty credible journalist. Her journalistic investigation of Teina Pora’s wrongful conviction for rape and murder was admirable and contributed to the quashing of his conviction and a multimillion dollar settlement for Pora.

Peter Williams: Another Biased Judge

We first heard the term “judicial activism” in 1987. Justice Robin Cooke, in his opinion for New Zealand Maori Council v Attorney-General, said the Treaty of Waitangi was “akin to a partnership.” It is one of the most famous lines in this country’s jurisprudence and was the first enunciation of the concept of partnership as a principle of the Treaty.

Karl du Fresne: An essential counterpoint to 'Fire and Fury'

On a Tuesday afternoon in February 2022 I happened to be in Wellington. My route home took me via the bottom end of town, through the precinct occupied by Parliament and the Old Government Buildings. To my surprise, I found my way blocked by protest vehicles.

There had been chatter on the radio that morning about an anti-vaccination mandate protest convoy arriving in town, but I expected it would be over by afternoon and the streets would be clear again. I was wrong.

Point of Order: How Fire and Fury sparked a journalism teacher’s call for old-fashioned notions of fairness and balance to be abandoned

Point of Order too often has drawn attention to issues the mainstream media have overlooked or partially reported. But we apply old-fashioned values and – perhaps – should go back to school.

More specifically, we should think about taking lessons from Dr Greg Treadwell, head of journalism at Auckland University of Technology, who (we understand) will impress on us the case for dumping our quaint ideas about fairness and balance.

Ben Espiner: First we tweak democracy - now we tweak journalism

That’s convenient, isn’t it? The pre-existing rules around fairness and balance in journalism that have worked for decades are suddenly in need of some tweaking, right as Stuff’s ‘Fire and Fury’ documentary is due to come before the Media Council for voiding its bowels all over a group of very disillusioned Kiwis and not bothering to speak to them.

Our very own Doctor of Journalism, Greg Treadwell, took leave of his senses this week for just long enough to publish an astonishing piece of writing in Newsroom, which lent itself almost entirely to being a literary back massage for Paula Penfold and her propaganda riddled documentary.

Denis Hall: My response to the Fire and Fury propaganda video

This will jump out at you a bit - because there is a lot going on.

Yeah - and it’s long - so all Paramedics stand by with the oxygen.

Read it for the read of it - not the speed of it.

This week in politics - has a significance that may not be fully recognized for a decade or so - but the time will come when we look back and say:- “Yeah ---- right! - I remember!

Yeah - that’s when it began - 2022 - among the smoke and flames in the grounds of Parliament - when an unknown young woman with a cellphone on a stick - got more views than “The Professionals” - at TV One News.”

But also this week - came this astonishing taxpayer funded propaganda piece - styled as a “documentary”.

…….SPLAT! Fire and Fury! And the people who made it - slithered away out of sight behind the Port-a-loos.

Graham Adams: Fire and Fury is often funny — unintentionally

If you’ve ever wondered what a documentary made by a conspiracy theorist about conspiracy theorists would look like, Paula Penfold’s hour-long Fire and Fury pretty much fits the bill.

A conspiracy theory can be defined as an attempt to explain unfortunate, harmful or tragic events as the result of the actions of a small and powerful group which operates in ways hidden from most people.

In a textbook example of a conspiracy theorist at work, senior Stuff journalist Paula Penfold promotes the idea that the anti-mandate protests at Parliament and suspicion toward Covid vaccines generally were being driven and harnessed by a small group of conspirators.