Yesterday Chris Hipkins was sworn in as Prime Minister of New Zealand. He held his first caucus meeting then, as is usual, a press conference. Following this Jenna Lynch, Political Editor at NewsHub, declared that he had nothing tangible to offer the public on his first day as Prime Minister. I guess for Jenna the honeymoon is over - that was mighty quick.
A new political leader typically has a honeymoon period where the media covers their background and aspirations. Its light and fluffy, smiles all around. There isn’t much else to do - they’ve only just started so there’s nothing critical to report just yet. But after only a few hours Jenna Lynch declared Chris Hipkins’ honeymoon period over.
“Nothing tangible to offer” was Jenna’s assessment, along with her opinion that Chris Hipkins was “stuck in policy paralysis”. Again this is a Prime Minister who had only been in the job for a matter of hours.
So that was quite quick, as far as honeymoons go. Some political leaders have longer honeymoon periods. Some political leaders, even other ones called Chris, have much much longer honeymoon periods. Some honeymoon periods apparently never end and the treatment from the media remains light and fluffy even after 14 months in the role.
Now you might not be that familiar with Jenna Lynch so what would be interesting to know about the Political Editor of one of our two major television news shows?
Jenna has been with, what we used to call, Three News for nine years and in her current role since January 2022 when she replaced the well known Tova O’Brien. I assume Tova was sick of having a high profile and moved to Today FM never to be heard from again. Well, unless you accidentally tune to the wrong station on the radio.
Something you might not know about the NewsHub Political Editor, who has declared that Chris Hipkins has nothing tangible to offer, is that she is the partner of ACT Party Chief Of Staff (COS) Andrew Ketels.
So that’s interesting.
In a holy cow batman, this is a colossal conflict of interest surely? Kind of a way.
Look New Zealand is small, two degrees of separation etc, I get that. But we’re not that bloody small!
If the Horowhenua Chronicle had a journalist covering local politics and cat rescues who was in a relationship with the secretary of the local Citizens and Ratepayers group - you’d think that looked pretty dodgy.
This is beyond looking a bit dodgy - this is the partner of ACT’s COS being the political editor of one of our two major news programs!
Perhaps I’m being unfair to Jenna, let’s take a look at some of her previous work. Maybe she was having a bad day. She was probably annoyed that despite her asking the question in different ways Chris Hipkins, only in the job for a few hours, wouldn’t tell her the tax policy he would be taking to the country for October’s election.
How did she first respond to Chris Hipkins being named leader for example?
Oh dear, that’s not a good start Chris, clearly not the man for the job.
This is an old trick used by journalists to make politicians look silly. Ask a series of rapid fire questions, for which you have no interest in the answers, and if the person can’t give you the specific piece of data off the top of their head make them look like an out of touch idiot.
These are things that person might know about, but can’t recall the specifics of on the spot. Like the current inflation rate when you’ve been on holiday and haven’t checked it since Christmas - as Chris Hipkins explained. Or detailing the articles of the Treaty of Waitangi. These sort of “gotcha” questions offer no real information or insights to the public, they are merely used to catch the person out and make them look bad.
The opposite of a gotcha is a gimme - a question where the journalist sets the interviewee up for success. By offering them a gentle full toss to knock out of the park and look clever. I guess Jenna decided it was the turn of the gotcha after the last Chris got gimme, after gimme, after gimme. Important to have a bit of variety for ratings.
Hmm, so what about before Jenna even knew who the new leader was going to be? How did she inform the New Zealand public of that process?
Sounded like quite a contest, all that behind the scenes jostling for position. Poor old leaderless Labour - what a rudderless ship eh Jenna?
Except it wasn’t true. There was no vote. No other candidate put their hand up. There was only one horse at the starting line and the finishing line. An unbackable favourite because even Brad Olsen could’ve accurately predicted Chris Hipkins was going to be the next leader.
But not Jenna, no she was imagining the rumble of the hooves as the candidates turned the final corner. Elbowing each other out of the way to take the victory.
What we actually saw was an orderly procession. Despite the surprise of the previous Prime Minister stepping down there was a very smooth and professionally managed transition.
It went so smoothly even the lefties that were devastated by the former PM, who Jenna referred to last month as “all over the place”, standing down, were soon smiling and optimistic again. They would miss Jacinda, but they really liked Chris too.
You can read all about Jenna, her partner Andrew Ketels, and the story of Winston Peters’ super payments, here. It is a long read but very interesting. If you’re short on time click on “cheat sheet” on the right hand side to read the summary.
Suffice to say that investigation indicates quite significant overlap between the personal and private lives of the Newshub Political Editor and the ACT Party COS, along with a good many other things. It is credited to Kæstur Hákarl, which is the name given to Icelandic fermented shark.
Hmm some of you might recall a “Rawshark” in NZ politics, the person who hacked the Whale Oil website. I wonder if they’re related?
Someone once joked that politicians should be forced to wear the logos of their sponsors, in the same way they are plastered all over the side of a racing car. I’m not suggesting that with Jenna, I don’t think she should have to wear a sign around her neck saying “My partner is the ACT party Chief of Staff” - that sounds like Jeremy Clarkson territory. Perhaps a simple disclaimer at the start of every interview or article would be appropriate.
I’m kidding of course. Although if this sort of conflict of interest was identified in a politician that person would be ripped to shreds by a news organisation like NewsHub. Probably without bothering to check whether any impropriety had actually occurred.
That is the thing with a conflict of interest - you don’t have to have actually done anything, it is the fact that it exists that makes being in the role inappropriate.
There are probably supporters of right wing parties who think Jenna is too kind to the parties of the left, which is a good sign. I guess if you’re pissing off people from both sides you must be doing something right. But it doesn’t change the fact that it is inappropriate.
Of course Discovery Inc, the owners of NewsHub, are under no obligation to anyone other than the shareholders and the paying customers - the advertisers. They don’t have to follow good practices such as avoiding conflicts of interests. If they want to make someone who is in a long term relationship with a senior figure in the ACT party their Political Editor, they can. And have.
Look I don’t know to what degree Jenna’s reporting is coloured by her relationship but I do know that the gotcha headlines and the speculation Jenna enters into are not good journalism. Especially for someone that won Political Journalist of the Year at the Voyager Media Awards last August!
If you were at a BBQ and you found yourself talking to the partner of the local National Party committee chair would you trust them for an unbiased assessment on the merits of the rival Labour candidate?
Me neither. They would probably say that person had nothing tangible to offer.
While you are right about the closeness of the New Zealand community, especially in Wellington where politicians and press gallery intermingle as part of their working world, conflicts of interest to this extent must be closely scrutinised. I'm also concerned about the seeming lack of understanding of how government works. You would think that a year or two in the press gallery would give you at least as much knowledge as Pols101. I come across a lot of ignorance among general population a long way from Wellington, about how government works, but it's inexcusable in press gallery journalists.
She had my BP rising by the minute lastnight...just unf'ingbelievable Grrrrrr