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All the visible labels in the T-shirt neck area (Image: Toby Manhire)
All the visible labels in the T-shirt neck area (Image: Toby Manhire)

MediaMay 8, 2018

On Denise L’Estrange-Corbet’s statements about The Spinoff’s reporting

All the visible labels in the T-shirt neck area (Image: Toby Manhire)
All the visible labels in the T-shirt neck area (Image: Toby Manhire)

A note from the editor regarding the WORLD founder’s response to Spinoff revelations about its ‘Made in New Zealand’ garment labelling

Give Dame Denise L’Estrange-Corbet this: she didn’t attempt to hide from the story published on the Spinoff yesterday. The WORLD founder and ethical fashion proselytiser spoke widely to media, scattering arguments in her own defence like – how to put it – like sequins on a T-shirt.

She made a number of statements which were at best inaccurate, some of which went unchallenged by the radio hosts she spoke to. We list them below, followed by what our reporting actually revealed.

That “there is no garment in any of my stores that states that they’re made somewhere that they’re not made.”

That there was nothing to suggest the T-shirts in question, manufactured in Bangladesh, were made in New Zealand. “We don’t say that they’re made in New Zealand. The label is quite clear about that.”

(the T-shirts quite clearly carried tags attached to the collar that read, “Fabrique en Nouvelle Zelande” which is French for “Made in NZ”; labels on the inside lower hem said “Made in Bangladesh”, as stated in the original.)

That the labels that stated “Made in Bangladesh” were all in the neck collar.

(The Spinoff provides photographic evidence showing this to be false.)

All the visible labels in the T-shirt neck area (Image: Toby Manhire)

That the words “Fabrique en Nouvelle Zelande” printed on the tag attached to the T-shirt referred not to the T-shirt but the tag itself. “The WORLD clothing tags that say Made in NZ are Made in NZ, so there’s nothing misleading about this,” she said.

(Huh?)

That customers usually ask for the “swing tag” to be removed at point of sale anyway, and over seven years no one has returned an item complaining they’d discovered it wasn’t made in NZ.

(OK, but this really is not the point.)

That the Spinoff was set upon “ripping to shreds” WORLD, that it was all an example of the NZ tall poppy syndrome, and that it was the kind of attention that imperiled WORLD’s continuing production in NZ. “The Tall Poppy syndrome I see is alive and well and still raging in NZ. Please remind me again why I should keep my production here?”

(The Spinoff has no wish to see WORLD ripped to shreds and wishes it well.)

That Hong Kong is not part of China, and the sequin patch on the T-shirt was made in Hong Kong. “Francis Hooper [WORLD’s co-founder] travels to Hong Kong. He actually personally goes to the factories and buys the sequinning for us. So he knows the factories, and how they run, and how ethical they are.”

(Hong Kong is part of China, albeit a “special administrative region”. The Spinoff does not know which factory they were made in, and L’Estrange-Corbet was unwilling to provide specifics. We do note that the patches are available online from at least two different vendors in mainland China – “mainland China” being the accepted shorthand for China minus Hong Kong.)

Coverage from last night’s Newshub and TVNZ bulletins

That the Spinoff has published allegations labels have been cut off.

(This became, over the course of yesterday, the WORLD founder’s primary argument. It is wrong. This is what happened. The Spinoff asked L’Estrange-Corbet about cutting off labels as part of emailed questions. She dismissed any such suggestion in response. Satisfied with this response, the Spinoff published no such allegation. When L’Estrange-Corbet on Monday morning urged us to publish the emailed questions and answer exchange “verbatim” and unedited, we obliged. The only change we did make was to include a clear note, which was there from the start, for avoidance of any doubt, that stated: “The Spinoff accepts that labels were not cut off”.)

That the Spinoff and its reporter Madeleine Chapman whose personal and professional integrity was shamefully attacked all day by L’Estrange-Corbet  were guilty of “gutter journalism” and “blatant lies”, all of which heralded “the death of journalism”, by publishing allegations that labels had been cut off.

(Per the above, this is demonstrably false and defamatory.)

That, after a telephone conversation with Spinoff managing editor Duncan Greive, the Spinoff had “pulled the article, and he has put up on the Spinoff the questions that she asked me and the answers that I gave, verbatim.”

(The Spinoff at no point pulled the article. It did add another article including her responses and the full questions and answers. Please read it here. The above remarks, by the way, were made by L’Estrange-Corbet as part of a RadioLive interview with Wendyl Nissen, who introduced her guest with “good afternoon, doll”, and farewelled her with “all right, doll, all the best!”)

It hardly needs saying, but for the record: the Spinoff stands foursquare behind its story and its outstandingly good reporter.


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Keep going!
Jacinda Ardern called the smear campaign directed at Clarke Gayford a dirty politics attack. Photo: Hannah Peters/Getty Images
Jacinda Ardern called the smear campaign directed at Clarke Gayford a dirty politics attack. Photo: Hannah Peters/Getty Images

MediaMay 6, 2018

The best of The Spinoff this week

Jacinda Ardern called the smear campaign directed at Clarke Gayford a dirty politics attack. Photo: Hannah Peters/Getty Images
Jacinda Ardern called the smear campaign directed at Clarke Gayford a dirty politics attack. Photo: Hannah Peters/Getty Images

Bringing you the best weekly reading from your friendly local website.

Toby Manhire: What the shit is going on with those Clarke Gayford rumours?

“Everyone in media and political circles, Steve Braunias notwithstanding, has been gasbagging like mad over the last month about rumours related to Clarke Gayford, the partner of the prime minister, Jacinda Ardern. Most of these conversations have resolved in the consensus that they’re substantially bullshit, with the honourable exception of high level political commentary from pseudonymous Twitter accounts with two followers.

The Spinoff, along with everyone else in the media, has been contacted this morning by the prime minister’s spokesperson, and by lawyers acting for Gayford, to stress that the Heraldhas not included in its report the false and defamatory claims. We’re obviously not going to do that either, although we will simply say this: has anyone ever seen Gayford actually kill a fish?

Here’s what we know so far.”

Madeleine Chapman: I feel for Deborah Hill Cone and Kate Hawkesby

“There’s something about Deborah Hill Cone and Kate Hawkesby that keeps nagging me every time I see their columns. At first I thought it was outrage, then disregard, and now I realise what it really is: empathy.

I feel for them because I feel what they’re feeling. Everyone got mad at Hill Cone for saying mean things about Clarke Gayford. Hill Cone responded by confessing “I lose my inner monologue.” Today, Newstalk ZB host Kate Hawkesby has stated she feels for Hill Cone because she too has been in a similar situation when it comes to her column. “I hadn’t intended for it to be read,” she said, referring to the way her scripted radio editorial was republished in the Herald, “and then boom there it was.” Reading an opinion column in a newspaper or online may lead you believe that there’s an editorial process behind such publications but as these two brave women have testified, that’s not how it works. Opinion pieces are shoehorned directly from the writer’s consciousness – I’m just saying things out loud at my desk and now you’re reading them – and there’s nothing we can do about it.

In fact, it’s happening right now.”

What are the Clarke Gayford rumours? Click here to find out

Danyl Mclauchlan: Breaking news: Clarke Gayford reputation rocked by Herald allegations

Perhaps the most devastating claim in Hill Cone’s piece is that the picture of Gayford posing with his fellow CHOGM spouses was cringey. On the surface – like many of Hill-Cone’s claims – this appears to stack up. But I printed out a copy of the photograph and showed it to two of my workmates. Their responses, “What is this?” “Is it cringey? I don’t know. Why are you even showing me this?” reveal the carefully hidden gaps in Hill-Cone’s version of the truth.

This is not to deny that the Herald’s investigation raises some valid issues which Ardern and her government must urgently move to address. Why were we not told that Gayford came second in the 2001 season of Treasure Island? Are the awfully convenient claims Gayford makes about his earliest memories being pushed onto a surfboard by his dad real, or does he have different early memories which might discredit him, or even cast doubts on Ardern? And, most pressingly: is Clarke Gayford enjoying the political circus too much, and how much is too much, and how will Labour monitor and regulate Clarke’s lovable goofy smiles going forwards?

Stephen Mills: New poll reveals the post-election political battleground

UMR survey shows National largely resistant to the Labour surge, though Jacinda Ardern’s party has made inroads among centre voters, writes Stephen Mills.

Sam Brooks: Dancing with the Stars NZ Power Rankings: all 12, mercilessly graded

We’re two nights into the dance off, and now we’ve seen all the acts. So with a lot of trash talk, but absolutely no back-walking or mascots, we’re going to do a power ranking. Dance off. These are the power rankings for the first week of highly anticipated not-dropping-dancer-celebrity show, Dancing with the Stars NZ.

Sam Brooks: The Dancing with the Stars NZ Power Rankings: The first seven

From its first moments, it was clear Dancing with the Stars NZ came here to play. They knew they had stars, they knew they had new judges, and they knew they had something to prove. These are the power rankings for the first episode of highly anticipated celebrity-moving show, Dancing with the Stars NZ.

Red Nicholson: Writing about disability? Here are five tips to get it right

“Most days on Twitter are spent shouting enlightened reckons into the social media void, desperate for your woke insight to be picked up and amplified by anyone at all. And most days, to the detriment of the world, your insights are routinely ignored.

But very occasionally you’ll tweet an article, caption it with some super obvious commentary on positive disability language, and it goes on to be mashed-up by self-professed “international crouton” Hend Amry, who pushes it to 10,000 retweets and almost 50,000 likes.

Wednesday was one of those days.”

Dave Ward: A voiceover artist on being asked to deliberately mispronounce te reo

“Taika Waititi was right on the money. We have a race issue ​in Aotearoa ​and it’s not going away.

Last week I refused to deliberately mispronounce a Māori place name as requested by a client of a company I contract to as a commercial voice. I’m good at my job. I do it every week and over the years I’ve read thousands of scripts for thousands of satisfied customers. I wasn’t trying to be a diva or deliberately difficult, but I pride myself on the audio product I create. The requested mispronunciation of Waimate (the client wanted ‘WHY MAT EE’) ​was always going to be an aural stone in my shoe. For the first time in my career, I said no. I wasn’t the first person to refuse to do this particular script the way the client wanted it done either. I was just the first to speak out publicly about it.”

Jacinda Ardern called the smear campaign directed at Clarke Gayford a dirty politics attack. Photo: Hannah Peters/Getty Images

Danyl Mclauchlin: Judith Collins is right: Jacinda Arden is an inveterate virtue-signaller

“We’re only six months into the new government and who knows: maybe it will go down as a chaotic, messy threesome of good intentions and policy disasters: only time will tell, as the old-school columnists like to say.

But in that six months we’ve seen Jacinda Ardern transform from an inexperienced leader and soft-media darling in the John Key mould into a prime minister who is increasingly skilled at finding ways to communicate her values to the public through images and symbolic gestures – spending a week at Waitangi, wearing a Korowai to Buckingham palace, being visibly pregnant while running the country – in other words, through virtue-signalling.”

Rebekah Jaung and Angela Suh: Koreans around the world see through the cartoonish takes from western media

“While the majority of Koreans were cheering and wiping away tears; a small group of hardline conservatives were burning unification flags and waving American ones. The leader of the biggest opposition party, the Liberty Korea Party, accused Moon and Kim of putting on a “collaborative ‘peace show”. There is a reason Kim kept mentioning the lost 11 years” – it correlates with a period of conservative leadership across South Korea and America, and cessation of talks between the North and South.

The extended state of war has led to the loss of sovereignty for Korea.”