Key's diction fools transcriber

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Key's diction fools transcriber

3News NZ

John Key with Hillary Clinton (Reuters)

John Key with Hillary Clinton (Reuters)

By 3 News online staff

Prime Minister John Key has been quoted as telling US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that New Zealand would "welcome the opportunity to cooperate with the US in the next conflicts".

The comments were posted on the US State Department's website on Friday last week but went unnoticed until host of TV3 show Media 3, Russell Brown, wrote about the comments on his blog.

According to the transcript, Mr Key said: "New Zealand warmly supports the United States rebalancing towards the Asia Pacific, and we welcome the opportunity to cooperate with the US in the next conflicts."

In response, Mr Brown writes: "What the hell sort of thing is that to say when we’ve just buried several New Zealanders, killed in the dying days of a long and ultimately fruitless war at the behest of the US?"

"This isn’t Key saying something feckless off the top of his head, as he sometimes does – someone else wrote, or at least read, that line. I’m surprised it hasn’t been regarded as news, frankly."

New Zealand journalists alerted Brown to the transcriber's error on Twitter, revealing the quote was incorrect.

An audio recording of the meeting proves Mr Key did not say New Zealand would back the US "in the next conflicts". It's clear – to New Zealand ears, at least – that he is saying "in that context".

In several places in the transcript, Mr Key's words are listed as being "inaudible". 

"The Prime Minister’s diction appears to have rather defeated the State Department’s transcriber," writes Mr Brown.

The Government confirmed yesterday it will withdraw troops from Afghanistan by April next year, earlier than originally planned.

3 News

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Comments

8/09/2012 2:03:57 p.m.

annoyed wrote:

It's clear that America is going down, and going down shooting. Don't let our troops get caught in the crossfire.

8/09/2012 2:00:17 a.m.

Isaac wrote:

Having served in the military for most of my adult life the people are owed the truth. My first deployment was to the horn of Africa to combat the civil unrest of an emerging famine, in truth it was to secure the passage of Oil around the horn. The second, the deployment to an emerging democracy under the guise of restoring peace when in fact it was to secure Oil and gas reserves. I have since resigned and see our youth searching for terrorists in a place thats only source of income was 80% of the worlds opium production and shortly before 9/11 was reduced to Zero due to the Taliban and their intolerant view on drugs. We are being deliberately mislead, come on, guys in caves initiating the biggest attack ever on the US. And this guy is going along with it.

5/09/2012 9:05:37 p.m.

Donna wrote:

I think the blame should start with the US, they want everyone to play the game by their rules. NZ is small potatoes and Helen didn't have them eating out of her hand either. Ohakea is being upgraded to receive larger amounts of troops, who's I wonder?

5/09/2012 1:27:11 p.m.

Janette wrote:

He's such a terrible speaker, so embarrassing.

5/09/2012 12:13:34 p.m.

JD wrote:

Its the same old stuff people say about every Prime Minister/Government. And seriously, the quality of grammar and spelling here is shocking. I can't believe the amount of New Zealanders that see a terrorist organisation killing civilians to invoke a civil war and don't think "How can we help stop this?". If anyone is interested in learning about the actual situation in Iraq, how Coalition Forces helped the Iraqi people, then I would suggest reading "The Strongest Tribe" by Bing West.

5/09/2012 7:11:33 a.m.

David wrote:

@Charlie people are getting angry at Key in general. Its no surprise though... he is the biggest liar the country has ever had sitting in an office he doesnt deserve.

5/09/2012 6:22:34 a.m.

Fellowes wrote:

Key's sycophancy toward the US is repugnant. Wherever their killing fields take them, he is keen to follow, regardless of the human misery it causes.

4/09/2012 11:51:48 p.m.

Chargone wrote:

should be noted that, failings of Key and the American an transcriber aside, NZ English is well known for being less than 100% mutually intelligible with other dialects. our vowels are mostly quite drastically different and the vast majority of us break up our sentences strangely (pausing when we need to think or trip over something, rather than at the end of sentences) as well as, commonly, speaking slightly faster than most and having a tendency to, compared to the more common other dialects, slur across the consonants in the middles of words (for want of a better description). in addition, sometimes people just plain mishear things for no apparent reason. then again, given how things work in the states most of the time, it wouldn't be at all surprising to find that the transcriber was Instructed to present things this way to advance some sufficiently high-paying entity's agenda. (wouldn't be surprising to find it was a legit error either, mind.)

4/09/2012 11:21:06 p.m.

David wrote:

@Madness, I have to agree.. Key has done nothing to deserve respect.. he is arrogant, ignores the people and does whatever the hell he wants regardless. Lets not forget that under John Key we saw (for the first time ever) an under 10 year old enter the suicide statistics... that is ectremely indidcative of the stress in society caused by his non performance. The amount of times he has lied... and been excused by National Party sycophants is also rather sickening.

4/09/2012 10:11:08 p.m.

Oliver wrote:

Ultimately it comes down to collective security. Deaths are unfortunate, but also inevitable in any war.