US comedian John Oliver ruffles feathers with call to stack the Bird of the Century ballots (www.rnz.co.nz)

submitted 11 months ago by SamC@lemmy.nz to c/newzealand@lemmy.nz

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[-] blindsight@beehaw.org 11 points 11 months ago

The best bit, imho: (emphasis mine)

"We are going all out for this bird. I don't just want the pūteketeke to win, I want it to win in the biggest landslide in the history of this magnificent competition. After all, this is what democracy is all about - America interfering in foreign elections."

Also, he's not a dick for doing this:

The vote-rigging was not unexpected, as the team behind Oliver's show had been in touch earlier this year.

"They were keen to be involved and we said, 'Go for it!'"

[-] Nath@aussie.zone 5 points 11 months ago

I do genuinely love that bit. But to me the best bit is this isn't just random inteferance for the lulz. He's done his research - learned about the history of the competition and actually looked into the birds themselves.

He has selected a candidate and then built a genuine and compelling case for voting for that candidate. I'll admit, I didn't look closely at the crested grebe when I read the site. That's because I approaching the vote wrong: I was looking for the familiar rather than the point of the competition, learning more about the birds on the list and the importance of conservation.