Kerre Woodham writes...

Kerre Woodham posted the following on Facebook last night:

From John Minto's blog re the lunch with Tony Blair: 'Among the other media to attend and hope their photos appear on the society pages in the next few days were Newstalk ZB's Kerre Woodham, the Herald's Fran O'Sullivan, and Bill Ralston.'

John, John, John. I'm not the one gagging for the papers, the radio and the tv to record my every utterance. I don't manufacture pathetic stunts to try to get the reporters attention. Count the number of times Fran, Bill or myself have been in papers. The only reason I appear in the media is because it's my job - J.O.B. Remember that word? You however would wither on the vine and die without media attention. Save the sniping. You're not just irrelevant, you're a hypocrite.

She's dead right. Professional agitators such as Minto thrive on publicity. Think back to the 1981 Springbok Tour; how was it that the media just happened to be in the right place at the right time so often (in a day when there were far fewer media resources than there are today; they didn't even have cellphones!)? The anti-tour movement played a compliant news media like a fiddle.

John Minto is a skilled manipulator of the media. He knows how the game is played, and to grudgingly give him credit, he does it well. But we're on Woodham's side here; Minto fights for so many causes that he is becoming increasingly irrelevant.

There is one campaign on which we would support him though; a campaign against employers who systematically rort the IRD over extended periods by failing to pay the tax they have deducted from their employees, and spending it on other things. That would be a fantastic cause for John Minto to pick up on, as a union organiser. And we would further suggest that he could start with a protest outside the offices of the Unite Union, a;lthough that might present Minto with an ethical dilemma, because HE is one of Matt McCarten's staff!