The Herald’s editorial this morning goes to some length to ignore logic in a desperate bid to parrot today’s National Party talking points.
Echoing Farrar’s “who has the most to gain by not telling the truth?” line, it begins with its conclusion:
“If Winston Peters had the decency his position deserves, he would now resign.”
Problem is, it doesn’t come down to “who has the most to gain by not telling the truth.” If it did, I’d be 99% inclined to go with Peters having the greater motivation, but would still be mindful of Glenn’s estrangement from Labour that Farrar and co want us to overlook.
But it doesn’t. Having decided that Peters has the greater motivation to lie and is therefore guilty of doing so, and should resign in consequence, it notes:
“If neither is honestly mistaken in his recall, then one of them is not telling the truth.”
I’ve added the emphasis, because this is the point at which the analysis should have started. Belatedly the Herald admits that its reasoning is based on overlooking the point that the conflict of evidence may not result from one (or both) lying.
The problem is that the Herald does not demonstrate that “neither of them is honestly mistaken in his recall”. I wish it could.
This sort of stuff puts the Herald in the same league as Farrar, who begins his post, “Owen Glenn has told the truth in his letter to the Privileges Committee.” I’m now strongly of the opinion that right-wing bloggers should be exempted from all jury service, because of the way they rush to judgement!
One thing the Herald gets right:
“Even National, ever tentative, has now cast him aside.”
Key held off as long as he could before taking a stand. Courageous? What a joke.
Perhaps it pays not to snub billionaires, Helen?
Tags: Labour Party, National Party, NZ blogs, NZ Herald, Winston Peters
Jafapete's Weblog 
August 28, 2008 at 10:40 am |
So why isn’t Phillip Field still a Labour minister?
After all, nothing has been proven yet?
Ah, but Andrew, the right were the ones who were condemning Field’s “corruption”, etc, etc, before hardly any facts were known. Labour could hardly be accused of rushing to judgement. If anything, it made a strategic mistake in my view in making the terms of the first investigation into Field’s activities too narrow.
August 28, 2008 at 10:51 am |
But the point remains – a minister should be beyond suspicion. If they look shady they should be stood down pending an investigation.
WP is being protected purely for his votes. Can you honestly tell me you believe differently?
Of course not. Did you like the caption on the photo?