Summarised by Centrist
A previously unreported incident involving Maiki Sherman is now being detailed by commentator Ani O’Brien, who claims that at a May 2025 press gallery event in Parliament, Sherman “repeatedly shouted the homophobic slur ‘f***ot’ at fellow journalist Lloyd Burr.”
O’Brien says the incident was witnessed by multiple attendees and led to the event being shut down.
This follows reports that Sherman recently followed National MP Stuart Smith into a restricted area, “banged on his door for around ten minutes,” and warned that his refusal to engage “would influence how he would be portrayed” on TVNZ’s Breakfast programme.
According to O’Brien, this behaviour would breach parliamentary media protocols, which prohibit pursuing unwilling interviewees or obstructing MPs.
O’Brien explicitly states that these accounts are not speculative, writing that “the incident… has been corroborated by multiple attendees, including parliamentary staff and journalists from different outlets.”
The more serious charge, however, is directed at the media system itself. O’Brien argues the lack of reporting reflects “a system of unequal scrutiny,” where journalists impose strict standards on politicians while avoiding comparable accountability. She describes “a strange structural imbalance” in which “politicians are subjected to intense public scrutiny… [while] journalists… operate within a system of limited and largely opaque accountability.”
Her conclusion is that media organisations, including TVNZ, demand high standards from public figures but are “seen to protect their own at the expense of the truth,” creating a credibility gap that risks eroding public trust.
Editor’s note: The real story may be the delay. If this incident was widely known inside Wellington media circles for months, why is it only being reported now? As commentator Michael Laws argues, TVNZ management would likely have been aware of the episode at the time, raising questions about why it was not publicly addressed earlier. Politicians rarely get that kind of grace. Nor should senior journalists at a taxpayer-owned broadcaster. The fact mainstream outlets are finally touching the story matters, but so does the silence that came before it.
