Kate Hawkesby: Ease up on Wayne Brown, some of the media are drongos

One of the travesties of this week’s floods in Auckland has been the acrimonious fallout that’s happened at Council level over the whole response - mainly the beef between the media and the Mayor.  I just want to preface this by saying that I think the way the Auckland Mayor has handled this has been appalling. But here’s the thing about calling the media drongos; is he wrong?  I myself am in the media, I take it on the chin, we are drongos, some of us more than others, but come on, it’s a bit precious to be offended by that, we’ve heard a lot worse surely. And why can’t you call the media drongos?  So often these days the media manage to make themselves the story, make it all about them and then get so mortally offended when they get called out for their bias or their BS.  In Wayne Brown’s case, he probably had a right to be peed off. He got ignored at a press conference by media who didn’t know who he was, he got ignored when he bothered to take a helicopter up with his own money to assess the damage in Auckland – I mean why report him doing any good stuff when your agenda is that he’s evil?  He got private WhatsApp messages leaked and who among us is sending texts expecting they’ll be published? No one. He said it felt like someone had rummaged through his rubbish bin – I can understand that.  He got work emails leaked by people clearly working against him - he’s had a tough couple of weeks. Now that’s not to excuse his behaviour or his tone, or his attitude.  I don’t know the guy from a bar of soap, he’s done one interview on my show pre his win, and I said at the time that he could do with some media training, that he sounded a bit gruff and grumpy. That he could probably lighten up a bit. But he doesn’t seem like the kind of guy who takes advice. Nor the kind of guy who gives a stuff what you think. And therein lies the problem.  We’ve been so mollycoddled now for so long by our political leaders, with smiles and waves and talk of kindness and teddy bears that it’s become the bar we now expect. We don’t want serious or business like, or people focused on action.  You can be a hopeless leader, but pop on a bit of high vis in a crisis, walk around looking concerned, and people will think you're the greatest mayor of all time. We call our PM ‘Chippy’ for God’s sake, the guy gets around the music stations here carrying a diet coke and laughing with everyone about his dirty dog sunnies.  We want ‘mates’ and some ‘good buggers’. Don’t worry if they achieve nothing, deliver nothing, what’s more important is that the media loves them and that they’re approachable, and we can have some fun with them! So poor old Wayne is never going to make it in this environment. He’s never going to win over a media who’ve decided they want their leaders light, with a side of hilarity. A media who like to be snuggled up to and spoon fed, not kept at arm’s length and called drongos.  I know there’s a lot Wayne Brown’s got wrong, there’s a lot he’s said and done which rarks people up, but calling the media ‘drongos’ I don’t think is one of them. Most people, I reckon, would agree with him.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.