the blog and turfs and the brandywine bankrompers

I was seriously considering throwing in this blogging thing earlier today - as an experiment, it's essentially failed (if you take aside its initial incarnation as a diversion while at work and the brief flurry while I was at school).

That was until I read an old compadre of mine this afternoon that incensed me for no apparent reason. It's an innocuous entry that makes a small contribution to the ongoing battle between Lew and Chris Trotter over the future of the country's political left.

Yet it was this simple statement that got my goat (my emphasis added):

Lew at Kiwipolitico has the kind of post up at the moment that reminds me why mainstream media is such an unsatisfying read/consume when it comes to political commentary.

There's a common refrain in the blogosphere that the mainstream media has failed, yet I remain unconvinced - yes it has its short-comings, but it can't be everything to everyone.

And that seems to be the over-riding concern for a number of my friends - it doesn't coin things in a paradigm that they've bought into.

For every lament as to why our top political commentators aren't delving into the growing divisions of the Labour Party movement, we get insightful pieces from the likes of Colin James, Pattrick Smellie (I'm contractually obligated for this one), and Fran O'Sullivan as to how political language is being re-written, why Don Brash is a naive idealogue rather than the spawn of Satan, and what the government is doing wrong in addressing youth wages.

They are doing what they do, and the majority of them do it very well, even if it doesn't touch on a number of keystone issues that the blogosphere wants to enter the main lexicon.

To be honest, the internal politicking of the wider left-wing movement in New Zealand isn't actually that important when it doesn't have any power, or prospect of taking power in the next five years (just saying).

What I'd be much more keen on seeing would be the internal divisions of the labour movement, which will have a lot of power in the coming years.

So I guess this is really just a gripe, and I've fallen into that trap that so many bloggers (and New Zealanders) do of identifying a problem without providing an answer. So let's pull a Kevin Smith a la Zack and Miri and tack something into the credits: ummmm, bloggers can do thier ultra-specialised commentary that will be taken with a vat of salt and MSM columnists (why am I even getting worked up over columnists - excepting Garth George, Michael Laws, Jim Hopkins, Richard Long, etc etc etc) can stick to their turf of churning something out in 40 minutes as deadline looms.....

Oy vey...

PB.

These words force you to a new madness

After what seems an interminable amount of time, I've drawn myself back to the blog.

Two weeks, five weeks, 32 weeks, it all seems like much of a blur at the moment.

I've just come off a two week internship at the Dom Post, which was very much an eye-opening experience. While you can see some of what I managed to achieve here, here, here, and here, let's be perfectly honest about this - I was out of my depth.

Sure, the baby reporter moniker has always been something of a piss-take, but I would not envy anyone jumping into the atmosphere of a metropolitan newspaper (or its equivalent) in an entry level position. It's... it's... it's difficult to explain, so I shan't.

I shall merely say that while it wasn't what I expected, I could take away some serious lessons, and so could my compadre, Sandra the luddite (who was able to start off our internship with this wonderful surprise - which sounded incredibly familiar).

And when this baby reporter grows up, he's going to be a full-grown hack...

Something to look forward to...

PB.

Other intership adventures can be found here and here.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times

Like Luddite Journo and Applebyline, I've been going crazy this week.

The baby journos have been hitting the hustings chasing politicos and pundits with our election week special at NewsWire.

A glut of stories means we haven't been starved for content, and we're capping it off with live updates all night as we monitor the eleciton.

Check it out - we've got some great stories. My pick would be LJ's muzzling of the National Party candidates - I'm surprised that didn't come out earlier.

I certainly haven't been short of a story, and you should definitely check me out - I need every plug I can get. I've chatted with Don Brash, Oliver Driver, secret insiders, Chris Trotter, and David Farrar and Marian Simms to name a few.

Oh, and I've also been pretending to be a full-grown journo, writing content on ShareChat every morning. If you ever need someone to blag about the fluctations in the NZ dollar, I'm your man.

Hope y'all had a happy election day - I know I did.

PB.