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The text message from Chris Carter - Source: ONE News -
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Scarcity creates value.
It's that way for gold, diamonds and even Labour party MPs, as Chris Carter has learnt this week. Everyone wanted to talk to the Te Atatu MP, and the more he dodged, the more intense the media interest grew.
Competition for the Carter interview grew as the week went on, with television programmes all eager to get him on screen and ask him the questions the public still want answered about his spending, both as a minister and as a mere MP.
The public interest is legitimate, but with the 7pm current affairs programmes in recent nights, the head-to-head nature of their competition has been revealing.
On Close-Up, Mark Sainsbury made an on-air invitation to Carter to come on the programme. When Carter declined the next day, Sainsbury assured viewers it was because he wasn't going to do any interviews and that if he had spoken to anyone, it would have been to Close Up.
John Campbell made mock of all that, playing a message he'd received from Carter saying that if he gave the interview to anyone, it would be to Campbell. Viewers could probably care less about a lot of Campbell's gags - they don't care about TV's insider battles, they just want the story - but what it did do was expose Carter's efforts to say no to everyone without making any enemies in the progress.
A reasonable enough goal, you might say. But like the spending itself, it's not a good look to be seen to be saying the same thing to various media behind the others' backs.
Given the merry mischief growing around this Carter quest, let me toss in the Q+A experience. As you'd imagine, we've been keen to speak to Carter for some time. We asked last year during the initial round of spending stories, and we've been asking again the past couple of weeks.
Carter, a charming man when he's not under the kosh, has politely said he'd love to come on to Q+A to talk about foreign affairs - love to! - but not about spending. After he lost his foreign affairs portfolio, he said he'd be happy to talk about conservation and ethnic issues - his new portfolios - but, you guessed it, not spending.
And this is where Q+A can trump both. They can claim that Carter was willing - grudgingly - to front on their programmes. Q+A can reveal that Carter longs to come onto our programme!
The text I had from Carter said, "Tim, my dream is one day to go on Q and A but only on conservation or ethnic issues..."
Bet he doesn't dream about going on the other programmes!
In all seriousness though, it's a fine line both Carter and the media have walked this week. Many viewers will sympathise with any MP being chased down stairwells and hounded along corridors and dismiss the media as petty; on the other hand, many New Zealanders feel they deserve an explanation as to why their money was spent the way it was. And how else can news programmes try to get it for them if the MP involved takes to his heels? Important questions remained unanswered, and now his response is part of the story.
As former Labour party president Mike Williams said on Close Up, Carter really needs to front to calm this all down. Indeed, in Shane Jones you see a masterclass in how to handle scandal. Maybe he mea-ed a few too many culpas, but he fronted and fronted again, answered public questions seriously and took it on the chin.
Who knows how this will play out. Will Carter give an interview? We'll all be watching, I'm sure.
Oh, and Chris, if you're not doing anything else this Sunday morning...
Tim Watkin is a producer for Q+A, live on Sundays from 9am on TV ONE. Read more of Tim's articles here.
