Kerre Woodham: You can't just put up a story without any proof

Ray Chung has surely scuppered his chances of becoming Wellington's next mayor, hasn't he?  

Although, given the way voters in Wellington tend to cast their ballots given their previous form, perhaps not. Chung has sent an email to three of his fellow councillors with the heading ‘A sordid night on the town”, in which he proceeded to pass on a story he heard from a neighbour while out dog walking, trash talking Mayor Tory Whanau. It accused her of participating in an orgy with a couple of young men and taking drugs, and talked about the form of the woman involved, being Tory Whanau, having soft, pendulous breasts.  

Whanau released the email to the New Zealand Herald as an example of the dehumanising personal attacks she's experienced during her term as Wellington mayor and part of the reason she's not running for the mayoralty again. She said this sort of behaviour (the sending of gossip to fellow councillors), is unbecoming for a public official, it's creepy, it's gross. If he's going to stay in the mayoral race, he needs to commit to a clean campaign. Whanau, who wants to be elected as a councillor but not mayor this election, provided the email to the Herald saying she wanted voters to see evidence of the abuse she and other female politicians endured.  

This is the thing that stuns me: when questioned about the email, Chung said he had no idea if the contents were true. Absolutely none. He did no fact checking, he just found it interesting, thought his fellow councillors would agree. When pressed maybe three times, he thought perhaps he'd say sorry if it wasn't true, but didn't really see anything wrong with what he'd done. He said I passed on exactly what I was told, I'd call it gossip. And I suppose using the internet is just the modern form of whispering in someone's ear at the village fair.  

Now the best form of gossip and lying is to feed a story with a grain of truth. Whanau has form in drunken carrying on, it's not a huge leap the way it would be with a teetotalley, happily married young female mayor. Whanau says she can prove she wasn't at this supposed orgy which Chung says took place on New Year's Eve. She was at a function for ambassadors in the city and then went on to a rainbow community party on New Year's Eve. She says she can show that the story is malicious gossip.  

The scary thing about this is that people think they can say anything about anybody these days and get away with it. For all the faults of the mainstream media, we are accountable for the things we say and write. So if we get it wrong, we are censored. The records corrected and you know about it. We can certainly have opinions you disagree with, that's different, but if we had come out with a story like that, we could be sued for defamation. And in the past this radio station has been Most radio stations have been, because people take it one step too far, repeat something they've heard because they think it might be interesting. Wrong. It's false. It can be proved to be false, and they're censored, and they have to pay a fine, and they have to apologise and correct the record. I'd love to see how much faith people put in alternative media stories and sources, if they were held to the same level of accountability that we are. The internet is amazing, but it has always been an absolute cesspit of misinformation and lies as well.  

You know for a fact that the story about Clarke Gayford and the nanny, Clarke Gayford and the Whangarei court appearance, Peter Davis, John Key, Tory Whanau, all of these public figures, you know, for a fact that it's true because your neighbour's niece went to school with the nanny, or your wife's brother's best friend was in the police force in Kerikeri, used to be and he knows for a fact that the court registrar... It's utter bullshit. Complete and utter BS, but you want to believe it. It feeds into how you perceive these people and what yo

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Carrywood and Morning's podcast from news talks,
he'd be.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Raymond Chung has surely scuppered his chances of becoming Wellington's
next mayor, hasn't he surely, although given the way voters
in Wellington tend to cast their ballots given their previous form,
perhaps not. Chung has sent an email to three of
his fellow counselors with the heading A Sordid knight on

(00:34):
the Town, in which he proceeded to pass on a
story he had heard while outdog walking from a neighbor
trash talking the mayor Torrifano, accusing her of participating in
an orgy with a couple of young men and taking drugs,
and talked about the form of the woman involved being

(00:57):
Torri Fana having soft, pendulous breasts. Farno released the email
to The New Zealand Herald as an example of the
dehumanizing personal attacks she's experienced during her term as Wellington
mayor and part of the reason she's not running for
the mayoralty again. She said this sort of behavior, the

(01:20):
sending of gossip to fellow counselors, as unbecoming for a
public official. It's creepy. It's gross. If he's going to
stand the mayoral race, he needs to commit to a
clean campaign. Farno, who wants to be elected as a
counselor but not mayor this election, provided the email to
the Herald, saying she wanted voters to see evidence of

(01:42):
the abuse she and other female politicians endured. So this
is the thing that stuns me. When questioned about the email,
Chunk said he had no idea if the contents were true,
absolutely none, did no fact checking. He just found it
interesting thought as fellow counselors would agree the story. While

(02:06):
out walking the dog, the neighbor told me when pressed
maybe three times, he thought perhaps he'd say sorry if
it wasn't true, but didn't really see anything wrong with
what he had done. He said, I passed on exactly
what I was told. I'd call it gossip, and I

(02:29):
suppose using the internet is just the modern form of
whispering in someone's ear at the village fair Now, the
best form of gossip and lying is to feed a
story with a grain of truth. So far Noo has
form and drunken carrying on. It's not a huge leap

(02:51):
the way it would be with a teetotaling, happily married,
young female mayor. It's not a huge leap to imagine
a hootswahey type of an evening, which is what makes
trash talk so dangerous. Faro says she can prove she
wasn't at this supposed orgy, which Chung says took place

(03:11):
on New Year's Eve, or which Chung's neighbour's dog walking
friend says took place on New Year's Eve. She was
at a function for ambassadors in the city and then
went on too a Rainbow community party on New Year's Eve,
So she said she can show that the story is
malicious gossip. So the scary thing about this is that

(03:39):
people think they can say anything about anybody these days
and get away with it. For all the faults of
the mainstream media, we are accountable for the things we
say and write. You know that, some of you. I
think yesterday a caller told me that he had written
to the Press Council law got hold of broadcasting standards

(04:01):
because he was so appalled by something he had seen.
So if we get it wrong, we are censured, the
records corrected, and you know about it. We can certainly
have opinions you disagree with. That's different. But if we
come out, if we had come out with a story

(04:23):
like that, we could be sued for defamation. And in
the past, this radio station has been most radio stations
have been because people take it one step too far,
repeat something they've hurt because they think it might be interesting. Wrong,
it's false. It can be proved to be false, and

(04:44):
they're censured and they have to pay a fine and
they have to apologize and correct the record. I'd love
to see how much faith people put in alternative media
stories and sources if they were held to the same
level of accountability that we are. The Internet is amazing,

(05:06):
is brilliant, but it has always been an absolute cesspit
as well, a cesspit of misinformation and lies. I we
all know the rumors in the gossip that fed itself.
You know for a fact that the story about Clark
gave it, and the nanny Clark gave it, and the

(05:26):
fung a court appearance, Peter Davis, John Key, Tory Fano,
all of these public figures. You know for a fact
that it's true because your neighbor's niece went to school
with the nanny, or your wife's brother's best friend was
in the police force in Kitty Kitty used to be,

(05:47):
and he knows for a fact that the court registerrars
it's utter bullshit, complete and utter bes but you want
to believe it. It feeds into how you perceive these
people and what you want to believe about the people,
whoever they may be. There's a grain of truth to it.

(06:10):
It's not beyond the realm of possibility that it could
have happened. And again that's what makes it all so dangerous.
I've had stories about me too that I'm just like,
you have got to be kidding me. When you said
that happened on your twenty first birthday, and presumably you

(06:30):
would know the date of your twenty first birthday, and
when you posted on the Internet that I caused such
a scene at the restaurant and slapped the face of
the matre d and had to be carried out and
thrown out of Governor's nightclub in Hamilton, it ruined your
twenty first birthday. I was thirteen at boarding school when
you said that happened, didn't happen. Never happened, However, written

(06:58):
many years later, there's a grain of truth into it.
She likes a drink, but of a loud mouth could
have easily happened, didn't. I was thirteen at boarding school
and didn't sneak out. I just don't believe anything until
I am stepping over the writhing forms of the people

(07:18):
allegedly involved and trying not to stand on their pendulous
soft breasts as I stand over. Look, honestly, I'm glad
we can't just talk, well, we can kind of talk
rubbish about people. We can have opinions, but we can't
defame them. And that's good. At a world of fake

(07:43):
news and AI generated bes, you have to know there's
at least one for them, and there's a few others.
But if I say something about somebody, you can say,
where's your proof, Where's your evidence. I can't just put
up a story because I think you might find it interesting,
and I think you'll agree with the story, You'll agree

(08:05):
with the narrative. You say, where's your proof, Where's your evidence?
And if I can't provide it, you can sue me
for defamation. And that's a jolly good thing.

Speaker 1 (08:18):
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