Winston’s way with the media
OPINION: There would be no richer man than the one who found a way to write a how-to guide for interviewing Winston Peters.
The fiery, and at times outright ridiculous, interview with Peters on Radio New Zealand’s Morning Report yesterday was a classic example of how pear-shaped things can go when trying to get answers from the seasoned politician.
The NZ First leader treats every interview with a journalist like a game of sport – there’s only one winner and, as far as he’s concerned, it’s never the journalist.
The 72-year-old has racked up 35 years in Parliament, which means home advantage is almost always on his side. And if he thinks the media is about to get one up on him he’s not afraid, as yesterday proved, to send a staffer out to his car to rummage through his briefcase and find a decade-old document to make his point.
In the case of the RNZ interview, host Guyon Espiner had accused Peters of having been sacked as a minister three times.
Peters shot back: ‘‘The third time, can I just say, I’ve got a document in my bag downstairs that says what you just said is a lie.’’
About three minutes before the interview ended, Peters had a letter from former prime minister Helen Clark delivered to him in the studio, which he proceeded to read out and ended with: ‘‘There it is, the prime minister at the time, so please don’t go and tell people that I was sacked. I never was.’’
The thing with Peters is that he’s not an unapproachable person. I once met him at a fish and chip shop in Mangawhai Heads after he sent me a text to ask where I was.
It was just days after he had hit the headlines for a superannuation overpayment and Peters had agreed to catch up ahead of a Northland candidates debate that night to talk about it.
Peters pulled up immaculately dressed in his suit – pocket square perfectly placed – and proceeded to sit down on the plastic chairs outside the local chippy to lay down the facts.
When my recorder at the ready, Peters then announced he’d already had his ‘‘last interview’’ on the matter and had nothing more to say. It had the makings of a great interview. I was conducting it with a respected political leader at a takeaway shop in the middle of nowhere. But I walked away none the wiser.
Peters is famous for calling out the media (or as he likes to call it, the commentariat) for ‘‘fake news’’ and opinions disguised as facts.
There’s no line that’s rolled off his tongue more than ‘‘present company excluded’’ after he’s just told a crowd that the media are incompetent after whatever story of the day has got his back up.
Peters has been around as long as he has because he’s charismatic and entertaining. It’s no secret the media often enjoy the bizarre exchanges with Peters as much as he does – besides, the Parliament ritual of bridge run just wouldn’t be the same if he stopped and simply answered the questions.