Interesting disclosure from David Farrar yesterday. He, along with Matthew Hooton, and (waste of members money) PSA are bankrolling Bryce Edwards, one of the few remaining supporters of the Alliance, to provide the political commentary which mainly attacks Labour and the Greens from the looney left. The guy makes Margaret Mutu look like a well balanced academic.
As we all know the majority of Farrar’s income comes from the taxpayer via a “research” arrangement.
I wonder if Bill English signed the deal off or whether it was just a nod and a wink.
Will let you back on Red Alert when you get a real email address. Trevor
Use your own blog not ours. Trevor
Wow you are slow Trevor. I disclosed the sponsorship months ago, as did Bryce. In fact Bryce mentions the sponsorship in every daily e-mail.
Anyway keep up the good work focusing on the issues that matter to New Zealanders.
Shock! Horror! Who knew!!
Except, of course, for the fact that every issue of NZ Politics Daily carries at its head the statement:
“New Zealand Politics Daily is produced independently by Bryce Edwards, Department of Politics, University of Otago, with the help of a research assistant who is paid for by the sponsorship of:
Curia Market Research – the place to go if you want to know what New Zealanders are thinking
Exceltium Ltd – New Zealand’s most successful corporate and public affairs consultancy
PSA – the public sector union advocating for strong public services and decent work.”
And I suspect the majority of all those who subscribe do not do so just because of Bryce’s commentary (which has its biases, yes … show me a commentator who doesn’t have these) but because of the extraordinarily thorough collection of “real” media and blog commentary on matters political. If a lot of that commentary has criticisms to make of Labour, then perhaps you should look inwards rather than shoot the messenger. Just sayin’ …
(Disclosure: Bryce is a friend, with whom I intend to get drunk on Saturday before dancing badly at a Verlaines concert.)
Worth clarifying as Andrew Geddis has that the sponsorship is not for the commentary but for the compilation of the day’s political news stories by the research assistant. I find it an invaluable resource, which is one of the reasons Curia sponsors it.
Thanks for the post Trevor. These issues are important and it’s good to see an opposition doing their job.
Good to see the RWNJs getting themselves in a fit over it too!
Expose these turncoats Trevor, bryce is a national party lackey.
Ben.
Yes. I am a RWNJ. That is a description everyone who actually knows me would unequivocally endorse.
Farrar? He’s gone soft and pink. Ask Whale Oil and Cactus Kate.
David – When did you last focus on something that matters? No, your work is carefully designed to keep the focus on anything but the stuff that will really affect ordinary Kiwis. I find it intriguing that anyone would want to publish your pathetic shills for this government. Your columns need to carry a promoter statement for they are all clearly designed to encourage votes for National. The fact that you dare to call yourself a commentator does disservice to the word.
Apropos Farrar’s linked piece “Are the Greens becoming astroturfers?”:
astroturfing is… a form of advocacy in support of a political, organizational, or corporate agenda, designed to give the appearance of a ‘grassroots’ movement”.
Does that kind of describe a certain market research company supporting a certain political party parading as an independent organisation?
Bryce’s daily roundup is a great resource, and sponsorship of it has always been openly acknowledged.
Awaiting with interest disclosure of sponsorship of Red Alert, I’m sure it isn’t based on any nods or winks.
Pete George AND Andrew Geddis? the two biggest RWNJ’s in the history of NZ political blogging. Don’t work yourselves into a fit…
(do i need the /sarc tag?)
Dear oh dear Trevor. I know it is a bit rude to do this, but here’s a link to what I have to say in response: http://www.electionresults.co.nz/opinion/politicians/mallard-goes-mad
What is it about Otago University academics and child like naivety? You are not a fool Mr. Geddis so wake up and smell the coffee. Anyone who reads Bryce Edwards views knows his visceral dislike of the Labour Party colours everything he writes. It is also a fact that he is now just so happens to be funded by two of the most prominent cronies of the National Party propaganda machine to collect his news stories and this, not coincidentally with his newly raised profile, has made him a some time media go-to guy for “left wing” comment that will none the less be reliably anti-Labour.
Perfect the National Party, and they’ve probably got their man for chump-change. If Bryce Edwards can’t work this out for himself then he is either an idiot or quite happy to be a willing monkey for the grinders Farrar and Hooton.
Interesting post Trevor – I would be interested to see if any of the posters on this blog comment here as part of a role for financial reward…
As for Hooton and Farrar – didn’t you strike a nerve! If you have, as the disgraced and discredited Hooton says, “gone mad”, then I have to say I like it.
Anyone who reads Bryce Edwards views knows his visceral dislike of the Labour Party colours everything he writes.
Spot on! Stopped reading his so-called independent political analyses a long time ago.
If Bryce is so toxic I presume Carol will withdraw from Vote Chat today.
And Phil Goff, Grant Robertsonn and David Shearer will also withdraw from their upcoming Vote Chats in protest at Edward’s imbalance?
sounds like the perfect place for taniara turia to get a job once her constituants decide to get a real advocate…. she can indulge her obsession with helen clarke while still getting paid by the national party…
Interesting how wound up people can become. RSS feeds, newsmail emails on TV news, mySky, twitter on radio, stuff and herald sites give me the same material often 15 hours earlier.
Don’t believe Matthew has got one extra client from being Edward’s patron.
Only valid point is the tidy historical collection. Useful I’m sure but not what Bill is paying for.
So the psa funding of politics daily is a waste of members money? What about when the psa donates to the labour party who then turn around and attack public servants who disagree with labour? Is that a good use of members funds?
I wish the PSA and other state unions would fund the Labour Party. They don’t and never have. Trevor
Never heard of him until now.
Just out of interest can anyone tell me the measure of “successful” in the following?
“Exceltium Ltd – New Zealand’s most successful corporate and public affairs consultancy”
And Pete George – not suggesting boycott.
And as I think you know Red Alert is funded by Labour MPs from our incomes.
David, did Bill English sign off the deal or was it a nod and a wink?
Trevor, obviously this disclosure has annoyed you but I don’t understand the importance of it at this time?
Gee whiz, surprise surprise. The “left-wing academic” who attacked Labour prior to the last election (including erroneously accusing The Standard of being run by a union) is embraced and funded by NACT shills and rises to prominence in the mainstream media. Heck, look over there – night is following day.
It might give some credence to the NACT strategy of not flinging mud themselves but rather assisting others to do so in an effort to keep clean hands.
Just BTW – I think Bryce Edwards has some interesting and valid views around campaign finance that neither Labour or National would like. But to my mind he is just to compromised by personal dislikes for his utterances as a “left wing” commentator to be taken seriously – something I think Farrar and Hooton both know, and hence their desire to use him as a black propaganda source.
“is embraced and funded by NACT shills and rises to prominence in the mainstream media”
Wrong way round, he rose in the mainstream media long before the daily news round-up, or sponsorship by Farrar and Hooton. No conspiracy here.
“Spot on! Stopped reading his so-called independent political analyses a long time ago.”
What isn’t independent about the analysis? He’s strongly left-wing, and criticises the centrist aspect of Labour. Being independent doesn’t mean supporting Labour.
With regards to Bryce’s commentary, it is certainly money well spent. He has an analysis (which I rarely agree with), and then a list of the important issues of the day. What’s useless about that?
This is a low blow Trevor.
“He’s strongly left-wing, and criticises the centrist aspect of Labour.” Does make it odd that he is supported by a former National Party Strategist and a current Nat researcher though. Strange bedfellows indeed. No law against strangeness though.
I had never heard of Bryce Edwards so have just looked up his website, interesting titled “liberation”. Can’t find anything remotely right wing there, his problem with Labour could well be that they are not left wing enough.
His site could easily pass for an intelligent Greens one. God knows they need one.
Wrong way round, he rose in the mainstream media long before the daily news round-up
Oh yeah? Must’ve missed it. Point out some nationwide Telly or press he appeared in prior to being feted on the kiwibog sewer in 2007 and I’ll take some of it back.
I have never read such an imbecilic post. This kind of thing is a disgrace to the Labour Party, if you could be bothered to mount such an effective attack on the Tories instead of non-compliant academics you might be getting somewhere.
The only thing I can add to Andrew Geddis points, is that I’d also like you to substantiate, your claim that Bryce is an Alliance Party “supporter.” Speaking as a national officer of the Alliance Party, I would like you to provide evidence of your above claim. Which may be hard, as it is of course nonsense.
What’s more, I’ll be going back to my (private sector) Labour-affiliated union and raising this A-grade garbage with our leadership.
“I have never read such an imbecilic post” – you obviously never go to the standard or kiwiblog of gotcha then.
Taking up the time of your union leadership on what you describe as an act if imbecility will “mount such an effective attack on the Tories” how?
I would like Trevor to confirm that he currently plays a key role in devising Labour’s election strategy.
After reading this post, I would like to ask the readers of Red Alert – why?
Well well! aren’t we getting ourselves in a lather today!
Perhaps Dr Edwards dislike of Labour is because they are doing such an abysmal job of being the opposition party?? perhaps it is not an outward bias towards labour, but a contempt for the awful politics that the party is currently utilising? Rather ironically, this blog by Labour’s own campaign manager is a shining (or should that be steaming?)example of the current state of affairs within the Labour party.
Mr Mallard I am ashamed that, until recently, you were my local MP, Dr Edwards deserves an apology and retraction. The same goes for Messers Farrar and Hooten, who contribute money to the daily in order to promote political discussion in people’s inboxes.
Speaking from experience, New Zealand Politics Daily (NZPD) is an incredibly useful tool for students and bloggers. Although Bryce may, at times, attack Labour (and often the Greens) you cannot doubt his sincerity as a lefty. I have subscribed to NZPD from day one and Bryce fully disclosed the need for sponsors to continue the service. I, personally, was glad to see David, Matthew Hooton and the PSA jump on board. Bryce is, in my opinion, a man of integrity and would not allow the NZPD sponsorship arrangements to tar his excellent commentary.
As for historical oddities you cant beat nationals archive
http://wayback.archive.org/web/*/http://national.org.nz
Bryce Edwards consistently rubbishes the Greens. I don’t recall him ever saying anything good about my party, ever. He’s got a huge chip on his shoulder, and I don’t think he’s very rigorous as an academic.
Nevertheless, he does seem to speak from the heart. I don’t think anyone’s paying him to have those opinions, they’re sincerely his.
Looney? Ah, no. Reality has a radical left wing bias. Of course, you’re part of a right wing party and so I suppose you do have to attack anyone who calls you on that.
“I would like to ask the readers of Red Alert – why?” Surely your question is better directed to the Labour Caucus. Of all of us who seem to post here YOU are more likely to be able to elicit, or embarrass an answer, from them than any we mere commenter.
Given all the comments made here, could David Farrar and Mathew Hooten post their reasons for sponsoring a person seemingly diametrically opposed tot heir own daily/professional goals? Altruism?
I suspect Farrar and Hooton back Bryce for the same reason the PSA does: to have their organisation’s name associated with an extremely useful political service subscribed to by most of New Zealand’s leading opinion-shapers.
All of whom will soon be made aware, I’m sure, of the Labour Party’s Campaign Manager’s extraordinary outburst.
An intelligent and well-informed campaign manager would, of course, have anticipated this highly undesirable outcome – and kept his fingers well away from the keyboard.
“Mr Mallard I am ashamed that, until recently, you were my local MP”
Here Here… I also fall into that category. Fraser Coleman and Sonya Davies would be turning in their graves Trevor. I think of all the years my Mum and Dad collected funds for the Labour Party, door knocking around the streets of Y’nui they would be ashamed of the party that Labour has become. Do you not get that people are turned off by this rubbish or have you had advanced media training from Clare.
Tracey: My reasons are three-fold:
1) It is partly selfish.I genuinely find NZ Politics Daily useful to me due to the extensive stories and posts they collate and by sponsoring it, it means it gets to continue which benefits me
2) It is partly altruism. I think it is also a valuable resource to NZ Politics, and was happy to partly perform a public service by helping keep it going. I donate a significant portion of my income to “good” and/or “charitable” causes
3) It is party commercial. It’s a good way to get Curia’s name out to opinion-shapers who are potential clients
It may or may not be of consolation that at least with people like Henare and Mallard and Marawira what we see and hear is what we get. Others, from all parts of the political spectrum are so well “managed” we have to read between the lines to get the truth of their real views.
It takes a lot of time and effort to produce NZ Pols Daily, and Bryce simply could not do it without assistance, both financial and voluntary, as well as do all the other things he does (lecturing at the University of Otago, supervising PhD and Honours candidates, and producing the University’s Politics Department’s Vote Chat election series).
A while ago, as NZ Pols Daily became much more time consuming, Bryce asked for assistance from amongst his readership, a couple of times, to help in compiling, filter and distrbute the best in NZ Pols Daily. In fact, he asked a couple of times, because it’s actually hard to get money from people these days.
The undertones to this post are frankly ridiculous.
Disclosure: I (aligned with National) work with Bryce (previously aligned with Alliance) alongside my partner (aligned with Labour) to produce Vote Chat, sponsored by the University of Otago (better than the University of Auckland) and the Otago University Students Association (not huge fans of National/ACT at the moment), which was viewed by Chris Trotter (aligned with the very fabric of leftism) last week on an iPhone (aligned with capitalism) in the Duke of Wellington (aligned with the English rugby team), Dunedin (aligned with Scotland).
@ Chris Trotter:
As far as I’m aware Trevor Mallard is not the party’s overall campaign manager. He’s the parliamentary party’s campaign strategist. Subtle difference even if the two roles do merge from time to time.
I also suspect TM may have a secondary motive for his admittedly curious choice of words.
Tracey:
You ask: “David Farrar and Mathew Hooten post their reasons for sponsoring a person seemingly diametrically opposed tot heir own daily/professional goals? Altruism?”
In response:
1: Please spell my name correctly.
2: I have broadly answered your question here:
http://www.electionresults.co.nz/opinion/politicians/mallard-goes-mad
But 3 (because you may have trouble reading all the way through my post above): Yes my reasons were broadly altruistic. Bryce and his students needed a bit of cash to keep the service going and I’m a political junkie with a reasonably successful business, so I said I’d chip in. It seems Trevor and leftie nutters like you don’t understand that sometimes people do things like this with a shrug of the shoulders rather than because of involvement in a deep conspiracy. It raises the question: what motivates you to post the rubbish you tend to write? Is someone paying you?
Tracey I don’t think any of that is a consolation to Labour voters. Denigrating an respected academic because he DARES to criticise the left, postulating that there is something dodgy going on – sans evidence, even when the protagonists provide the necessary facts. ” I wonder if Bill English signed the deal off or whether it was just a nod and a wink.” Dribbling nonsense.
There are two things wrong with Bryce Edwards’ daily junk mails in my view – they are boring and by the time they come out I’ve already seen everything I wish to read in any instance.
That he’s got anyone to actually sponsor it says more of their stupidity to throw money away than any conspiracy.
His commentary adds no value with all his academia than we get listening to DPF in any instance.
As an aside once again however I am in total awe of Hooton for having someone else wear and promote his claim:
“Exceltium Ltd – New Zealand’s most successful corporate and public affairs consultancy”.
Brilliant.
Was the identity of National’s 2005 “American bagman” ever autheticated, or was that just another one of this MP’s wild, unsubstantiated allegations.
Disclaimer: I am not now, nor have I ever been a “chinless scarf-wearer”