A rainy day for the mayor's media freeze out

Auckland mayor Wayne Brown has maintained a relationship with the media that's been - at best - frosty. A new report into the Council's flood response shows the limits of that approach. The mayor's promised changes to emergency planning in future. How could this help media do their job in an emergency? Auckland mayor Wayne Brown has maintained a relationship with the media that's been - at best - frosty.A new report into Auckland Council's flood response shows the limits of that approach - and it said "there was little utilisation of mainstream media to amplify critical safety messages". The mayor's promised changes. What would help media do their job in an emergency? Media attending a press conference on the review of Auckland Council's response to the Auckland Anniversary Weekend floods spent 30 minutes hearing from its author, former police commissioner Mike Bush.But one important figure was notably absent from the stage; the one who ordered the review in the first place."Where is the mayor?" asked The New Zealand Herald columnist Simon Wilson. As it turns out, Wayne Brown wasn't engaging with the media that day, and wouldn't for some time.His silence was hardly out of the ordinary.Brown has had what could euphemistically be described as a rocky relationship with the media, dating back to his campaign for the Auckland mayoralty.Just before the election, Newshub caught him on camera expressing his displeasure about the coverage of the aforementioned Wilson with a toilet-themed threat."The first thing I'll do when I get to be the mayor - they'll be gluing little pictures of him on all the urinals so they can pee on him," he said.That antipathy has continued following Brown's election to office.Our biggest new organisation, Stuff, only just got its first sit-down interview with him this week, six months after his election. It came with conditions: Brown got to choose the journalist asking the questions.When the mayor has fronted up, the exchanges have often been prickly or outright combative. On the night of the floods, he admonished reporters asking whether he had acted quickly and decisively enough, saying "my role isn't to rush out with buckets".On RNZ the morning after, he deflected presenter Kim Hill's questions about the council's response."This is an unprecedented event. It'll be interesting to see how Wellington is when the earthquake strikes."Since the report's release, Brown appears to have gone back to ground…Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details