Waipā mayor suffers backlash after misleading headline and misquote

The horrific vitriol and social media backlash has to stop – says Waipā District Mayor Jim Mylchreest who found himself in the headlines today following news of a COVID-19 case in Karapiro.

Following a newspaper article being headlined with the comment that Mylchreest would like to see the whole North Island moved to Level 3, the Mayor is fighting back and said he did not state that at all.

“I did not say that. You can read for yourself in the article, I stated the difficulty in how boundaries would be managed around the wider Waikato region if there was a level change to Alert Level 3,” Mylchreest said.

“I had said that changing to Level 3 for our district, the region, it is just not practical – and it would impact on the whole of North Island. At no time, did I state I wanted to see the whole of the North Island moved to Level 3.”

Following the headline and its use throughout a number of publications, Mylchreest received comments from the public via email he describes as “vitriol and horrific”.

“I have had horrific comments emailed to me, and I have seen the backlash on social media and it is not on. We are people too and we are working hard to ensure the community is informed. We can only do this with the correct and official information once we have it to hand from the Ministry of Health – if we went out as soon as there was rumour or an unconfirmed mention of a case, we would only cause panic and mayhem,” Mylchreest said.

“Often, we don’t get the confirmed information until the Government’s daily press conferences at 1pm.”

“Times like these are tough on us all. We need to be working together, staying calm and ensuring that we are doing the best for our community – and at this stage, that is encouraging our community to follow COVID protocols and get vaccinated. That is what we should all be focussing on.”