Pam Corkery set to explode at Wintec Press Club

Broadcasting legend and controversial media-basher Pam Corkery is guest speaker at the next Wintec Press Club free lunch extravaganza – which also features the presentation of the most sought-after prizes in New Zealand journalism, and the launch of a new book which is set to take the country by storm.

Corkery, who acted as the Internet Party’s volatile press secretary in the election campaign, will address an invite-only audience of 100 at the Press Club event, held on Friday, November 14, in Hamilton.

She famously rounded on the media during the campaign, and abused TV3 cub reporter Brook Sabin as a “puffed-up little s…”. Corkery subsequently wrote a scathing column which called out Sabin and others for their tricks, their self-regard, their nastiness, and their sheer existence.

She says of her speech at Wintec Press Club, “I was reminded this campaign of the news room cliché that there are a lot of writers with drinking problems.  It’s not true.  There are a lot of drinkers with writing problems.

“Doing the rounds of the Press Gallery was like visiting a neutron bomb site.  The building was standing but the people were all dead.

“Health warning:  political journos with fragile egos shouldn’t lift weights during this chat.”

Wintec editor-in-residence Steve Braunias said that the first guests he invited to the event were political journalists.

“There may be blood,” he said.

“There will definitely be laughs. Pam’s a clever and hilarious media legend, and I adore her verve.

“In her broadcasting pomp she was the best and funniest talkback host in New Zealand. Her brief career in parliament was kind of interesting and I daresay the audience might wish to ask her about her curious intention to open a brothel for women.

“I’m thrilled that Pam agreed to appear as guest speaker. We’re honoured to host her.”

Corkery will speak for about 30 minutes at the luncheon, followed by a Q + A session.

The November 14 event will also feature the book launch of Madmen: Inside the weirdest election campaign ever, by Press Club life president Steve Braunias.

“It’s very good, I assure you,” he said. “It tells the full, weird story of the 2014 election campaign, through close and bizarre encounters with all the main players, including a hallucinogenic bus trip through the North Island with Prime Minister John Key.”

As well, Braunias will present a cash prize of $500 to the winner of the annual Wintec Press Club Best Sentence of the Year Award. The prize goes to the journalism student who has written the most alarming sentence during 2014.

Other prizes include the Wintec Press Club Best Friend of the Year which is awarded to the person outside of Wintec who has provided the most outstanding support for journalism students, and the much coveted Wintec Press Club Writer of the Year Award, open to all journalists in New Zealand.

“We’re seeing out the year in style,” says Braunias. “We plan to drink and not worry about our writing problems.”

The 12-2pm lunch will be held at the Ferrybank restaurant and convention centre in Grantham St, on the banks of the Waikato River in downtown Hamilton.