Dirty Politics reviews

For this book to come out is at least an attempt to show a more balanced opinion about politics in New Zealand, since all the media whether written, visual or oral is definitely Right Wing. What it perhaps not do change people's minds as to who to vote for, since the book wouldn't be read by a left leaning people who are predominately working class that have been scared to submission by the Business community.

In short, Nicky has endeavoured to shine a light on a very distasteful side of politics that those engaged in don't want us to know about. Hopefully the light continues to shine and we refuse to accept this kind of behaviour!

While the topic is controversial, the material is well researched and every assertion is backed up with a reference to a specific document or source. A fine contribution to investigative journalism.

The one positive thing to be said about Hager is he knows how to market a book. He was a guest lecturer in a media studies paper I completed a couple of years ago, the purpose of his selection was to caution students to not believe everything they read as well as forming good habits for the correct academic citation of sources. Hager always times the release of his books to maximise on free marketing by riding the coat-tails of the 6pm news and upcoming elections. He attempts to maintain relevance as long as possible by then drip feeding additional information in the weeks following release in order to maximise pre-orders for further stock after the initial minimal print sells out. Another tactic is the “protecting the anonymity of my sources” excuse to allow himself the freedom to make whatever tabloid claims he likes without being fact checked. If you are a fan of Fox News and conspiracy theories this is the book for you, if you are looking for “revelations” relevant to the current election and political climate a newspaper is a much better source of reliable information as well as being a lot cheaper. As stated in the “about author” section above “Hager has degrees in physics and philosophy” so his commentary on politics is questionable at best; he also lacks the formal literary training to see how damaging his inflammatory commercial enterprises truly are to legitimate writers and journalists.

It seems that reviews on this book are polarised according to political views, which is a shame as it should be evaluated on its content. It seems that many reviewers may not have actually read the book, but are nonetheless happy to express an opinion on it.

I, for one, have read it. You may not agree with Hager's world view, but it's difficult to argue that this book is not meticulously researched and accurate.

Regardless of our political views, we should all be concerned about the abuse of power in a democracy.

If nothing else, I hope this serves as warning to all those who possess power – whether they be politicians, bloggers or media that sooner or later unethical behaviour will be exposed.

Worth even less in a week