John McLean: Cracked Pot Tries To Burn Better Wellington

Utter Nutter Hattotuwa comes in from the Cold

Sanjana Hattotuwa has been busy spying on Wellington local government affairs. He’s gone so far as to produce his very own hot report on a Wellington incorporated society named “Better Wellington Incorporated”.

Chris Lynch: Bye Bye disinformation project

It’s no surprise the disinformation project, long functioning as a political weapon, has finally collapsed.

For several years, it served as a platform for far-left ideologues, led by Kate Hannah, to demonise dissenting voices under the guise of protecting the public from “disinformation.”

The project didn’t expose lies—it tried to silence opposition – and it failed.

Karl du Fresne: The anti-conspiracy theory conspiracy theorists

Today's Morning Report devoted seven minutes to a promotional plug for a new RNZ podcast called Undercurrent, which promises to expose rampant mis- and disinformation that we are told threatens to contaminate the coming election.

In the news story that preceded the plug, we were informed that Greens co-leader James Shaw was assaulted by a “conspiracy theorist” in 2019.

Karl du Fresne: The pleasure of having one's prejudices confirmed

I forced myself to watch Web of Chaos, Tuesday night’s state-funded TVNZ documentary that promised “a deep dive into the world of disinformation”.
It’s sad that I should regard it as a chore to watch something I helped to pay for, but that’s the way it is. I wanted to satisfy myself that Web of Chaos was exactly what I expected, and so it turned out. There are few things more richly satisfying than having one’s prejudices confirmed.

The first clue was in the name of the director: Justin Pemberton. I vaguely recalled the name from somewhere else, and it soon came to me. Pemberton made Capital in the 21st Century, which I described in 2019 as a masterpiece of the propagandist’s art.

I wrote then that “The film uses every trick in the documentary-maker’s book to dramatise its message, which is that contemporary capitalism is overwhelmingly rigged in favour of the ultra-rich and basically rotten to the core”.