The two public broadcasters in this country, Radio New Zealand and Television New Zealand, both had a chance to redeem themselves recently and, unsurprisingly, neither of them took it. These two organisations, that we the taxpayers have the privilege of funding are forced to fund, appear reluctant to change their ways: they are hotbeds for left-wing journalist activism and seem happy to keep it that way.
At RNZ a vacancy opened on Morning Report when Corin Dann moved to become the business editor: an opportunity to get some balance into their news coverage. Nope. They pulled in John Campbell.
According to RNZ, Campbell was committed to impartial journalism. Yeah, right… just like the rest of their staff, no doubt. Their bias, which is prevalent in all government-run broadcasting globally, is rarely mentioned, unless it is to deny it exists. They have lost a lot of listeners since 2020. I presume their coverage of Covid helped.
Shane Currie, writing in the Herald’s Media Insider, has some interesting statistics. Overall, listeners have fallen from a high of more than 700,000 in early 2020 to a low of 467,700 at the start of 2025. Morning Report in early 2020 hit a peak of 531,836, more than 100,000 ahead of Hosking on ZB. By early 2025, Morning Report’s audience was 333,200, more than 100,000 behind Hosking. It closes out the year on 352,200 listeners, 72,100 behind Hosking.
No doubt they believe John Campbell is their mana from heaven. He arrives from TVNZ, the other leftie outfit that we are forced to subsidise. However, Media Insider reports that Campbell’s appointment was not without some discord at board level. One source said there were concerns ahead of election year and perceptions around his politics. A second source said, “I am stunned.” Here’s why.
Campbell wrote an article for TVNZ soon after the announcement of the new coalition government and triggered a complaint to the Media Council. It was headlined, “I hoped to be surprised – actually I’m amazed.” Campbell did not mean this kindly. He expressed his disappointment at the coalition agreements and, in his view, their lack of attention to climate change and poverty (obviously forgetting Jacinda did nothing), a “deeply regressive” approach to race relations and misguided support for landlords and gun-owners.
If Campbell was on ZB, he would be entitled to his opinion: that’s the purpose of the station. It is privately owned and so presenters can have opinions that some people might regard as biased. However, on government-owned media, the opposite applies. At TVNZ, he should have been required to report facts without expressing a personal opinion. This flies in the face of RNZ’s pronouncement that Campbell is committed to impartial journalism. He most definitely is not.
After a so-called scathing report by former Head of News Richard Sutherland, RNZ appointed a chief audio officer, Pip Keane. Campbell and Keane worked together on Checkpoint and Campbell Live at TV3. What a coincidence! Keane’s appointment is supposed “to signal ambition”…
As for Campbell, Media Insider says Morning Report is a programme he has listened to since it began. “My parents woke up to it. My childhood mornings echoed to the sound of it. That makes Morning Report really special to me. My first understanding of journalism would have been from Morning Report.” This useful piece of puffed-up reminiscing tells us the programme is somewhat responsible for his leftist views. Impartial? Not likely.
Moving onto TVNZ, it is the same story. The vacancy on their Breakfast programme was, again, the opportunity to balance their editorial stance and, again, an opportunity was missed. It was no surprise when the successful applicant was named as the one and only Tova O’Brien. Who would’ve guessed. TVNZ can’t break the habit, either.
Campbell moves from TVNZ to RNZ and O’Brien moves from Stuff to TVNZ. This is just moving deckchairs on the left-wing media. The dire need for change was ignored: instead they chose the status quo; keep leftist principles and policies in place, keep the bias going and keep losing public trust and audience.
Never was an old saying more true: a leopard doesn’t change its spots.
