Never did we dream that our second post on this site would be on a topic that may end the political career of Prime Minister of New Zealand John Key.
Famous Kiwi investigative journalist Nicky Hager has just a few hours ago NZST, released an explosive new book called “Dirty Politics” that implicates the office of the Prime Minister and his Press Secretary, Cabinet Ministers, and other political figures in the seemingly routine leaking of information which allegedly may include information obtained from sensitive intelligence documents to Canon Media Award-winning right-wing blogger Cameron “Whale Oil” Slater.
It seems Slater has been caught out creating AstroTurf media by regurgitating not only information from the sitting Government but apparently also publishing word-for-word spin sent to him by shady corporate figures including the tobacco industry.
More shockingly, the Prime Minister’s office is alleged to have participated in not only the leaking of material for political motives, but the compromising of Labour party computers in order to facilitate the aforementioned.
These hypocritical political players are all critics of whistleblower Edward Snowden, and deride the leaking of information for the public good, yet appear to approve of and participate in leaking information for their own personal political gain.
Even more shockingly, the involvement of ex Minister of Police, now Minister of Justice Judith Collins, who has previously been outed by ‘The Listener’ regarding her leaks to media (saying “I do ring people up and give them stories, because, gee, I guess I think that’s my job…”), takes this to another level and suggests that this may snowball to become one of the biggest political scandals in the history of New Zealand – because Judith Collins is the sponsor of cyber-bullying legislation that was supposed to prevent exactly the type of bullying that WhaleOil engages in at the apparent behest of Judith Collins herself and a host of other established Parliamentary figures.
According to the Stuff.co.nz April 2013 article, Judith Collins’ “legislation will make it an offence to send messages or post material online that is grossly offensive, indecent, obscene, menacing or knowingly false. That sort of material will be punishable by up to three months’ imprisonment or a $2000 fine.”
Considering the extreme and offensive nature of Cameron “WhaleOil” Slater’s targeting of an alleged rape victim and his disgusting references to Pike River Mine victims/their supporters, what an ironic situation the NZ political and media jetset now find themselves in.
As many media commentators have noted, the revelations are mind-blowing and are only just unravelling. Until we have read the book for ourselves and seen how things play out over the next 24 hours, we will use this post to archive the information that is becoming available in the public sphere.
Media & commentary is also being aggregated on the Twitter hashtag #DirtyJK – a euphemism combining the title of the book “Dirty Politics” with the initials of Prime Minister John Key and the internet colloquialism for “joke”, which is exactly what has been made of WhaleOil’s blog and of the Ministers/political lackeys engaged in such underhanded backroom behaviour.
There have already been several calls for the resignation of the Prime Minister in the event that these allegations are proven, including from Helen Kelly, President of the Council of Trade Unions.
Aggregated media relating to #DirtyJK / #DirtyPolitics:
Official website of the book, “Dirty Politics” by Nicky Hager
Wikipedia – Dirty Politics
Statement from Unity Books over book selling out\
Reporter of the Year Andrea Vance says “SIS (Secret Intelligence Service) gave blogger first dibs on paper’s release”
Excerpt from “Dirty Politics”…
The many facets of the covert attack machine run by the National Party and its allies. #dirtypolitics by Nicky Hagar pic.twitter.com/dVzd1Vuey9 — Denis Tegg (@denistegg) August 13, 2014
Mainstream Media Articles:
Scoop:
– “Dirty Politics: Launch of Nicky Hager’s Book”
– “Gordon Campbell on Nicky Hager’s New Book”
Stuff.co.nz:
– “Hager: Book exposes National ‘attack politics’”
– “Dirty Politics – Industry Overwhelmed By Demand”
– “Hager’s book raises legitimate questions”
– “Voters Will Leave National ‘In Droves’”
NZHerald:
– “Hager book: ‘You Will Not Believe What You Read’”
TVNZ:
– “Hager book claims dirty tricks…”
– “Gloves well and truly off after Hager book released”
– “Judith Collins claims smear campaigns over Hager allegations”
TV3:
– “Nicky Hager’s book shows National’s dirty politics”
– “Winston Peters: Dark Day in Politics”
– “New Zealand Needs To Know The Other Side of Key – Nicky Hager”
– “Key Won’t Investigate Collins“
Yahoo:
– “Nicky Hager book launch”
RadioLive:
– “Investigative journalist Nicky Hager’s accused John Key of running the nastiest campaigns in politics since Rob Muldoon in his book Dirty Politics”
– “Nicky Hager Denies Kim Dotcom Involvement in Dirty Politics Book”
Otago Daily Times:
– “Dirty Politics – Hager Releases Leaked Emails”
Radio New Zealand:
– “Hager accuses National Party of dirty tricks”
MSN:
– “PM’s office dismisses Hager’s book”
– “John Key Trashes Hager’s book”
NBR:
– “Hager book contains leaked emails to ‘obnoxious’ blogger”
NewstalkZB:
– “Nicky Hager’s book attacks National’s links with bloggers”
Blogosphere:
Russell Brown’s Public Address:
– “Dirty Politics”
Martyn Bradbury’s The Daily Blog:
– “How Attack Politics Is Poisoning New Zealand’s Political Environment”
– “What Hager Has Revealed With SlaterGate and NixonKey”
– “Dirty Politics Investigation – Let The Public Be The Judge”
Interest.co.nz:
– Key “not worried”
E2NZ:
– “..Dirty Politics Book Kicks Up A Storm in New Zealand (Part 2)”
The Standard:
– “Hager’s ‘Dirty Politics’”
– “Dirty Politics in Tweets”
The Dim Post:
– “Dirty Politics”
– “Dirty Politics – Summary” (of allegations)
– “Dirty Politics and Consequences”
New Zealand 9/11 Truth:
– “Nicky Hager Releases New Book Exposing Leaked Emails Between Cameron Slater and Top National Party Members”
Chris Trotter’s BowalleyRoad:
– “Thank God for Nicky Hager!”
Voxy.co.nz:
– “Dark Day In Politics – NZ First”
– “PSA ‘Deeply Disturbed’ by Hager book allegations”
The Flippin’ Truth:
– “Book alleges dirty National Party politics; Greens, Slater to lay complaints”
Lawfuel:
– “Hager and the Hacked Emails”
The Political Scientist:
– “Media narratives – a field experiment and a Litmus test”
Geoffrey Miller:
– “How did Martyn “Bomber” Bradbury know what was in Dirty Politics?” (plus answer from Martyn)
Atlas Monitor:
– “Book alleges dirty politics – Key ‘not fit to be PM’”
The Jackal Blog:
– “National’s death by association”
Likebulb: Intel & Analysis:
– “What Nicky Hager’s book really exposes”
Polity:
– “Dirty Politics: My 2c”
YourNZ:
– “Dirty Politics must be cleaned from the top”
Pundit:
– “A Crazy Day in Dirty Old NZ Politics”
GotNewsWire:
– “Nicky Hager brushes off name-calling over Dirty Politics book”
FightBack:
– “The WhaleOil leaks – Anti-politics from above”
TeWahaNui:
– “Jason Ede Not A Public Servant”
Forums:
Geekzone:
– “Dirty Politics; Nicky Hager’s New Book”
And a nostalgia tweet from Cameron “WhaleOil” Slater himself:
#winner #canonmediaawards pic.twitter.com/EjUGELSboV — Whaleoil (@Whaleoil) May 9, 2014
Whitcoulls staff say the last book to sell out as fast as #dirtypolitics was the final Harry Potter @ONENewsNZ pic.twitter.com/glpLh4kXK2
— Simon Bradwell (@simonbradwellnz) August 13, 2014
…and more, much, much, more to come.
Spin Sins Committed:
Victim Blaming
Astroturf Media
Misrepresentation
Written by Suzie Dawson
Twitter: @Suzi3D
Official Website: Suzi3d.com
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