Busted!

There is a blog called The Standard who state that they are all independent bloggers and value their anonymity. They also attack John Key quite a bit. One of the bloggers, "Steve Pierson", is Clinton Smith, whom I’ve met. Until now the others have remained anonymous but are believed to have been working in on the 9th Floor and at the EPMU. Helen Clark has denied knowledge of The Standard even though ministerial staff actually write it.

Today others were named as Chris Elder, communications staffer ninth floor, Andrew Kirton, communications staffer for Winnie Laban, and Antony Rhodes, who works in Judith Tizard’s office. The others are Neale Jones and Rob Egan, both communications advisors for the EPMU.

Another blog No8wire is run by Rob Salmond . He used to work in the PMs office and is now working at the University of Michigan. He has just written an article called Enforcing Ethical Standards in Election Campaigns for the Michigan Journal of Political Science , yet he supports the Electoral Finance Act. According to WhaleOil, he posts under the name of rOb at The Standard, yet on The Standard he has denied setting up the 08wire blog.

Disclaimer: I am in no way associated with 08wire and I have no idea who they are)

WhaleOil says

ROb = Rob Salmond = former DPMC staffer and credited by his own mouth as the founder of The Standard. He was previously an MFAT officer, posted to the UN in New York, then worked in the PM’s office and is now an assistant professor of political science at the University of Michigan

So, rOb says he is no way associated with 08wire; but Rob Salmond is. Someone is either fibbing or making untrue allegations…
David Farrar says

Rob Salmond has posted a comment admitting he worked last year for the PMs Office and is behind 08wire and that he does not produce all the material himself but receives it from others….what is not denied is that material for all three anonymous sites is produced by parliamentary staffers.

Why should taxpayers fund people to write blogs in work time – including writing posts for overseas blogs. First Labour gets a photo of a family from Washington for their glossy brochures, now they are getting a person in Michigan to campaign via the blogosphere.

I posted a short comment on The Standard regarding the above. They banned my comment - but didn't deny it was true - and replaced it with this

Dave... As someone who purports to be a journalist I'd have thought you would know better than to take Farrar/Whale's 'research' at face value.

I don`t "purport" to be a journalist. And I have done my own checks on this and have had no denials. Sure I have been a journalist in the past, but I am not currently working as one. And when someone sends you an email its not "research", research is information gathering, not checking of e-mails.

UPDATEThe Standard has responded in comments confirming this post is factual.