Best of 2024: Paddy Gower hits out at 'Facebook keyboard warriors'

Paddy Gower has slammed “keyboard warriors” claiming the media is getting what it deserves for going “woke” amid mass job losses.  

TV3 journalist and TV host Patrick Gower spoke to Newstalk ZB’s Mike Hosking this morning following yesterday’s Newshub meeting where the closure of Newshub was confirmed. 

Hosking 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 fired back. 

Gower agreed the Public Interest Journalism fund 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. 

“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 that trust me and trust my colleagues.” 

Patrick Gower and colleagues on their way to learn Newshub's fate. Photo / Alex Burton 

Gower told Hosking 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 said he hoped a lot of his colleagues would remain in the field, but recognised it was a difficult time for the industry in New Zealand. 

“It’s that simple, mate, not everybody can survive. 

“But we’ve got to be optimistic, we can’t kind of give in. 

“I can say for myself, I’m determined to get back out there.” 

Hosking asked Gower how many of the employees likely saw the closure coming. 

“It was always a possibility when we came in under the big company, particularly Warner Brothers Discovery when they’d merged ... some sort of shutdown was always possible. 

“I’ve survived a couple myself in the last 14 years or we’ve been very, very close. 

“So it was always on the cards.” 

The state of the economy and the recession have had a huge impact on the media industry, Gower admitted. 

“We often talk about the big structural problems that are behind all of this, but, hey, let’s face it, the economy has absolutely tanked, every single dollar virtually has dropped out of the advertising market. 

“People are really struggling, [advertising] is the first thing that goes when a business is struggling, everybody knows that. 

“That has just put insane pressure on all media companies.” 

Gower said he hadn’t seen “anything” broadcasting minister Melissa Lee had done so far for the industry. 

“I haven’t seen anything they’ve done, but at the same time, the media doesn’t need a bailout. 

“So if anyone’s talking about some sort of cash bailout, we don’t need that. 

“The media does need to be able to survive commercially. There are ways that we can do that.” 

Gower said there are issues that both Governments, current and former, have not addressed that could have helped the media. 

“There are massive structural problems out there that I just don’t think the Government’s got their head around. 

“Paying these Kordia fees, television companies, paying fees to another government organisation for something that we don’t really need anymore is just plain nuts. 

“It is crazy, that is literally jobs going out the door every time they pay those fees.” 

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.” 

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