‘Do the research’: Gower slams critics
Paddy Gower has slammed “keyboard warriors” who claim the media is getting what it deserves for going “woke” amid mass job losses.
The TV3 journalist and host spoke to Newstalk ZB’s Mike Hosking yesterday after a meeting on Wednesday where Warner Bros Discovery confirmed to staff the closure of news operation Newshub.
Hosking, who also spoke to Broadcasting Minister Melissa Lee about the state of media, asked Gower what he would say to those who say
“you go woke, you go broke” and claim the media was bribed by the former Labour Government.
“Get stuffed, and actually go away and, to use the term they use, do your own research,” Gower said.
Gower agreed the Public Interest Journalism Fund — made available by the Government in 2020 to support news media — had “branding issues” for media organisations because the public didn’t understand where the money was going.
“But at the end of the day, I’m not going to sit here and listen to sort of people like that say that kind of thing after I’ve slaved away my bloody life alongside my colleagues, 25 years in my case, putting damn good news out there,” he told Hosking.
“While we’ve got a trust problem, we need to address it and explain things that we’re doing properly.
“When it comes to the sort of Facebook keyboard warriors, I ain’t got no time for that, Mike.
“I’m about the 250 people who lost a job yesterday and actually the millions of other Kiwis that I know . . . trust me and trust my colleagues.”
Gower said he didn’t know how many of the up to 300 people losing their jobs would remain in media.
“Who knows? I mean, even for myself, I’ve got no bloody idea what I’ll do next.”
Gower confirmed his show Paddy Gower Has Issues was not funded by NZ on Air, so wouldn’t be funded by TV3’s new model.
“There’s got to be other ways to do television programmes . . . we’ve got to find commercially successful ways of doing this stuff. Stuff where things get paid for by viewers again. We’ve got to find a way back to that.” Lee told Hosking outdated legislation needed to change before a solution to NZ’s media woes was presented.
“Yesterday was a shocking day for media,” Lee said, commenting on the mass job cuts at Newshub and TVNZ, which confirmed that the Fair Go show, and the Midday and Tonight news bulletins would no longer air, leading to the loss of more than 60 jobs.
“I think what I can actually do as minister is provide some settings for media that could improve the situation, to actually modernise the regulations for example,” Lee said.
She said the broadcasting regulations were out of date and didn’t take into account the impact of the internet on news. “The Broadcasting Act was designed well before the internet . . . 1989.
“The way that New Zealanders consume media has actually changed, they don’t just sit down in front of the television box at 6 o’clock to watch the news. News is 24/7.”
Lee would not be specific about what changes she was hoping to make to the act. “But the regulations haven’t actually kept up to date with modern-day technology and I think we need to bring regulations up to speed and fit for purpose.”