KEY POINTS:
The country's First Couple yesterday hit out at the Herald, accusing the paper of showing no charity to the Labour Party and "fomenting happy mischief".
Facing opinion polls putting her Government about 20 points behind National, Prime Minister Helen Clark said the Herald had run a silly campaign against the Electoral Finance Act and was a Tory paper which had shown no charity to Labour in the party's 91 years of existence.
She singled out former cartoonist Sir Gordon Minhinnick for flaying Labour Governments last century.
In a TV interview, she said money linked to election-year ads might have been a factor in the Herald campaign against electoral finance law changes.
Earlier, her husband, Peter Davis, wrote a letter to the editor over coverage of the Owen Glenn loan to Labour.
"The Herald has had great fun at the expense of a wealthy donor and a political party," he says.
"Electoral financing in most well-ordered countries relies on a judicious mix of expenditure limits, state subsidies, individual contributions, and some transparent, larger donations. Is it not about time the Herald did some even-handed reviews of the area, rather than just foment happy mischief and headlines?"
An online poll at nzherald.co.nz found 80 per cent of the 3000 respondents by 10 o'clock last night believed Labour was to blame for its polling troubles, 16 per cent blamed "the media" and 4 per cent National.
* Helen Clark's claim that commercial issues were a factor in the Herald campaign against the Electoral Finance Bill was rejected emphatically by Herald editor Tim Murphy. The campaign was solely motivated by the law's restriction on free speech and its anti-democratic nature.
- NZ HERALD STAFF
