By Jack Brookes
Key Points:
How influential
are bloggers?
Should mainstream media react to
bloggers?
Does Hager report anything of value?
Or is he merely a left-wing conspiracy theorist?
How is it that Cameron Slater has become a household name? How have Cameron
and bloggers like him, come to the conclusion that they have the power to ‘take
down,’ politically active individuals? Surely, regardless of your political
persuasion, this influence is concerning when it starts to shape policy and
target individuals.
One might argue that a serious exploration into the nature of public
broadcasting and the importance of increased funding in this public sector is desperately
needed in New Zealand. Why?
Because the media plays an essential role in framing politically charged
issues. Therefore biased, sensationalized or inaccurate information presented
through mainstream media could have the potential to dirty our democracy. Increased
funding would enable public broadcasters to invest more time in corroborating
stories, analysing agendas, and presenting balanced news coverage, free of the
need to satisfy commercial interests.
It is in fact Nicky Hager who made this argument, in the afterword of Dirty
Politics. In spite of your political views this is one aspect of Dirty Politics
that should be carefully considered by all New Zealanders.
By now you’ve probably heard the details published in Nicky Hager’s book,
Dirty Politics, and are familiar with the multitude of allegations concerning
the use of Cameron Slater’s blog Whale Oil Beef Hooked to further the National
Party’s political agenda. Hager maintains that the evidence amassed in his book
demonstrates the ushering in of a new era of negative tactics in New Zealand
politics, mimicking that of the American political system.
However, it is evident while reading the book that Hager is heavily reliant
on theory to back up this claim. He utilizes the evidence available to him to
paint a concerning landscape of New Zealand politics, but never quite
establishing true lines of responsibility or accountability back to the Prime
Minister himself. This leaves us with a very interesting theory of how New
Zealand politics has come to be done, but no solid evidence that this is
anything more than the actions of a few arrogant, over-zealous, excessively
self-confident, mean-spirited, right-leaning people in New Zealand’s right wing
community.
Interestingly, responses to Hager’s allegations serve to demonstrate the
very theory Hager presents. Rather than John Key and the National Party
fronting up and responding to the claims, they have relied heavily on attempts
to malign Hager’s character and have repeatedly emphasised the illegality of
the procurement of emails and lack of journalistic ethics. John Key’s
declaration that Hager is a left-wing conspiracy nut has been mirrored by
attacks on his character on Cameron Slater’s blog. Funnily enough, this is
exactly the kind of response Hager’s theory would predict. Instead of
responding to the issues elucidated in the book, issues that are common
throughout the world’s democratic societies, the National Government has
instead chosen to focus its attention on the character of the person presenting
the claims. Simon Lusk, National Party strategist, quoted as declaring that
negative politics favours the right as it lowers voter turnout, should be proud
of his efforts to continue this strategy of dirtying New Zealand politics.
Similarly, the primary response of the media has been to focus exclusively
on the intriguing plotlines and colourful characters presented in the book in
order to substantiate the claims about certain members of the National Party,
specifically John Key and Judith Collins, and their relationship with Cameron
Slater. These lines of questioning are interesting as they could prove
catastrophic for the National Government's chances of re-election in the coming
weeks.
There are a number of observations as to the state of New Zealand politics
and political journalism in the book that do not concern the current National
Government directly and, possibly for this reason, haven't been covered as
extensively in the media's narrative. Links between Cameron Slater's blog,
Whale Oil, and several lobbyers from the alcohol and tobacco industries, for
example, illustrate issues with the lack of editorial oversight on blogs. These
links are illustrated in Dirty Politics through a worrying tale of the ways in
which corporate interests influenced perceptions of a fair working agreement
for workers enshrined in legislation that ensured decent contracts for
low-income cleaners in the Houses of Parliament. Cameron Slater's blog
published a number of stories paid for by a corporate cleaning company unhappy
with having to sign onto specific working and wage conditions in order to
contract to Parliament. The pressure applied by Slater resulted in the repeal
of this legislation.
Blogs are increasingly becoming sources for news as citizens transition
away from traditional media to new, internet media. By virtue of their lack of
editorial oversight blogs can report the news much faster than traditional
sources, meaning that traditional sources race to keep up. The revelations
presented in Dirty Politics show Cameron Slater posting public relations spin,
as handed to him and paid for by various lobby groups, under his own name.
These stories are then picked up by mainstream traditional media sources
without scrutiny, without analysis of the political agenda behind stories, in an
effort to not get left behind. This race to escape redundancy and to continue
to attract commercial investment underline major shortcomings in New Zealand's
political journalism landscape.
Finally, the release of sensitive SIS documents to the Whale Oil blog that
were used to smear a political opponent raises some crucial questions about
prevailing surveillance culture in New Zealand, as legislated by the GCSB. In
this culture of dirty politics, sex scandals and smear campaigns, the kind of
information that the GCSB is now legally allowed to gather about politically
active individual's personal lives needs to be put under further scrutiny. The
potential for this kind of information to be leaked to blogs like Whale Oil to
disparage political opponents is too great to be disregarded as speculative.
Nicky Hager's Dirty Politics may not land a definitive blow to John Key's
credentials as Prime Minister, but it provides a foundation on which to justify
an independent inquiry into the tactics employed in New Zealand politics, on
both sides of the political spectrum. It illustrates the necessity of
independent, well-funded public broadcasting. Perhaps John Key and his National
Government need to embrace their motto, “if you've got nothing to hide, you've
got nothing to fear”, and call for this independent inquiry themselves, to show
the New Zealand public they can be trusted with governance of our nation, and
pledge more money to public broadcasting.