NZ First leader Winston Peters says the media's fixation on a mistake tweet reflects only on the media.

NZ First leader Winston Peters has played down the furore surrounding a rogue tweet sent from his account.

It was a staffer who sent the tweet, apparently meant for a search bar rather than his Twitter status.

But no, he wouldn't be punishing them, Peters told media at an event in Christchurch.

"If you had somebody in your operation that made a mistake would you go and out them? Probably yes, cos you're the media. I'm a loyal politician and I don't do that.

READ MORE: Winston Peters accidentally shares social media search on himself, or does he?

"Course it wasn't me," he said.

Peters said he left the tweet up on his account as a mirror held to reflect the state of the media.

Tweets on Winston Peters NZ politician — Winston Peters (@winstonpeters) May 26, 2017

"Who's winning the argument on social media right now? I love the way that the collective rippers of our media society had so much fun.

"That's why I didn't pull it down. I thought 'This is great'. This is what the media can be like. And boy have they had a field day all blaming me."

Peters went into bat for the staffer, saying they were a hard-working member of the team.

"It was someone in my team. Flat out busy, being asked to bring the coffee as well, hit the wrong button because they're under pressure. It's a human mistake."

But the tweet hardly mattered.

"Given it was so small, I'm absolutely stunned that it was our number one tweet of all time.

"Don't you feel a bit bad about it yourselves?"