Just gotta say, about authoritarian leaders, we had one once, who was a genuine nasty little shite, Robert Muldoon.
A story from the vault.
I share this because one of my dinosaur mates didn't know the truth of this, which I saw an an example of a bullshit story that caused a lot of pain, when there was no need.
It is our version of "the election was stolen".
44 years ago in November an Air NZ DC10 took off from Auckland for a flight over the Antarctic.
As a safety measure it was planned to avoid Mount Erebus.
The experienced pilot was meticulous in his planning.
Two major things happened, on arrival over the destination there was a whiteout, so the crew and passengers couldn't see anything, and flew around blind.
The other thing, was that the night before the flight an airline technical employee changed the navigation coordinates, without telling the crew.
So because of the whiteout the flight captain reverted to his autopilot, believing it was planned to avoid Mount Erebus.
However the change in navigation coordinates had the plane headed smack ban into Mount Erebus, and that ladies and jellybeans is sad history.
However, that was just the early part of this tragedy.
While the airline officials were public wringing their hands wondering what could have happened, they already knew, very early on, exactly what had happened. Being highly trustworthy and responsible people
they decided to cover it all up and blame the accident on pilot error.
Airline executives visited the home of the grieving widow. ostensibly to offer condolences, but they really wanted to see what written information that captain may have left behind e.g. the correct navigation coordinates.
They had formal enquiries. One by the CAA blamed the Captain for pilot error. That was based on the principle that the captain is responsible for the aircraft, and should know where he was going.
Those two words, pilot error became like a mantra in press headlines and as I realised this week, 43 years later, that some people still believed them.
The government also had a Royal Commission.
Just to explain, it can be assumed that the head of Air New Zealand, Morrie Davis, was a hard little bastard, and was good mates with the other little hard bastard Robert Muldoon.
They sort of stuffed up in their cover up by allowing one of New Zealand's most distinguished judges, Peter Mahon, to head the Royal Commission.
I knew Judge Mahon. He was honest, clever, brilliant with words, and could strike to the heart of an issue like an arrow. He was the wrong guy to investigate a cover up, from the bad guys perspective I mean.
Anyway, Judge Mahon saw straight through the bullshit and said that Air New Zealand had presented "an orchestrated litany of lies." that line became famous as well.
Now, that should have been the end of it, like the 2020 US POTUS election. However Robert Muldoon and Morrie Davis were in the mould of Donald Trump.
If you don't like the message, attack the messenger, and if you are going to spread bullshit, spread plenty and don't stop.
The short version is they attacked Peter Mahon with every dirty filthy lying trick they could.
They broke this honest, decent, jurist, just because he told the truth.
He left the bench, and died younger than he should have. Many believe the stress led to his death.
I hate disinformation, and those that knowingly spread it. They are dangerous people.
Rant over.
www.rnz.co.nz
...and no need to mention they are expensive
