Summarised by Centrist
Peter Williams and Duncan Garner are circling the same problem from different angles, and landing on the same conclusion: when stories cut too close to Māori political power, mainstream journalism too often loses its nerve.
Williams’ focus is Dunedin. In a column titled Silence After the Scoop, he points to a four-page Otago Daily Times investigation into Te Kaika, a Māori health hub operated by Otepoti Health Limited and funded with many millions in public money. The report examined governance failures, conflicts of interest and accountability. Then it stopped.
“And then — nothing,” Williams writes. No follow-up, no response pieces, no wider media pickup. For Williams, that silence is not neutral. “Investigative journalism is not a one-day event,” he argues. “When the reporting simply stops, readers are left to draw their own conclusions — and none of them are flattering to the media.”
Garner makes a parallel argument, but from Auckland and Wellington. On his Editor-in-Chief podcast, he profiles the work of online commentator Shubz, who has been pursuing allegations involving Willie Jackson, John Tamihere and Māori media organisations.
Garner is blunt about the wider profession’s reluctance to engage. Māori journalists, he says, too often act as “protection agents”, preferring advocacy over scrutiny. “That’s not journalism. It’s PR,” Garner says.
The shared thread is not ideology, but consistency. As Williams puts it, “Transparency is not racism. Accountability is not colonisation.”
Read more over at Bassett, Brash and Hide and on YouTube
