Andrew Dickens Afternoons

So let’s talk about the rise and rise of the gotcha in political reportage."Gotcha journalism" is a term in the media that describes interviewing methods that are designed to entrap interviewees into saying something or doing something that could be seen as damaging to their cause, their character, their integrity, or their reputation.But the problem with gotcha journalism is if you haven’t got it right then it can gotcha you right back. Then the gotcha moment turns into a moment of fake news and propaganda.The latest gotcha was on Sunday when the Herald on Sunday reported that Jacinda Ardern and her team hired an advertising agency in New York to take pictures of her on her itinerary and used taxpayers money to do so.The heavy implication was that this was another waste of taxpayer funds by the party being painted as a tax and spend one. In the Herald on Sunday piece the second paragraph said this. “In the past, New Zealand Prime Ministers have had a staffer from their offices take photos, but Ardern had a c