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Paddy Gower has slammed \u201ckeyboard warriors\u201d claiming the media is getting what it deserves for going \u201cwoke\u201d amid mass job losses.\xa0\xa0

TV3 journalist and TV host Patrick Gower spoke to Newstalk ZB\u2019s Mike Hosking\xa0this morning following yesterday\u2019s Newshub meeting where the closure of Newshub was confirmed.\xa0

Hosking asked Gower what he would say to those who say \u201cyou go woke, you go broke\u201d and claim the media was bribed by the former Labour government.\xa0

\u201cGet stuffed, and actually go away and, to use the term they use, do your own research,\u201d Gower fired back.\xa0

Gower agreed the Public Interest Journalism fund had \u201cbranding issues\u201d for media organisations because the public didn\u2019t understand where the money was going.\xa0

\u201cBut at the end of the day, I\u2019m not going to sit here and listen to sort of people like that say that kind of thing after I\u2019ve slaved away my bloody life alongside my colleagues, 25 years in my case, putting damn good news out there.\xa0

\u201cWhile we\u2019ve got a trust problem, we need to address it and explain things that we\u2019re doing properly.\xa0

\u201cWhen it comes to the sort of Facebook keyboard warriors, I ain\u2019t got no time for that, Mike.\xa0

\u201cI\u2019m about the 250 people who lost a job yesterday and actually the millions of other Kiwis that I know that trust me and trust my colleagues.\u201d\xa0

Patrick Gower and colleagues on their way to learn Newshub's fate. Photo / Alex Burton\xa0

Gower told Hosking he didn\u2019t know how many of the up to 300 people losing their jobs would remain in media.\xa0

\u201cWho knows?\xa0

\u201cI mean, even for myself, I\u2019ve got no bloody idea what I\u2019ll do next.\u201d\xa0

Gower said he hoped a lot of his colleagues would remain in the field, but recognised it was a difficult time for the industry in New Zealand.\xa0

\u201cIt\u2019s that simple, mate, not everybody can survive.\xa0

\u201cBut we\u2019ve got to be optimistic, we can\u2019t kind of give in.\xa0

\u201cI can say for myself, I\u2019m determined to get back out there.\u201d\xa0

Hosking asked Gower how many of the employees likely saw the closure coming.\xa0

\u201cIt was always a possibility when we came in under the big company, particularly Warner Brothers Discovery when they\u2019d merged ... some sort of shutdown was always possible.\xa0

\u201cI\u2019ve survived a couple myself in the last 14 years or we\u2019ve been very, very close.\xa0

\u201cSo it was always on the cards.\u201d\xa0

The state of the economy and the recession have had a huge impact on the media industry, Gower admitted.\xa0

\u201cWe often talk about the big structural problems that are behind all of this, but, hey, let\u2019s face it, the economy has absolutely tanked, every single dollar virtually has dropped out of the advertising market.\xa0

\u201cPeople are really struggling, [advertising] is the first thing that goes when a business is struggling, everybody knows that.\xa0

\u201cThat has just put insane pressure on all media companies.\u201d\xa0

Gower said he hadn\u2019t seen \u201canything\u201d broadcasting minister Melissa Lee had done so far for the industry.\xa0

\u201cI haven\u2019t seen anything they\u2019ve done, but at the same time, the media doesn\u2019t need a bailout.\xa0

\u201cSo if anyone\u2019s talking about some sort of cash bailout, we don\u2019t need that.\xa0

\u201cThe media does need to be able to survive commercially. There are ways that we can do that.\u201d\xa0

Gower said there are issues that both Governments, current and former, have not addressed that could have helped the media.\xa0

\u201cThere are massive structural problems out there that I just don\u2019t think the Government\u2019s got their head around.\xa0

\u201cPaying these Kordia fees, television companies, paying fees to another government organisation for something that we don\u2019t really need anymore is just plain nuts.\xa0

\u201cIt is crazy, that is literally jobs going out the door every time they pay those fees.\u201d\xa0

Gower confirmed his show\xa0Paddy Gower Has Issues\xa0was not funded by NZ on Air, so wouldn\u2019t be funded by TV3\u2032s new model.\xa0

\u201cThere\u2019s got to be other ways to do television programmes ... we\u2019ve got to find commercially successful ways of doing this stuff. Stuff where things get paid for by viewers again. We\u2019ve got to find a way back to that.\u201d\xa0

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