Patrick Gower

Karl du Fresne writes about Patrick Gower:

He is a journalistic picker of scabs, a scavenger who swoops on the wounded. He scans the political landscape looking for any story that, with judicious editing and sneering voice-over, can be manipulated for maximum effect.

The Gower approach illustrates two trends in modern political journalism. One is to strive at all costs for what former British prime minister Tony Blair called “impact” – something to excite the public blood lust.

The other is to put the journalist at the centre of the story. The modern political reporter is no longer content to be a passive observer, but wants to be a player – a maker and breaker of careers.

Despite all their efforts to help Winston Peters and promote themselves, Duncan Garner and Patrick Gower must be a bit disappointed with their efforts.

This is the second poll today that also shows Labour still slipping and the Greens hoovering up their support.

Labour must be despondent, there isn’t a single thing they can do to lift their ratings despite the best efforts of the media to assist them this week.

This storm in a teapot story is making me angry.

TV3 is milking it for all its worth, and the tipline is telling me that Bryce Johns  from the Herald On Sunday has been bragging about the illegal taping. Perhaps while he is bragging about that he might enlighten the media to the complaints he has had to deal with regarding the Prego incident and Bradley Ambrose/White.

It’s beginning to look like a personal crusade from some in the media who clearly want to spice up the election campaign, boost their personal profile, and sell a few newspapers or advertising minutes.

Thanks to the illegal behaviour of those with the tapes, we now all know that John Key appears to have said Winston’s support base is dying off. Um, hello – this is not news.

As for the media behaviour, I guess this is what we should come to expect.  TV3 and Campbell Live are big fans of the secret recording – Garner played it for all it was worth at the last election and took tapes from a Green activist who he refused to name.

Why did Garner refuse to name Kees Keiser?  Because Garner loved the attention and didn’t want to have his source challenged before he’d created as much mess as he possibly could.

Garner and his mate Gower are off down the same path this election. Forget the European crisis, let’s make the election all about us. Forget the Greens illegal promotor statements, this is all about us.

As self-appointed TV personalities, Garner and Gower could themselves become targets for people with secret recordings in the future – and they’d only have themselves to blame.  Someone with Garners predilection for the ladies could well be caught in a secret recroding stings pants down.

Public interest?  Give me a break.

Well I certainly hope for their sake that they remember the way they’re behaving if they ever go to a bar or restaurant or some chicks hotel room and have a private conversation or worse that gets taped.

Pedro Gower has been a bit of a dick lately. For someone who lives inside the beltway he does show and alarming lack of skill in the art of politics.

Don Brash has had enough of his antics….and told Pedro he is a “deceitful bastard”.

Cactus Kate is very happy with Don Brash’s show of some steel.In typical Cactus style Pedro is pwnd:

And just to top himself off today in pathetic repeating glory high-fiving all is junior colleagues on twitter, Patrick Gower cannot even spell the word deceitful, let alone claim that Dr Brash was telling porkies.

Old school reporters used to this sort of abuse from Sir Robert Muldoon should school the younger polytech grads in the media that Patrick is not a hero, he’s been punk’d for crying about it. And should be spanked by those around him for being the self-styled pride of the campaign and not managing to even spell the insult correctly. That is he fucked up the punchline.

Patrick Gower is normally better than this muck:

3 News has learned that John Key has had a private meeting with a controversial right-wing British billionaire, Lord Michael Ashcroft.

Mr Ashcroft was a leading figure behind the last election campaign by Britain’s Conservatives, but Mr Key says the two men did not really talk politics when they met.

The billionaire flew into Auckland in his private for the rugby, and a meeting with Mr Key.

Mr Ashcroft is known in New Zealand for putting up the reward for the stolen Victoria Cross medals.

But he is best known for pumping his time – and millions – into the British Conservative Party and right-wing politics.

“He’s deputy chairman of the Conservative Party, I see him every time he comes to New Zealand,” says Mr Key.

Well, actually Mr Ashcroft is not the deputy chairman any more.

Nope Patrick but he is the Treasurer of the International Democratic Union of which National is a member. This is a stupid story of no merit other than Patrick Gower’s hushed tones about a billionaire. Not only that but they used footage from three years ago to pad out the story. It is shabby and disrespectful to the guy that actually helped get the stolen medals back.

I should confess now before Patrick finds the conspiracy. My father is an office holder of the APDU, a constituent member of the IDU and has met Lord Ashcroft many times, I think he even has his cellphone number written down somewhere.

Instead of looking for conspiracy under the wings of executive jets why doesn’t Patrick Gower go ask Phil Goff about his attendance at the fundraiser with a person charged with electoral fraud?

Labour candidates are out of control. Two of Labour’s supposed up and comers have now taken to abusing journalists and questioning their ethics, all to publicise their pathetic attempt at raising some cash.

With a media and technology spokesperson writing hand-wringing posts about bias in the media and proposing a policy to bring media to heel you would think Labour’s other candidates wouldn’t want to be dissing media, especially ones that appear every night on television:

At my #nodinnerdinner table: special no-speaker @patrickgowernz exploring Noam Chomsky and journalistic ethics http://t.co/T55NmeOE

October 18, 2011 9:28 am via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@Kateannasutton

Kate Sutton

At my #nodinnerdinner table: special no-speaker @patrickgowernz exploring Noam Chomsky and journalistic ethics http://t.co/uUcZpcC4

October 19, 2011 5:55 am via HootSuiteReplyRetweetFavorite

@labour4hville

JeremyGreenbrookHeld

Message discipline is clearly out the window and it is a free for all for Labour’s candidates.

Much has been made of Pedro Gower’s Joycification.

The MSM should see if Trevor Mallard is actually working rather than riding his bike or his latest paramour. Joycification is just poll driven politics. It is not revolutionary or even particularly smart, but it is effective if it is allowed to be used unchallenged.

Mallard, as readers well know, has been overseeing Labour’s train wreck of a campaign. He is the fool that has not realised that a classical technique like being poll driven is opposed by an equally classic technique. You call your opponents poll driven, describe them as having no principles and continually ask them what they stand for. Put the pressure on to make them stand for something, and keep reinforcing that voters hate poll driven politics.

This is a simple response that works. Mallard should have worked this out years ago and made a clean break with the past to attack Key on what he stands for.

Pedro Gower coins Nationals poll driven pragmatism as “Joycification” int he latest Metro Magazinr. What he does not do is go into how Steven Joyce is quietly killing off National by refusing to engage on the electoral referendum.

Rather than writing hagiographies of Joyce, journalists should be asking the same questions this blog has been asking. Under MMP who will National’s coalition partners be after 2014? Will National become the Natural Party of Opposition? How does Joyce expect to hold power in 2014 if ACT, United Future and the Maori Party all die?

It will be interest to see if Steven Joyce is warmly welcomed to the National Party conference in 2015 if National win 46% of the vote but end up in opposition because they have no coalition partners.

David Parker thought he was so cool putting up banners on his signs telling the voters of Epsom to vote for the opposition. Even dumber than that is he spelled “parliament” incorrectly. “Pedro” Gower spied it and spread it all over Twitter.

Who is the dope now? Hutch will be doing a double face palm about now.

Chris Carter is a slow learner, in fact he has entitlitis so bad that it is now addling his brain. He has been caught trying to sup from the trough one last time before exiting.

Independent MP Chris Carter has had to cancel his Christmas holiday after 3 News learned he had been planning to have it paid by the taxpayer.

Mr Carter and his partner managed to book an international holiday using the MPs’ travel perk right before Parliament’s Speaker, Lockwood Smith, banned MPs from taking private travel with public money.

Chris Carter’s partner Peter Kaiser arrived at Parliament this morning to help tidy up a few loose ends but he didn’t want to talk about a Christmas trip the pair had planned.

Mr Carter and Mr Kaiser were booked to leave Auckland on December 29, flying business class via Singapore to Colombo and Sri Lanka.

The estimated cost of their flights is $13,902 – 90 percent picked up by the taxpayer.

The pair were planning on holidaying with British MP Ben Bradshaw and his partner but an hour after 3 News confronted Mr Kaiser, Mr Carter sent a text saying the trip was cancelled and he wasn’t going to front.

Like rust, Pedro Gower never sleeps. At this time of year most repeaters and churnalists are busy chugging wine but not Pedro. He has hunted down Carter mercilessly and put the shiv in just before Christmas saving the taxpayer nearly $14,000 in the process.

But here is the thing. Chris Carter, just this year, took a trip to the UK to “observe” the elections. And where did he “observe” the elections? Well in Exeter of course, and who is the MP for Exeter? Why, its Ben Bradshaw his proposed holiday mate.

What an amazing coincidence? This blogger doesn’t believe in coincidences. Could there be more to this story than meets the eye?

As for Carter….it’s all someone elses fault yet again.

Independent MP Chris Carter is blaming the media for ruining his summer holiday after the itinerary for his taxpayer-subsidised trip to Sri Lanka was leaked.