Friday, October 23, 2009

P.O.G.:The beginning of the end?

I did something foolish, and asked for more interesting work. It turns out they only heard 'more'.

Anyway, anyone for good news?

There he is, for the first time I can remember, at the bottom of the Opinion page. Sure, it is the Prime Minister - well, an aide I assume - at the top, but that's Garth's spot. Wait, does this mean...

Whatever the implications for the continuation of Garth's pie-money, the article itself is more-or-less the standard "nothing will replace newspapers" manifesto that you see so regularly in... newspapers. That's not to say that it doesn't have some great Garth moments:
I am grateful that I do not have to rely for my information on radio, television, or any other electronic means of communication for I would not only be poorly informed, but misinformed and ill-informed as well.
Yes, God forbid.
And the words? These came via teleprinter from the NZPA in Wellington, were sub-edited with pen or pencil, headed, sent to a linotype operator to be set in metal, galley printed, sent to a proof-reader, then corrected and manually placed in a page form.
Ahh, those were the days - way back when Herald articles were subedited.

So - what do you reckon? Will this indeed be the last installment of 'Party on, Garth'? Or can he, like the Lernaean Hydra, only be defeated by scorching the neck stumps with fire?

4 comments:

  1. Mmmmm, definitely scorching the stumps.

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  2. On a factual note - do you happen to know if NZPA really does still use a "teleprinter"?

    'Cuz I was a journalist from 1989 to 1999, and although there was one of those things in the building, I never actually heard of it being used. Not once. We had a fax...

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  3. Watch out, Garth Vader is trollying on about religion tomorrow!

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  4. I see they've (over)-compensated for last weeks 'error' by giving him three-quarters of a page to cut-and-paste almost word for word Tamaki's pledge thing.

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