Couldn’t let another day go by without coverage of the Peters saga, could we? Sir Robert Jones has written again to NZ First. Hold the presses! And he’s threatened to go the police if he gets another “evasive reply” about where his $25,000 donation ended up. Yeah, well, hasn’t he talked about going to the police before?
This ain’t news. It’s a manufactured “story”.
By now people ought to be able to see the very obvious, concerted campaign going on here. It’s beautifiully choreographed — too much so — and getting clearer by the day.
Yes, Peters is a lying hypocrite and we would be better off without him polluting the body politic. But Bill English isn’t the only one treating the NZ voting public like easily duped dopes at the moment.
People should be sceptical of what I say. But they should also start watching closely to see how things unfold.
Tags: Winston Peters
Jafapete's Weblog 
August 5, 2008 at 9:10 am |
I hate to say it, but how did it take you to work that out? DPF has been toiling away to try and build this into a scandal for ages now. At one stage last week I counted fifteen Winston Peters related posts, that was on his first page alone. Funnily enough, there has only been one post on Kiwiblog about Bill English’s gaffe, and that was by way of an excuse.
August 5, 2008 at 9:26 am |
toms, Since you ask, I started to have serious doubts when the $19,998 bank deposit non-story “broke”. When the DomPost and DPF — two of the main scandal-brokers along with Granny — kept pushing that non-story I reflected on the perfectly timed leaks, etc. Ralston’s Listener column was also a revelation. The Velas cheque has been circulating for years.
August 5, 2008 at 10:09 am |
Personally I think it’s news. I’d love to see a story about this in all the papers every day of the week until Winston fronts up.
He has failed to answer the allegations after stating he would. The press have every right, some might argue a duty, to keep asking until they get answers.
If the story died down then Winston wins. I think we deserve better than that.
AndrewE, You’re talking about a campaign, not news. There is, or ought to be, a difference. Leaving Peters aside for a moment, the lines between news and campaigning have become very blurred as a result of this.
August 5, 2008 at 4:03 pm |
JP – does the fact that Margaret Wilson has decided that a question of privilege has been raised by the separate allegations made by Gordon Copeland and Rodney Hide change your view on this? On that subject, it looks as though Peter Dunne’s will be the crucial vote on the Privileges Committee.
I2, No. Why should it? Are you saying that it is not possible for Peters to be guilty of taking money from the wealthy, using some of it to pay his legal expenses and maybe some other things that we don’t know about, AND for there to be a concerted campaign to bring him down?
August 5, 2008 at 5:45 pm |
Doubt that there’s a campaign in the MSM, JP. Feels more like excessive milking of the story du jour. Typical media frenzy stuff. Although there is likely to be an element of vindictiveness to it, given the appalling way Winston treats the media.
In the blogosphere, however, that’s a different story. I think every right wing political blogger would like to see Winston fry. He’s the main reason there’s a Labour government, at the moment, not a National one.
August 5, 2008 at 10:20 pm |
I agree with you JP – There has been a deliberate blurring of what WAS the law with what is NOW the law.
September 2, 2008 at 3:02 pm |
[…] path to power — has been pretty clear from about week 2. I’ve posted on it here and here. More recently Trotter revealed being told that, “There’s a big pot of money out […]