The Truth about Trevor Mallard

Nice to see Trevor Mallard supporting his old friend blogger Cameron  Slater’s venture into MSM journalism as editor of the venerable Truth. Above, Mallard snapped yesterday afternoon in Wellington with the hot-off-the-press new issue. If he’s reading it, I guess all the MPs are.

The cover story, headlined “Banned! Labour can’t handle the Truth”, is about Labour refusing to accredit Slater (i.e. let him attend and report) to its annual conference this weekend, even though he is now the editor of the only New Zealand-owned weekly newspaper. I don’t think that Norm Kirk would have done that, do you? 

I have no idea how Slater will go as editor, but he’s off to a good start with NBR picking up on his last week’s lead story. And taking the piss out of Daffy Duck is always good.

There are technical issues with the paper (apart from the horrible but financially necessary porn insert): I have no idea who the person in the big cover photo is because there is no caption, and the front-page story is billed as “read p10 for more details”. Nope, it’s on page 11. Fine to get stuff wrong elsewhere, but never ever on the cover. Still, there is a bit of investigative journalism and a few jokes. And best of all, it’s working-class. Labour must hate it so much, but my media friends are watching closely.