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Last week I wrote an article on the journalists at Wellington Airport accosting the prime minister following a bad TPU/Curia poll and asking about his intentions about staying in the job. In the Weekend Herald, Bruce Cotterill, a man after my own heart, has written a lengthier and broader article on the state of the six o’clock news. He is, quite rightly, fairly critical of the news provided by the state broadcaster on TV One. He is no more enamoured with the journalists than I am. ThreeNews also failed to impress. His article is well worth a read and few, if any, on this site would disagree with his comments.
The headline to his article reads as follows – “TVNZ has lost its way and we deserve better”. Bruce states at the outset that he, like most of us, gave up on the television news a long time ago. Hoping to catch up with everything that is happening in the world today, Bruce recorded the six o’clock news on both channels last week. His reaction was, predictably, ‘I shouldn’t have bothered’. He’s right. Bruce is a professional director and adviser to business leaders, hence a busy man with no time to waste. He was hoping to quickly obtain the facts concerning the major news stories of the day.
Instead, from his comments, it seems Bruce felt he had tuned into the online version of the Woman’s Weekly. “Over the Teacups” if you like. This is the result of television executives years ago scrapping regional news programmes following the news hour. These were replaced with Over the Teacups in the form of Seven Sharp. Seven it might be, sharp it most definitely is not. The lady presenter has been on our television screens for more years than I care to remember and deserves an imminent retirement. I recommend the obligatory bunch of flowers prior to sending her off to graze in greener pastures, perhaps to the strains of ’60s local boy Ronnie Sundin’s ‘Moo Cow Boogie Blues’. Anyone remember that one?
The result of scrapping regional news is these items are now squeezed into the news hour, which brings me back to Bruce’s point. What we get therefore are magazine-type stories instead of beefier items covering world events. Often these items are only of interest to the people in the area whence the story emanated. And thus the resemblance to Woman’s Weekly. Bruce also covered the circus at Wellington Airport. He was not impressed and was particularly critical of One News political reporter Maiki Sherman, another person employed by TVNZ who deserves the “Moo Cow Boogie Blues” send off.
Bruce found her rude and disrespectful. Today’s journalists have an agenda and they are fixated on it. If this is the behaviour is taught at journalism school then the school itself needs an overhaul. These are journalists working in areas where they can, but shouldn’t, imply their own personal opinions. This is where the bias is purposefully introduced and it is the height of unprofessionalism. Standards that existed in the days of Philip Sherry, Dougal Stevenson, Jennie Goodwin and Bill Toft no longer apply. Instead we are told what the weather is like in Palmy or Gisi, wherever they are. No doubt somewhere in that place misnamed Aotearoa.
Being relaxed and conversational is one thing but not giving places their proper names is quite another. They wouldn’t dare do it when talking in their Māori lingo. Bruce referred to the reporting of items such as gangs. He noted the story featured the growth of gangs but figures released on the very same day showing a reduction in gang crime due to government policies were ignored. That is bias, pure and simple. Bruce also found bias in items referring to the report on the Covid inquiry. He noted the ‘soft’ treatment given to Hipkins – just a couple of patsy questions – compared to the rudeness Luxon had to endure.
Bruce also referenced an interview Heather du Plessis Allan conducted with the chief executive of TVNZ, Jodie O’Donnell. O’Donnell was at pains to point out that “there is no bias in our newsroom, to be clear”. In my view, to unashamedly make such a barefaced claim is worthy of investigation, which won’t happen because the minister hides under a rock and he owns the disreputable outfit on our behalf.
As Bruce points out, Murdoch, Packer and O’Reilly were never shy about talking to their newsrooms. Bruce says Packer famously once phoned Channel 9 and demanded that they “get that garbage off my television channel”. Based on the performance of our news channels, the minister would need a hotline to One and Three News. They needn’t worry though as a good ticking off or a boot in the nether regions is the last thing on his mind. Part of the problem is they source their overseas news from outlets known to have similar views and bias to their own. Left.
The upshot of all of this is we are very poorly served by those in charge of news: the journalists and the minister. The consequence is we are given a nightly offering of news that resembles a dog’s breakfast. A dog would simply walk away and that’s precisely what many of us have done, including Bruce Cotterill. And we won’t be returning.
