Undulating Ungulate

Okay. So, belatedly, I hear about a bunch of Santas going ape in Auckland. Now, I read about this first in this Associated Press article on the ABC website under the headlines “Santas Go on Rampage in New Zealand: Santas Rampage in New Zealand’s Largest City, Robbing Stores and Assaulting Security Guards”.

Later in the article, it says “Alex Dyer, a spokesman for the group, said Santarchy was a worldwide movement designed to protest the commercialization of Christmas. ”

The NZ Herald, frankly something akin to a steaming pile of shit every time I’ve held one in my hands, had this

Alex Dyer, who organised the Santa spree, explained Saturday’s antics as a group of men who liked having a drink and a laugh.

“It doesn’t mean anything and it’s not against anyone. It’s just having fun. That’s what life’s about.”

While Mr Dyer did not condone illegal behaviour, he washed his hands of any responsibility.

“I can’t physically restrain people from doing stupid things. I can’t say, ‘Okay 50 drunk men, all listen to me: Please, nobody do anything stupid’.

“If someone does something stupid and gets caught for it, that’s their problem.”

He said Saturday was not an anti-commercialisation protest.

“People do Santarchy in other countries, sure, and for them maybe that’s their aim, but with us we’re just dressing up as Santa and getting drunk. We just like booze.”

I guess what interests me is the representation shift. One narrative reads roughly “violent drunken thieving anti-commercialists rampage”, the other reads “violent drunken thieving munters rampage”.

The slant seems a bit more blatant if you read the articles back to back. Which is sad, because I was just looking for confirmation that it happened at all, not confirmation that the media is systematically biased.

Filed by billy at 10:54 am under new zealand,the world
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