Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams targeted the news media and the Opposition Liberals at his party's annual dinner in St. John's on Thursday night.

The premier accused the Opposition of gutter politics for hiring Craig Westcott, a former journalist criticized for suggesting in an email to a Williams aide that mental illness or syphilis were at the root of the premier's angry outbursts.

Williams also responded to suggestions in the local media that he has reacted too aggressively to critics.

"I'm considered a bully, and you know that's really sad," Williams told fellow Progressive Conservatives. "But I can tell you categorically that I would rather live one more day as a lion than 10 more years as a jellyfish, because I'm going to take each and everyone of them on."

He described the news media, especially the CBC News in Newfoundland and Labrador, as too negative, and said he'd be more productive if he didn't have to spend time deflecting criticism.

"We are doing well down here," the premier said. "We've gone through hard times. We have been shafted time and time again. … Why don't you just let us prosper because we are finally prospering."

Williams said online comments made by Pam Pardy Ghent, when she was on the Rural Secretariat advisory board, were particularly hurtful. In a Facebook status update, Ghent said she was going to ask Williams's communications director about the size of the premier's penis. She was removed from the board after her comments appeared.

"You need to put yourself in the shoes of someone whose grandchild says, 'What's this all about poppy, why are they saying that, what does that mean?'" Williams said.

In the past, both Ghent and Westcott have done commentaries for CBC News in St. John's.

The premier's 17-minute speech focused on little else but the criticism he and his government have received..

"But you know, why do we have to be at that? Why isn't it just live and let live?"