I helped Richard Prebble write the private letter in which he warned Helen Clark of the allegations of underage sex  by a Dover Samuels "relative". Richard emphasized its confidentiality. We did not mention it to anyone, including any in our caucus. 

The letter suggested that she get someone independent to investigate the circumstances. So I bitterly remember how the TV cameras turned up in our offices the following day and followed us around without telling us why, before Clark launched her attack on us in the House, as "muckrakers". Even though some members of the Press Gallery knew (as they later admitted) that Clark’s office released the letter, I remember the entire gallery choosing to make our "targeting of Dover" the story. Six months of voter Siberia followed for us, including from some of our own ACT members.

I remember the media studiously ignoring Labour’s breaches of Electoral Law before the 2005 election. On 5 September 2005 I called several journalists who knew that I did not make things up to background the following release – 

“Is this yet another rule that Helen Clark has decided does not apply to her,” Mr Franks said."

It took the Auditor General’s report months later to force any coverage.

What’s the connection between these two old pieces of history and the Worth affair?

John Key sacks a Minister who fails to live up to required standards – as soon as that is evident, and without demanding a Police investigation or conviction first. Think of the contrast with Clark’s corrupt protection of Field, Benson Pope, Peters.

Yet the media immediately parrot Goff’s rather desperate counter-attack, that John Key took too long. The media story is all about John’s difficulties.

National has to accept governing in spite of the media. They need to connect with the 80% of New Zealanders who mystify the media, those who do not want to be told how to rear their children, who see through the fog of in-group snobbery that suffuses NZ  political journalism.

The media are largely Labour’s. They’re incapable of objectivity. It is not calculated low ethics or un-professional standards. Most have a poor knowledge of history. They simply do not know how much they do not know.Though they earnestly believe they’re unbiased, in fact they fall in with Goff’s strategies with the eagerness with which they played their assigned roles for Clark.

National strategies should plan on by-passing the media to connect directly with voters as far as that can be acheived.

Obama is doing it now, for different reasons (he has an adoring media) but to by-pass the Democrat Party dinosaurs. He can’t be beholden to them, because they suffer much the same disconnect from mainstream US voters.

National needs to crank up its internet communication capacity urgently.