Media mismatch on an 'out-of-control mob'

The protest that overwhelmed a rally for anti-trans rights activist Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull in Auckland last weekend was described as out-of-control and violent in some accounts. Two reporters who covered the protest on the ground tell Mediawatch that doesn't reflect what they saw.​The protest that overwhelmed a rally for anti-trans rights activist Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull in Auckland last weekend was described as out-of-control and violent in some accounts. Two reporters who covered the protest on the ground tell Mediawatch that does not reflect what they saw.​Minutes after the anti-trans rights activist Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull left Albert Park under police escort last weekend, counter-protesters crowded the band rotunda to have what Auckland Pride director Max Tweedie described as a "trans joy dance party".At that point, the protesters' joy did not seem out-of-step with some of the media coverage of the event.Much of the early reporting on the counter-protest also painted it as either relatively peaceful or not particularly aggressive compared to other demonstrations like the Parliament occupation. The New Zealand Herald noted some "ugly" confrontations including pushing and shoving between Keen-Minshull's supporters and counter-protesters.It also noted Keen-Minshull's attempts to speak had been drowned out by drums, chants of "go home" and, at one point, a Whitney Houston song playing over loudspeakers. At The Spinoff, Anna Rawhiti-Connell painted it as an event where "joy trumped fear and a symphony of fearlessness drowned out".Others described an almost entirely positive experience of the protest on social media, with one person calling it a "cacophony of aroha".By the end of the weekend, a very different media narrative had taken hold.Sunday afternoon's Weekend Collective show on Newstalk ZB was the first to open up national talkback lines on the issue. Host Tim Beveridge asked callers whether the outcome of the rally made for a good or bad day for New Zealand. One caller bemoaned "the shutting down of free speech by the authoritarian left", while another said "women's rights were being suppressed" and one more claimed women were being "kicked to the kerb". Those callers may have been reading and watching commentators, some local and some overseas, who had painted the protest as violent and out-of-control.On Saturday night the world's most successful living author, JK Rowling, told her 14 million followers on Twitter the scenes at the Auckland protest were "repellent". She posted dozens of further tweets about it over the following days…Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details