by frog
Keep Left NZ has released a video which includes rather crudely edited footage of various public statements Don Brash has made. The video splices together soundbites to have the effect of put the following words in Don Brash’s mouth:
We’re basically making a statement of principle. National would like to deliver tax relief to buy votes. New Zealanders can never afford the tax relief. I’m looking at cutting taxes and we propose to savagely cut government spending, particularly in the education and health sectors. We shall start in the first budget. And the risk is that ordinary, middle-class, middle-income New Zealanders don’t want, er, the last thing New Zealanders want is a sharp increase in interest rates.
While I appreciate the role of satire in political campaigning, I think this video takes things too far. A fun, tongue-in-cheek, boisterous campaign, involving some rough and tumble debate, is a wonderful thing. But putting words in someone’s mouth by trying to make it appear that he said something he did not, is another. Even though few people will be fooled by the video, it’s nevertheless deceitful and regrettable.
Don Brash should be beaten in the battle of ideas, not the battle of cheap gimmicks.
Published in Campaign | Media by frog on Wed, August 10th, 2005
Tags: environment
on the trolls and those who are unable to keep on topic
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Talking of what Brash is saying – is it true he really has said that they will make bulk funding of schools compulsory? Joy.
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Yes, he has said that. The Listener did an interview with Brash recently (online here: http://listener.co.nz/default,4501.sm). One of the questions was as follows:
Q: If elected, will bulk funding of teacher salaries be compulsory, or should schools be allowed to retain choice on that matter?
A: Ah, I think it should be compulsory. I think we made a mistake in the 90s by making it optional. The consequence was that teacher unions were able to block the progress of bulk funding. I think its fairly clear that most school principals and, I think, probably most boards of trustees were quite keen on the flexibility which bulk funding gave them, or would give them…
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Ask your local school about the exams that your children will sit from the age of 6 and then remember the mud slinging over NCEA. They can’t have it both ways……….now can they?
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Of course bulk funding is effectively what we experience in the Tertiary Sector and look at where that has left us. Senior lecturers used to be pegged against back bench MP’s and after 15 years of this funding model are now ~$30k behind. The wherewithal to run our tertiary sector is coming from not paying staff salary increases because there is nothing left to do this and extortionate tuition fees which lead to student loans which are in reality all that is propping up the surplus.
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I saw this programme the other day Dr Brash and Helen’s faces were all distorted and some of the things they were saying didn’t seem to be in the party’s manifesto… I think it was on about 9:30 at night – I’m not sure who to vote for after watching it? Can Frog blog please assist…reality and satire are really difficult concepts to me…
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oh we can definately help you there … vote green!
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How can the Nats follow a free market policy yet insist on compusory bulk funding regardless of whether or not the schools, teachers and parents want to go that way.
I doubt that a dubious made up video was necessary. It seems to me that any interview I see or, more especially read, where Don Brash is being questioned, he quite freely propounds some extremely right wing ideas, not merely middle of the road. Joy.
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um, frog, how come if a British media artist does cut-ups of a warmongering imperialistic US President (i.e. Chris Morris’ Bushwhacked) it is a worthwhile powerful artistic statement, but if some home-editors in NZ do it, it is deceitful and regrettable? That’s a serious question BTW, what’s the difference?
Perhaps if Keep Left NZ had just taken the Don Brash audio track and used it for one of their South Park style clips that would have been OK?
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Stuey: Well, I’m haven’t seen Bushwhacked, but my general point is what I wrote: “putting words in someone’s mouth by trying to make it appear that he said something he did not” is something that I don’t think is okay. Making fun of stuff he said is funny; making it appear he said stuff he didn’t isn’t. My problem is with the intent to deceive – and I do think that the makers of this video probably did calculate that some gullible people would take the quotes at face value and think Brash actually used this words…
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Thank goodness there is now a disclaimer there. I thought someone was illegally bugging the National Party’s headquarters. Luckily before I tried tracking down Mark Sainsbury and tipping him off I checked again. It was so frighteningly realistic. I’m still confused if the picture is real or not…It looks like someone off SouthPark but the website implies it’s Don Brash. Can No Right Turn or Frogblog assist? Aaron Bhatnagar says you guys are ‘absolutely right’ on this controversy so here’s hoping…
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To be honest, Frog, isn’t this another case of playing fast and loose with the truth when you’re not facing the basic accountability of having your REAL name on your work?
I’m seriously thinking about not linking to or commenting on anon-i-blogs during the campaign – this kind of stuff is obnoxious enough without giving it the oxygen of linkage. Much as we in the blogisphere like to sneer at the MSM, someone would have lost their job if this had gone to air on TVNZ or been published in the Herald.
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Craig: Certainly, I agree that people who put their name (or their organisation’s name) to a blog usually do feel more responsibility about what they post than those who don’t. That said, I’d say one of the most thoughtful, sincere, unscurrilous blogs in the New Zealand blogosphere is an anonymous one (No Right Turn)…
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Obviously we’re disappointed that some people didn’t see the funny side of our little video, but we’re very pleased that a good number of you have leapt to our defence.
For delicate flowers, there is now a WARNING on our site, making it even harder for anyone to be fooled into thinking we are Watergate-style burglars. Every new person seeing our “backstage” video is now forced to view the WARNING first. it is at:
http://www.keepleftnz.org/warning.html
And tomorrow will be a brand new day at keepleftnz with a new lead story and some brand new blog-awards to hand out. Stay tuned.
Craig Ranapia: Please see our anonymity FAQ ( http://www.keepleftnz.org/anonymityfaq.html ), which spells out our reasons for choosing to remain anonymous. If you are concerned with any of these reasons, please feel free to email me.
- Ringo
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Hey Ringo: This delicate flower thanks you for putting up the warning
My main concern was that people might think that Dr Brash said things he never said, and I’m glad you’ve ensured that won’t happen… Otherwise, I’m enjoying your site, and am looking forward to seeing what you come up with in the coming weeks…
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eek, sorry I didn’t look actually at the video before replying, they did take his words splice them and put them on top of the south park Don Brash. I blame frog’s misleading first sentence referring to “footage” of Don.
How on earth can you say that that is deceitful? It’s a cartoon character! It’s plainly satire. I think you’re being too precious frog.
It’s also not even that understandable, I couldn’t hear the words he says properly, or even recognise that it was Don’s voice – some sound editing skills might be in order to reduce the hiss. There’s even great big clicks at the edit points, it sounds as though it was edited with a tape recorder not a computer!
BTW, it’s listened to Bushwhacked not watched it, although Google does bring up two videos with that title, an unrelated 1995 feature and a recent 20-minute sci-fi short about the Bush dynasty continuing in power in 2024. You need to search for Bushwhacked + Chris Morris to find it. It is a powerful piece and a cultural landmark and there is even a Bushwhacked 2 which I haven’t heard.
Back to South Park Don I think the concept is great, absolutely nothing wrong with it, I just wish the execution had been funnier and more professional. I do support a warning page though – but not for a disclaimer. For a way to warn people about the filesize and technology that they are about to use if they click on the link. This is true of frogs link to the video above, it didn’t say what format or filesize it is in so we have no way of knowing whether our Internet connection or computer will be able to handle the download. That is by far a more serious and important consideration for most internet users than whether or not Don really said that. Most Internet users are completely OK with satire (even very rude satire – i’ve seen much much worse emailed around offices for example).
(To bring this post back full circle the reason I didn’t watch it the first time was because I was reading frogs post on a mac and when I clicked the link to the video the first time it couldn’t handle the .wmv file.)
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Ringo, my blooming little turdblossom:
I read your “anonymity FAQ” and I thought it was a load of self-serving crap. In short it all boiled down to: “We’re not required to face any kind of genuine accountability or transparency while accusing Don Brash of being a lying glove puppet with Bush’s hand up his arse – and if you don’t like it, boo hoo.”
As Russell Brown said “interesting”…
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