Self-serving journalism

Chris Trotter writes about the appointment of Matt McCarten as David Cunliffe's Chief-of-Staff:

Since the departure of Helen Clark and her Chief-of-Staff, Heather Simpson, the Labour Leader’s Office has lacked what American political journalists call a “junkyard dog”. Someone steeped in the values of the movement and who knows where all the important bodies are buried (often because he or she put them there!). A bruiser and a brawler who will frighten the Bejesus out of anyone who so much as looks sideways at the party leader.

New Zealand currently possesses only two match-fit junkyard dogs, Matt McCarten and Richard Prebble. And isn’t it the most delicious of historical coincidences that both of them have been recalled to the electoral fray at the same time? Both men can call on extensive personal networks and both possess extraordinarily campaigning and negotiating skills.

How convenient. Trotter says that only two currently exist. Do you think he would have written that last week? Before Prebble's return was public knowledge? This is only a "historical coincidence" of Trotter's invention because he wrote the context for it.

Given Matt McCarten’s brilliance as an organiser, a negotiator and an enforcer, it would have been lunacy on Cunliffe’s part not to appoint him Chief-of-Staff.

Well, see, I've not a jot of Trotter's knowledge of inside political workings. But again this development is painted as a convenient yet triumphal fait accompli. McCarten was just waiting in the wings to save Labour. There's almost a touch of theatre about it.

(But Trotter waxing lyrical can't hold a candle to Bomber who has succumbed to the rapture of musical grandeur. He can hear the anthem playing. Arise Messiah Matt.)

Given Matt McCarten’s brilliance as an organiser, a negotiator and an enforcer, it would have been lunacy on Cunliffe’s part not to appoint him Chief-of-Staff. - See more at: http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2014/02/26/lunacy-or-brilliance-cunliffe-appoints-matt-mccarten-as-his-chief-of-staff/#sthash.u9fTwqRQ.dpuf

Since the departure of Helen Clark and her Chief-of-Staff, Heather Simpson, the Labour Leader’s Office has lacked what American political journalists call a “junkyard dog”. Someone steeped in the values of the movement and who knows where all the important bodies are buried (often because he or she put them there!). A bruiser and a brawler who will frighten the Bejesus out of anyone who so much as looks sideways at the party leader.
New Zealand currently possesses only two match-fit junkyard dogs, Matt McCarten and Richard Prebble. And isn’t it the most delicious of historical coincidences that both of them have been recalled to the electoral fray at the same time? Both men can call on extensive personal networks and both possess extraordinarily campaigning and negotiating skills.
- See more at: http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2014/02/26/lunacy-or-brilliance-cunliffe-appoints-matt-mccarten-as-his-chief-of-staff/#sthash.u9fTwqRQ.dpuf