A strange thing happened on the way to my article the other day.
Doing most of my cogitating in the morning hours has its benefits and its disadvantages. Having my attention drawn mid-dayish this week to a somewhat ludicrous quote attributed to Todd Muller in a Stuff article by Jane Bowron titled “Inglorious end to a lifetime of influence for Michelle Boag”, I exclaimed something along the lines of ‘Oh, for goodness sake, please tell me that’s not true’ (but actually, much more colourfully).
Bowron had claimed, as I read it, that Muller had proven his unfitness for the cut-and-thrust of politics by refusing, apparently, to answer questions on the Boag/Walker fiasco since “He was about to have a cup of tea and a lie down”, which left me slightly astonished, along with you good people too, I imagine — if it were true.
Determined to dig into this so-called assertion of Muller’s that very morning, you can imagine my surprise in finding the entire section of Bowron’s article containing the quote memory-holed overnight by the journalists you can trust at Stuff — “Because social media isn’t news media” — see?
Recalling that I was indeed sober on reading the original, and hadn’t imagined it, I became perplexed. As it happens, the trustworthy Stuff had opened comments on the story; a happening almost as rare as an Ardern mistake, and there, in broad dawnlight, were references to the “cup of tea and a lie down” claim in the original story since removed…
So; a comment hoping to excite interest in Muller’s work ethic now becomes a comment on Stuff’s ongoing mendacity in disparaging the bloke, then covertly altering the story of high public interest without a skerrick of notice — not an ‘updated’, not an honest ‘this story originally claimed’, nothing.
That’s why I won’t be donating to “trusted journalism” anytime soon, ‘not right now’, not ever. Ethics are so last-century at that brand, and as for ‘trust’, it doesn’t exist.
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