I almost felt sorry for "embattled MP Aaron Gilmore" as a press pack led by TV3's Patrick Gower stalked him in the hallways, and especially when Campbell Live's Rebecca Wright placed him on the rack and turned the screws, at his mea culpa press conference.
No one, especially the calf-eyed Gilmore, expects the Spanish Inquisition. Wright pressed Gilmore as if he were a high ranking Nazi and this was Nuremberg, but it wasn't, this was Spain in the dark ages, a mere confession would not suffice. The man was a witch and he damn well needed to fess up.
We, the viewing public, are hateful creatures. We are quick to pour scorn on politicians and when one slips up it becomes easy to lose one's humanity in the heat of the frenzy. For a journalist - possibly armed with a more detailed knowledge of an MPs failings - the urge to stick the knife in and twist it must be irresistible. As it is to the lion that sees a weakened member of the herd. The last, lamest wildebeest, or the lowest ranked list MP. You can almost hear David Attenborough intoning, "but he can longer endure the chase and, finally, with one last kick, he submits."
Older bulls, like Winston, Jones, Mallard and Banks may bear the scars of such attacks but they live on. They're hardened beasts who have clawed their way to the middle. They've spent hour upon hour dealing with the snapping press and the frothing public. List MPs are another story. They are mere amateurs. Left to the mercy of the press they are ill prepared to defend themselves.
