One of the reasons National won the election was due to its success in counter messaging – and the way so many media commentators ran with the right-wing spin.

Here are some examples.

Dirty Politics

The original message was that pro-National bloggers and politicians were conspiring to dig up dirt on people (particularly those on the Left) and attack them with it. There was plenty of evidence in Nicky Hager’s book to back up this conclusion.

TDB Recommends NewzEngine.com

The right-wing counter message was that Nicky Hager talking about dirty tricks was in and of itself a dirty trick against the Right. Nicky was a biased, left-wing, conspiracy theorist. Therefore, you didn’t need to read the book or give any credibility to its contents. And even if you thought there might be some truth in the Dirty Politics revelations “everyone in politics does it” [even though no evidence was provided that the Left does it].

State electronic surveillance of New Zealanders

The original message from Edward Snowden and Glenn Greenwald was that there was mass surveillance (including of New Zealanders) and that the GCSB and NSA had access to the metadata (and other information) from that surveillance.

The right-wing counter message was that it wasn’t happening [despite evidence presented that Phase 1 of Project Speargun intercepting the Southern Cross cable had been completed – and the reality of mass collection on international phone call data through the Waihopai spy station]. The counter messaging was that you don’t need to worry if the Prime Minister refuses to answer questions about the GCSB’s use of X-Keyscore to search the huge Five Eyes databases of personal information, including on New Zealanders. Trust John Key. In any case, “if you’ve got nothing to hide, you’ve got nothing to worry about” [despite everyone having information they wouldn’t like to be made public, and the history of states using private information against their critics].

GCSB spying on other countries

The original message was that the GCSB is working with Five Eyes partners (particularly the National Security Agency) to spy on other governments, including friendly governments.

The right-wing counter message was that everyone does such spying [even though it is illegal and it is unlikely any Asia/Pacific country, other than China, is engaged in electronic spying on New Zealand]. John Key’s pronouncement that any people like Greenwald who inform us which other countries New Zealand is illegally spying on are not friends of New Zealand. Our right to know what is being done in our name is not deemed relevant.

Foreign interference in New Zealand

The original message from Glenn Greenwald was that the GCSB was acting largely in the interests of a foreign intelligence agency, the NSA.

The right-wing counter-message was that foreigners (Glenn Greenwald and Edward Snowden), by providing their evidence, were trying to unduly influence New Zealanders.

The closeness of the dirty politics and surveillance revelations to the elections

The original message (from Nicky Hager and Glenn Greenwald) was that the information and issues they were presenting was relevant to how people would cast their vote in an election.

The right-wing counter message was that somehow bringing up these issues close to the election was an unfair attempt to influence the election. Or at least it was diversion from the real election issues.

Kim Dotcom

The original message was that Kim Dotcom had become a radical critic of John Key and his government and had been the catalyst for setting up an Internet Party and helping it link up with Mana to provide a new radical alternative, attractive particularly to young people.

The right-wing counter message was that Kim Dotcom was only interested in getting more support to stop extradition [even though no evidence was provided for this]. Further, that Kim Dotcom was trying to buy the election by providing so much money for Internet-Mana [a somewhat hypocritical allegation from supporters of National and ACT, both of who rely on heavy funding from big corporates].

We shouldn’t blame ourselves too much for not being more effective in dealing with these “counter messages”, particularly when so many right-wing and centre-right media commentators were running with them. However, it was disappointing they way some left and centre-left commentators picked up the right wing counter messaging against Kim Dotcom and Internet-Mana. It helped National and lowered the Left vote.