Martin Leach: Ponsonby News editor 'shocked' at threatening email from Wayne Brown

Local newspaper Ponsonby News received a threatening email from Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown earlier this month after publishing an opinion piece by councillor Mike Lee.

In the email, sent on July 3, Brown said, “if you are just going to publish Mike Lee bagging me then your paper will die”.

"You know, I've been publishing and editing magazines since 1990, and I've never ever had an email like that," Leach told Andrew Dickens.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Right. Oh to the war between the pons Me News
and Mayor Wayne Brown. Orken Mayor Wayne Brown is in
some hot water after a very aggressive email sent to
the local newspaper, the poncev News Now that run an
opinion piece by counselor Mike Lee which went after the
mayor's weight rises, and that caused Wayne, who by the way,
also has a column with the Ponsib News, to send

(00:22):
an email to the editor saying, if you're going to
publish Mike Lee bagging me, then your paper will die.
Martin Leach is the editor of the ponts Me News
and joins me. Now, Hello Martin, Oh, hello, how are you?

Speaker 2 (00:38):
Andrew?

Speaker 1 (00:38):
Very well? Long time no chat. I hope you're will
now absolute. How do you react when you got that email?

Speaker 2 (00:44):
To be honest, I was quite shocked.

Speaker 3 (00:48):
You know, I've been publishing an editing magazine since nineteen
ninety and I've never ever had an email like that.
So I sort of sat there for a moment, quite
stun thinking is this meant for me?

Speaker 1 (01:02):
Did you see it as Did you see it as
a threat, because of course Wayne Brown has no power
to actually kill your paper.

Speaker 2 (01:10):
No, I didn't see it.

Speaker 3 (01:11):
I didn't see it as a like a henna, He's
gonna get away with this. I was just shocked at
thinking he would use those words.

Speaker 1 (01:20):
Okay, have has he apologized to you? Does he need
to apologize to you? Or is this just the hurly
burlier being in the media. Look, I can't tell you
how many death threats I get of an average day.

Speaker 3 (01:32):
Well, this is the first one that I've ever had
in thirty six years. But look, I like Wayne Brown
as an individual. I've always found him to be quite funny,
and you know, I've always gotten on with him. I've
really met him three or four times, but we've always had,
you know, good banter. And so that's why I was

(01:52):
a bit shocked that he Well, it was was having
a go at me about what Mike Lee has said,
which was all fact, and it was about the rates
increase in Auckland, which everybody's peeved about seven point nine percent.

Speaker 1 (02:08):
I mean, so he sent that email to you on
July the third. This is what he claims. He sent
that email at July the third, you know, and keep
bagging me that your paper's going to die. He may
be just suggesting that maybe there's enough Wayne Brown friends
there that they're just not going to pick up your paper,
even though of course your paper's free, isn't it. But
there we go. But then two weeks later you emailed
him back asking for a column in the August issue

(02:29):
of Ponsby News. So really, as all this outrage two
weeks after the fact, is this a publicity stunt?

Speaker 2 (02:41):
It could be. I didn't mean it to come across
like that, to be honest with you.

Speaker 3 (02:46):
I've did a screenshot of the email, sent it off
to Mike, and then I sort of forgot about it
until I looked at my Facebook page over the weekend
and saw all the comments.

Speaker 1 (03:01):
How long has ponsv News been going.

Speaker 2 (03:03):
For since nineteen eighty nine?

Speaker 1 (03:07):
You've done well, mate, It's been tough times. I see
the what is it? The Akaroa Mail is celebrating the
one hundred and fiftieth birthday that they've They've been publishing
and doing media for one hundred and fifty years in English,
not in French, though you could imagine that. So congratulations
to Pontsman News and Akiroa Mail, and thank you so
much for joining us. SPONSORV News editor Martin Leach for
more from hither, Duplessy Allen Drive.

Speaker 3 (03:29):
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