While his political career is deader than Dillinger, he's still on the public dollar, and will earn tens of thousands of taxpayer funds by hanging about until the election. There are some fundamental questions to be answered here - RNZ's Checkpoint has 10 simple, open questions that deserve some answers - and somebody needs to front to it.
But Mr Barclay isn't going to do it: nobody has seen him in Parliament, and he has made no public appearances, despite the National party's insistence that he continues to serve his constituents faithfully.
So when a couple of decent local journos went to talk to him, they weren't really surprised when they were turned away without getting any comment on record. They were a lot more surprised, however, when they heard there had been an official complaint, and that they had been accused of having bullied and intimidated staff at his office.
Luckily, they had some video rolling, and it all turned out to be a load of horseshit. The old saying that you don't pick a fight with an organisation that buys ink by the barrel-load is routinely ignored these days, but it's a shit-sight harder to rewrite the facts for political purposes when there is some inconvenient footage showing exactly what went down.
It's satisfying that the journos involved had the goods, and could slap down any allegations instantly, with the use of the video footage. The media's current thirst for never-ending digital video content has actually paid off for once, providing proof, and fact, and shutting down a brutally ham-fisted attempt on Mr Barclay's part to claim the status of aggrieved victim.
It's obviously also worrying, because it's part of an increasing trend of shooting the messenger, with politicians taking management and leadership skills from Gerard fucking Butler in 300, yelling 'This is Gore!' while metaphorically throwing reporters down the well. Do journos now have to make sure they're recording every fucking thing from now on, because who knows when an innocuous interview will become something else entirely? Is that what it has come to?
Also, it's actually fucking offensive, and annoying, because if there wasn't proof, and it came down to a he said/they said thing, you just know everybody would believe the proven liar, rather than the professional reporters who suffer extreme consequences if they are ever caught making shit up, (as in, it can instantly destroy your whole fucking future in the business).
Everyone knows this motherfucker is a bullshit artist, but if the media are saying things you don't like, then it's open season on them, in every way. This kind of tactic keeps the moronic rubes happy, and gets some short term results, but is a catastrophic long-term strategy, because the truth will eventually come out, and anybody attempting this strategy will go down in history as a fool and a charlatan.
Some politicians see the media as an easy target - Winston Peters is still smarting over the fact that news media have painted him as a racist, just because he said racist things and advocates racist policies, and can't let a day go by without sneering at the professionalism of people who try to uncover the truth for a living.
But if more reporters are going to be forced to record every interaction they have with people in any kind of power, just to keep them safe from unsubstantiated allegations, politicians won't be able to hide behind that flimsy barrier of 'fake news' for very long. And maybe, just maybe, they'll grow up and face some fucking facts.
- Ron Troupe
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