LETTING JOHN KEY GET AWAY WITH IT

"A Lie, a Cover-Up, and a Stolen Election: @nzherald's new evidence shows former PM of New Zealand John Key lied to his country about mass surveillance plans in the final days before the vote -- and won," - tweet by Edward Snowden.

Mike Hosking : Attacked both Glen Greenwald and Edward Snowden.

The work of NZ Herald journalist David Fisher has revealed that former prime minister John Key lied about the mass surveillance program 'Speargun' and has vindicated everything that Glen Greenwald and Edward Snowden said in 2014. But don't expect any of this to be mentioned by supporters of John Key like  Mike Hosking and Patrick Gower.

IN THE LEAD UP to the 2014 General Election, a number of New Zealand's 'leading' journalists attacked Kim Dotcom's 'The Moment of Truth' event. At that Auckland event journalist Glen Greenwald and whistleblower Edward Snowden claimed the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB)  had developed a mass surveillance program called 'Speargun'  to tap into New Zealand's internet cable and copy, indiscriminately, masses of data.

But journalists like TV3's Duncan Garner and Patrick Gower and Newstalk ZB's Barry Soper were largely not interested in what Greenwald and Snowden had to say. In stark contrast they were more than happy to accept Prime Minister John Key's claim that there was no such mass surveillance program. They attacked the 'The Moment of Truth' for failing to produce " a smoking gun", raising doubts about the credibility of both Greenwald and Snowden.

It was the concerted attempt by Patrick Gower and some of his media colleagues to discredit both him, Greenwald and Snowden that led Kim Dotcom to later comment:

"Patrick Gower is the most dishonest henchman in the New Zealand media landscape. He is not reporting on politics. He is creating the news that his National party contacts need. He’s part of the National P.R. machine. Unethical to the core."

Another high profile media personality who attacked 'The Moment of Truth' and the claims of Greenwald and Edward Snowden was Newstalk ZB's breakfast host and Seven Sharp presenter Mike Hosking.

TVNZ's Seven Sharp chose to provide coverage of  'The Moment of Truth" - but clearly only to discredit it in front of a prime time television audience.

Hosking was obviously hostile , announcing that Seven Sharp was "reluctantly " covering the event. He told his  audience that he had read what Edward Snowden had to say and concluded that there was "nothing in it". He went on to say that it was not so much a case of "mass surveillance" but one of "mass manipulation". I wrote at the time:

"That's right. If you were one of the fifteen hundred or so people who packed the Auckland Town Hall or one of the many hundreds who could not get in, or one of the thousands who watched it on the Internet, Mike Hosking says you were all 'manipulated', presumably by the dastardly Kim Dotcom."

Reporting from the Auckland Town Hal,l Heather du Plessis-Allan wanted the Seven Sharp audience to know that the timing of the event was "cynical". I wrote:

Patrick Gower : Claimed there was "no smoking gun."

"She could of said, that in an age when politicians avoid the scrutiny of public meetings like the plague, this was a return to better days. She could of mentioned that this was, by far, the biggest political meeting of the election . But she chose to say that the timing of the meeting was 'cynical'. She has clearly been taking lessons from her partner Barry Soper - who works for Newstalk ZB.

Her astounding powers of political analysis led her to conclude that the vociferous clapping and cheering indicated that it was a 'left' crowd. An alternative interpretation is that it was the reaction of a large crowd of New Zealanders who are concerned about what is happening to their country and are glad that they have people like Glenn Greenwald and Edward Snowden fighting their corner. They certainly can't expect New Zealand's media cabal to do that."

But, thanks to the work of  David Fisher and the NZ Herald , we now learn that everything that Greenwald and Snowden said was correct. We now learn that John Key lied when he said that the Speargun project was brought to a halt in March 2013.

Key said: "We made the call as government and I made the call as the Minister and as Prime Minister, that actually it was set too broadly. What we ultimately did, when it comes to Speargun, in my opinion, I said it's set too far. I don't even want to see the business case."

But, as David Fisher outlines, official papers show that Speargun continued after March 2013 and was only stopped after Key was advised that details of the mass surveillance program would be made public if Edward Snowden released the information and data he had in his possession.

But despite having a lot to say about 'The Moment In Truth' in 2014 - and most of it critical - the likes of Patrick Gower and Mike Hosking have now gone mute. Of course if they now highlighted John Key's duplicitous behaviour they would run the risk of having their own dismal roles in the whole affair highlighted as well. Displaying both venal self interest and political favouritism, Mike Hosking and Patrick Gower and others  will simply  let John Key get away with it.

Note: Kim Dotcom has since declared his support for Donald Trump and Trump cheerleaders like Sean Hannity of Fox News. Dotcom undermines his own credibility by supporting a president who, among a great many other things, attacks minority groups and posts videos from UK neo fascist groups.