POLITICALLY CENSORED BY THE DAILY BLOG!

The editor of The Daily Blog, Martyn Bradbury, declines to publish comments made by me - because I criticised him for cheerleading for the Labour Party. 

Martyn Bradbury explains how big his ego is to an unimpressed journalist.

I HAVE ONLY ever commented once on an article published by The Daily Blog and that was only to point out a factual error. However today I felt compelled - and had the time - to respond to another outrageous and grovelling defence of the Labour Party by the blog that claims to do things differently to that of the mainstream media.

It is conservative columnist Chris Trotter and The Daily Blog editor Martyn Bradbury who, together, have politically vandalised what, potentially, could of been a good alternative to mainstream media news websites.

Instead the conservative outlooks of Trotter and Bradbury, as well as their almost daily cheerleading for the Labour Party, has impacted on The Daily Blog to such a degree that it differs little from more openly pro-Labour websites like The Standard. As a result many writers - who aren't as enamoured with Labour as Bradbury and Trotter are - have quietly drifted away and Bradbury has been left with a small pool of writers who largely view the world through the same reactionary Labourist glasses as he and Trotter do.

The latest grovelling pro-Labour ramblings - and to which I responded - was written by Bradbury. Bradbury treats The Daily Blog as his own personal journal, so he pours forth his many and varied opinions, not worrying about niceties like coherency and research. They just get in the way.

Bradbury's latest affront to everybody's intelligence is to claim that we should be unconcerned that Labour has set up something it calls 'The President's Club'. Like the National Party's 'Cabinet Club' its function is to serve as a conduit to funnel cash from corporate interests and the wealthy into Labour's coffers.

You might recall that Bradbury has recently been beating his chest in his role as the self appointed champion of the working class - striking out at wimpy social liberals everywhere. Nonetheless our proletarian hero has no problems at all with the one percent funding Labour's political ambitions. He boasts:

"Labour have gone out of their way to bend over backwards to the Business Community by promising to never do anything that would ever make the Business Community unhappy – ever – and that is paying off dividends if that same Business Community now see Labour as a Party they can invest in."

It's all okay, says Bradbury, because "voters can still be safe in the knowledge that while big business are knocking they can’t call the shots." Yeah, right. Remember - Martyn Bradbury is the same guy who predicted a Labour victory at the last election and thought that the alliance between Mana and the Internet Party was the next best thing to sliced bread. So - Bradbury knows what's he talking about, right?

Bradbury's nonsense compelled one Daily Blog reader, 'Not A Robot', to write in. In part, he/she commented:

"...as if we lived in the Land that Time Forgot, New Zealanders are openly being asked to choose which Oligarchical political party we prefer to be ignored and disrespected by; the Nats and their moneyed interests in the “Cabinet” group, with unprecedented direct access to power, or the Labour Party’s completely outrageous and elitist “President’s Club”.

Let’s be clear, either way, these Oligarchs win, which is something I and others on the Left have been railing against for years. Yet here we are, at the Shameless Stage.

What the hell is wrong with this Blog that the best it can offer is an apologia for this disgrace?

Adjectives fail me Martyn."

I wrote a short comment, no more than a couple of paragraphs , to back up what Not A Robot had written. It wasn't defamatory. It was free of personal invective. The only reason it has not been published is because I criticised Bradbury and his cheerleading for the Labour Party. So he chose not to publish it. 

I have been censored for my political views and that is contemptible. I'll live with it but, fair warning, it does indicate that The Daily Blog has become Bradbury's play thing, to do with what he wills. You might like to think about that the next time Bradbury makes one of his frequent calls for donations to help fund this increasingly miserable blog.