Gary Judd KC: Bondi, Tarrant, victimhood, faith, the primitive, relativism, cultural boundaries of knowledge

The attack on members of Sydney’s Jewish community by the father and son one writer has dubbed the Bondi Barbarians is a shockingly horrific event. It is emerging that the shooters were devotees of ISIS who had just returned from Mindanao, a Muslim outpost in the predominantly Catholic Philippines. It is supposed they may have gone there to be trained for the terrorist acts committed just days after their return to Sydney. Reports indicate possession of ISIS regalia and association with known ISIS members in Sydney.

Gina Rinehart AO: Regarding the election results.

Comment from Mrs. Gina Rinehart AO regarding the election results.

“The left media did a very successful effort, frightening many in the Liberal Party from anything Trump and away from any Trump like policies.

This has been especially obvious this year, with the Liberals instead becoming known as the “me too” party. Trump style “make Australia great” policies via cutting government tape, government bureaucracy and wastage, and hence being able to cut taxes, too scarce in Australia this year to rate a mention.

Capitalist: The Whole Truth

A European friend was living with us for several months whilst working locally on the Taieri Plains. He’s a right winger, a supporter of Donald Trump and distraught at the assassination attempt on the president in July. During July, August and September, he often expressed frustration at polling showing Kamala Harris ahead, often asking, ‘How is it that Trump isn’t miles ahead in the election race?’ Well the fact is – he was! The media in America simply lied and published fake polls to pretend Harris was a serious contender when she wasn’t. Now the truth has emerged from the Harris campaign itself, admitting they never once had her leading President Trump.

Garrick Tremain: PIJF bribe money

 Here is Garrick Tremain's cartoon commentary on MSM telling the truth! 

Karl du Fresne: Red rags and bulls: what happened when a leftist VUW academic came to Masterton

I saw both sides of the culture wars last night, and it wasn’t pretty. Both were repugnant and both were inimical, albeit in different ways, to the free, open and civil exchange of ideas and opinions.

The occasion was the monthly meeting of the Masterton branch of the NZ Institute of International Affairs. This is typically a sedate event involving a guest speaker, often from academia. The attendees are predominantly older people – retired public servants and the like – with an interest in (as the organisation’s name suggests) foreign affairs, New Zealand’s relationship with the wider world and politics in general.

Last night’s meeting turned out to be anything but decorous. The guest speaker was Dr Michael Daubs, a senior lecturer in media and communication at Victoria University of Wellington. (The job title might give you a clue about what’s to follow.) His address was titled The Truth About Disinformation. It was a red rag in a room that turned out to include quite a few bulls.

Aaron Ironside: The one-sided cannabis debate

I will never forget the day I was announced as the Say Nope to Dope spokesperson. Within hours of the press release being sent to media, I received an anonymous call from a radio station where the announcer told me that if I intended to speak out against cannabis legalisation he would bring every power at his disposal to destroy me.

I spent 25 years in the NZ Media, including time as a newsreader, and I struggled to believe that bias was an issue. I would quickly learn that some journalists were no longer satisfied with reporting the news. They wanted to make the news. And they nearly managed it.

John Robinson: Where are we going? This is our country, our future to decide

We, the living, are not ruled from beyond the grave by those who lived before us in different times. It is for us to decide our way of life, our culture, our government, our laws.

Let go the shackles of the past

The Treaty of Waitangi was set down, agreed upon and signed in 1840, now (in 2022) 182 years in the past. In the last half-century, the text has been argued over, translated to and fro between English and Maori multiple times with massive changes in the meaning of many Maori words — such as taonga going from property taken at the point of a spear [Hongi Hika: tao, a spear] to “treasures” [Kawharu]), and given newly introduced add-ons (such as “partnership” and “principles”) so there are many and contradictory versions of what was meant and what should guide us today.

Graham Adams: Stuff crowns itself the arbiter of truth

The media site’s grip on “facts and science” is selective and shaky.

Stuff appears to be taking its self-appointed role as the Ministry of Truth extremely seriously — despite its extremely patchy record on covering what it regards as science and facts.

On August 14, it launched Fire and Fury, an hour of taxpayer-funded agitprop that was designed to demonise anti-vaccine mandate protesters outside Parliament in February as being the dupes of far-right conspiracy theorists and white supremacists.

Its evident overreach was met with derision in some quarters — and even opened the door for Voices for Freedom, a group opposed to lockdowns, Covid vaccines, mandates and Three Waters, to thank the documentary’s host, Paula Penfold, for helping boost its subscriber numbers by 400 per cent.

Garrick Tremain: Source of all truth

Here is Garrick Tremain's cartoon commentary on Mahuta the puppeteer!

NZCPR Weekly: Swimming With the Tide of Political Opinion

Dear NZCPR Reader,   

This week we discuss the need for truth, not propaganda, in the public policy arena, our NZCPR Guest Commentator Bryan Leyland raises concerns about advisers who tell the Government what they want to hear rather than telling them the truth, and our poll asks whether you think there should be more honesty and less political spin in public policy debates.

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Fiona Mackenzie: Bullies Cleverly Shut Down Debate

Identity politics is a pervasive trend. The extent of it in promoting political causes and preventing freedom of speech was recently brought to my attention by an excellent article in The Australian newspaper - “Stifled by the Party Line” by Dan Ryan (30/1/13). Having lived in China, Mr Ryan compared the way the Chinese Communist Party squashes criticism with the techniques used by other groups to shut down intelligent debate.