Mediawatch A little local political difficulty pulls national media focus
The nation's news outlets aren't usually interested in local government ructions in the south, but deep rifts in one dysfunctional council have made many headlines lately. When a 'showdown' meeting in Gore was livestreamed on major websites this week, peace broke out instead. Was that because of the media attention?
The nation's news outlets aren't usually interested in local government ructions in the south, but deep rifts in one dysfunctional council have made many headlines lately. When a 'showdown' meeting in Gore was livestreamed on major websites this week, peace broke out instead. Was that because of the media attention?
It was an extraordinary council meeting for an extraordinary situation.
Gore's councillors were considering a vote of no confidence in their 24-year old mayor Ben Bell just eight months into his first term and also seeking to remove him from council committees.
Demonstrators in support of him had gathered outside while others watched the livestream in Gore's library.
For those outside Gore, the livestream was carried on the homepages of Stuff.co.nz and nzherald.co.nz - even on the day updates were still coming in on the fatal fire in Wellington.
But in the end, what the Herald billed as the "Gore Showdown" turned into "a kumbaya drum circle," according to co-editor of Newsroom.co.nz Tim Murphy.
The deputy mayor and seven councillors who called for a vote didn't move the motion of no confidence. Instead, the deputy mayor said the council should now seek help from the Internal Affairs Department to pull together, while the embattled mayor pledged to mend fences in "the Gore way."
https://youtu.be/CHRpDe3Hu1s
It wouldn't have made any difference even if the vote went against Bell.
"If he is democratically elected, he has to resign or he has to die or be convicted of a crime resulting in two years' imprisonment or greater. None of those appear particularly likely at the moment," RNZ's Otago and Southland reporter Timothy Brown told Morning Report on the morning of the meeting.
Mayors have ended up at loggerheads with their councillors elsewhere in recent times.
Invercargill's city council revolted against Sir Tim Shadbolt but even though he was a national figure, that got nothing like the national news coverage.
Councillors and mayor Tenby Powell were at daggers drawn in Tauranga in 2020 and commissioners were eventually appointed to keep things running there.
But that didn't get much national media attention either. …