Stout & Vetiver reviewed Dirty Politics by Nicky Hager
Review of 'Dirty Politics' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
Dirty Politics is about underhand tactics, to say the least, used by non-party (but highly partisan) operatives in New Zealand during the early 2010s. As such the book is mainly of interest to New Zealanders with diminishing enlightenment for political tragics of the anglosphere the further away from Wellington you are.
The author, Nicky Hagar, is a respected investigative journalist who has written a number books critical of government actions which he sees as undermining democracy beginning with Secret Power (which is now freely available from the author's website) and most recently Dirty Politics. Hagar takes the view that a functioning democracy should be open and transparent while being faciliated by a fourth estate which aims to inform the public and hold the government of the day to account and ultimately politicans battle it out with ideas.
All three of Hagar's democratic ideals are shown to be betrayed in …
Dirty Politics is about underhand tactics, to say the least, used by non-party (but highly partisan) operatives in New Zealand during the early 2010s. As such the book is mainly of interest to New Zealanders with diminishing enlightenment for political tragics of the anglosphere the further away from Wellington you are.
The author, Nicky Hagar, is a respected investigative journalist who has written a number books critical of government actions which he sees as undermining democracy beginning with Secret Power (which is now freely available from the author's website) and most recently Dirty Politics. Hagar takes the view that a functioning democracy should be open and transparent while being faciliated by a fourth estate which aims to inform the public and hold the government of the day to account and ultimately politicans battle it out with ideas.
All three of Hagar's democratic ideals are shown to be betrayed in the book. Initiated by the arrival of a USB containing email communications between a notorious NZ political blogger and a number of other political figures including a government minister, Hagar uncovers the smear campaigns run against politicals opponents of a variety of political persuasions often directly funded by the ruling party and assisted with timely tip offs from ministerial offices, fast tracked freedom of information requests and other misuses of government instruments. While personal attacks seem to be par for the course the hits are carried out at arms length so the ruling party need not own their own bile. All this is further enabled by a supine and lazy media which Hagar holds to the fire and even sets out a few dot points on how they could improve.
Ultimately I found the book valuable, interesting, rage inducing and the media naivety little bit embarrassing.
