Last Sunday we got an e-mail notification from Counterspin Media that Ms Boucher’s company, which uses the ironic name Stuff Media, has produced another hit-job on the leading opponents not in Parliament of the Jacinda regime, this one in the form of a 63-minute doco on who they consider to be the ‘Dirty Dozen’ — the independent media who are most active, and likely most effective, in challenging and deconstructing Jacinda government propaganda. They use every cliché they can, but the spooky organ ‘muzak’ overlay with night scenes which lasts 5 minutes at the start will probably cause turn-offs in both senses.

Unsurprisingly, the Stuffers trot out the same talking heads in support of their and the Jacinda government’s narrative that TV One and Newshub’s Leftist editors use — conspiracy theorists themselves.

Our reaction on watching it was a mixture of bemusement and annoyance. Bemusement because of the patently stupid statements it contains, reinforced by every sentence from their prime targets taken out of context they could find — and they, helped by Joanna Kidman’s recently created “Ministry of Truth”, must have spent weeks going through all the recordings. (You might think they would have learned something, but being a devoted Jacindanista would be a requirement of getting a job with Stuff and any of her paid Mainstream Media outlets.)

Surprisingly, lawyer Sue Grey of the Outdoors and Freedom Party wasn’t included: couldn’t the Stuffers find a single sentence of hers that they use out of context? Or is it because they can’t mention the legal cases she has taken against the Jacinda regime, several of which she has won?

Everyone who is mentioned has responded as you would expect them to.

The annoyance comes from the fact that it’s the Taxpayer who is funding this blatant Party Political Propaganda on behalf of the Nasty Party, the one currently in power.

Back in 2020 the Stuffers did a similar hit job on Billy Te Kahika, using the same smears, distortion, misrepresentation and character assassination. This seems to be what Ms Boucher who owns Stuff Media now seems to specialise in, and indulges in it regularly in return for government payments to keep her company solvent. She received over $400,000 in 2020 for the Billy Te Kahika hit job, how much for this latest one? We’ll OIA it to try and find out.

Naturally, the Stuffers try hard to ramp it up, particularly by making it look like the protestors want to give Comrade Jacinda the Nicolae Ceaușescu treatment (the only one of the former Communist block dictators to be executed by an angry crowd in December 1989). We think it’s a good idea for protestors not to say anything that suggests they want capital punishment, as a) people like the Stuffers/RNZ/Herald/TV1 and Newshub are certain to make the most of it, b) they and their paymasters will use it to justify hostile raids and police brutality against Jacinda regime opponents.

All the violence we saw in March outside Parliament was caused by the the state-paid Coster Mob, bar some on the final day that planted agents-provocateurs and/or Antifa were responsible for.

It’s obvious that these government-paid hit-jobs on Jacinda government opponents are going to continue. On Monday this mail was sent to all local council candidates:

In light of this Stuff Circuit piece this morning, can I get a quick yes or no from each of you about whether you have any involvement and/or backing from anti-vax groups such as Voices for Freedom?

Thanks– Tom Hunt Senior reporter

Hopefully, he was ignored or if anyone replied it was only to tell him and his employer to get Stuffed.

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A response to the Stuffers’ latest media creation on the BFD by Eliora

It is incredible that in a modern western democracy, New Zealanders are now being judged by state-appointed persons who are biased and therefore compromised.

The Labour government set up a Disinformation Project, giving it authority to snoop into others’ lives, and if they do not like the beliefs or stance those others take on an issue, those people become a target to be shamed and defamed.

My article in June highlighted the unfair treatment of… well, they said 12 people, but in fact, they could not even count, as they listed 13 names and called them ‘the Aotearoa Dozen’ or the ‘super spreaders’. Chantelle Baker topped this list.

The names were trashed on TV news and in print. These 13 people were said to be spreaders of misinformation, disinformation, dangerous speech, hateful expression, and criminal behaviour; but is that really true?

The Westminster style of government in NZ (a parliamentary system modelled on that of the United Kingdom) is set up with checks and balances so that no individual group within the government can become too powerful. New Zealand’s (unwritten) constitution sets out how Parliament, the executive and the judiciary have their own roles and how they also work together to make, pass, apply and enforce the law.

Kate Hannah, the principal investigator and director of the Disinformation Project said of these 13 (Aotearoa Dozen) people, in an RNZ interview:

The key is they mustn’t be left unchecked as it could impact the election cycle.

Hannah meant it.

The current Labour government is ignoring a fundamental aspect of justice. The Disinformation Project has been given extraordinary powers to silence others they deem to be enemies of the state.

Hannah has gone even further to silence Baker and the others, by making them a significant part of the recently released government propaganda documentary, “Fire and Fury.”

What is incredible is that the targets of her criticism are not interviewed for their views or given the opportunity to correct misinformation.

She is both judge and jury of their characters. They are repeatedly damned in the one-sided documentary, released by Stuff and funded by the Ardern government.

Chantelle Baker and the other 12 had no redress or opportunity to speak.

Kate Hannah is known to be a close friend of Jacinda Ardern and seems determined to assassinate the character of anyone who does not love Ardern as she does.

Hannah seems to believe her job description is to be a minder and protector of Ardern. Rubbishing Baker unjustly for the sake of the NZ Prime Minister’s election cycle surely is a step too far?

Chris Trotter gave his take on Stuff’s Fire and Fury documentary and didn’t hold back:-

Bluntly, Fire and Fury relies much too heavily on the “expert” commentary of Kate Hannah, a principal investigator and director of The Disinformation Project, a state-funded research exercise run out of Te Punaha Matatini at the University of Auckland.

In an interview with Dale Husband on the Maori radio station, Waatea, Hannah revealed that The Disinformation Project had been set up in February 2020, immediately prior to the outbreak of the Covid-19 Pandemic, to counter the anti-government, anti-scientific, and anti-medicine narratives that the authorities were clearly anticipating.

What is it that disturbs me about The Disinformation Project? Surely, having people monitor the misinformation and disinformation being spread deliberately during a major medical emergency is an entirely sensible government initiative? Any undermining of the collective effort to protect the population from the effects of a potentially deadly virus is prima facie evidence of evil intent. Many would say that identifying and neutralising such anti-social elements is an important state responsibility.

True enough, but why bury such a unit deep in the dense undergrowth of academia? And why appoint as its director a woman whose Masters thesis was on Nineteenth Century American literary culture, rather than a qualified medical administrator? If such a unit was needed, then why not set it up within the Ministry of Health, and make it answerable to the then Director-General of Health, Ashley Bloomfield?

Sean Plunket, the founding editor of new media, The Platform NZ, gave Chantelle Baker the right of reply and questioned her on the accusations rained down on her by Kate Hannah. [The Platform‘s podcasts are archived here]

In answer to a question from Plunket, Baker mentioned she is talking to her lawyer because of the character assassination.

The Platform thankfully helped to provide some balance as it allowed her to present her side of the story and to answer some of the unjust accusations made against her.