The media is abuzz today about a non-event. Apparently, some people (the Herald included, it seems) were getting worked up about the possibility of National party leader, John Key, perhaps being involved in a shonky transaction by the now-defunct EquitiCorp back in 1988.
Unable to come up with the goods, the Herald is now saying Labour was keen to use the story to smear John Key. I guess this is the story you write when you haven't got a story.
I'd have a hard time getting too worried about a 20 year old transaction by a 26 year old John Key in any case. Even if completely true, it would be right up there with Benson-Pope's tennis ball.....so old and moldy (and the alleged perp now much older and hopefully wiser) that it's irrelevant.
Where Key and National are concerned, the real "dirt" is the gap between their aspirations and the things they have said publicly.
The case against them on that score is an open and shut one, well documented. The bottom line IS that you can't trust them to do as they say because you'd have to work out which version is the true one.
It is the job of other parties to point out such inconsistencies in their competitors and one would hope the media would cover it as election news while at the same time taking some care to ensure any claims being made were supported by something resembling evidence.
I have no issues with any party doing its job, though the line is certainly drawn at making false or misleading claims. In the case against National, you don't have to resort to anything false or misleading. National has willingly provided all the evidence by itself of the gap between what they say publicly and promises made in private to special interests.
Highlighting these gaps isn't a "smear" campaign as the Herald would have us believe. The Herald betrays it's own lack of integrity and bias toward National in portraying as "smears" the Labour Party (in particular) simply doing its job.
In my mind, a smear is something negative that is untrue or misleading by omission. Labour (or anyone) simply telling the truth about the diverse things National has been telling various audiences is most definitely NOT a smear in my view.
The truth isn't a smear.....unless you're the New Zealand Herald and you want to help elect a National government.
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