Nicky Hager - Hero of the Week | The Jackal

15 Aug 2014

Nicky Hager - Hero of the Week

While the National party and their pet blogger's are doing their best to diminish the fallout from recent revelations concerning their despicable behaviour, it's well worth taking a few moments to contemplate just how much Nicky Hager's new book will be a game-changer for the upcoming election.

Although it's a bit hard to tell just yet, being that the pollster's and the mainstream media have suddenly become rather quiet on the issue, the political fallout for the right wing has clearly only just begun. In fact judging by how hard it is to even find a copy of Dirty Politics it would appear that a considerable amount of voters are learning about and won't take too kindly to the right wings underhanded dealings, and quite rightly so. Nobody in his or her right mind could condone the behavior outlined in Nicky Hager’s book, which should prove the end of John Key’s deceitful government.

Of course there are those who are claiming everything that has been revealed was already known. However, this claim is patently wrong because the evidence was previously unavailable. There certainly was a lot of speculation that in some cases has turned out to be correct, but until now much of this was just conjecture. For instance, Judith Collins leaking sensitive information, which in my opinion should have resulted in her immediate dismissal, was one such case that required hard and irrefutable evidence. Even though all the existing and substantiated proof already pointed at Collins being the perpetrator, she has continually denied responsibility. However, because of Nicky Hager we now know that Collins’ word amounts to sweet fuck all.

While National is in damage control with their ring-leader John Key trying to avoid the really hard questions, many on the right have gone into attack mode. After all, the best defense is a good offense. Unfortunately for them, National’s offense is just raising more questions and politically speaking their bad defense leaves a lot to be desired. Some on the right have even claimed that political parties like the Greens use exactly the same dishonest tactics as the National party. Of course these claims will be laughed at by anybody who actually knows anything about the Green party.

Similarly, most people will completely disbelieve the Prime Minister when he claims that nothing in the book is true. Although his bravado might convince the more fanatical National voters out there, calling on Nicky Hager to release the emails behind an entire book of controversial issues isn’t a bluff the Prime Minister should have made. All this ensures is that the consequences will continue right up to and likely beyond the September election.

Far from being a conspiracy theorist, Nick Hager deserves a huge amount of credit for working through what must’ve been a large amount of difficult material. Hager not only managed to read all those communications between people who are clearly unhinged without losing his own mind, he has also separated the more personal aspects of the correspondence out from the information that’s clearly of great public interest. This alone puts him leagues above the likes of Cameron Slater, a blogger who’s more than willing to publish other people’s personal information for political gain.

I totally agree with Bomber Bradbury on this one: “Nicky Hager has done more journalism in one book than the entire mainstream media has done all year.” Therefore I can think of nobody else more deserving of this week’s Hero award. Well done mate!