No Surprises
1 News’ integrity versus National, NZME, and Maiki.
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A heart that’s full up like a landfill
A job that slowly kills you
Bruises that won’t heal
You look so tired, unhappy
Bring down the government
They don’t, they don’t speak for us
Songwriters: Philip Selway / Jonathan Greenwood / Edward John O'Brien / Thomas Yorke / Colin Greenwood.
Balance is a stick used to beat publicly funded media.
Right-wing politicians take comfort from the favourable coverage they receive on commercial platforms run by billionaires with agendas or ex-party members with unquestionable loyalty.
Then, when they see reports they dislike in the publicly funded media, they scream blue murder and threaten to cut funding, even if the reporting might actually be accurate. Compared to the drivel served on commercial platforms, it seems to them like left-wing propaganda because it genuinely questions things and doesn’t just say what they want to hear.
And so they interfere, just as foreign regimes they claim to detest do, limiting what can be said and making it mandatory to report official government announcements.
Criminal Reporting.
Back at the end of February, TVNZ reporter Benedict Collins delivered a report on 1 News, which indicated that gang members now outnumber police, and highlighted that under this government, the extra police promised have not been delivered, and the heavy emphasis on cracking down on gangs by removing their gang insignia wasn’t actually working.
Since they were elected, the government had only added 264 of the promised additional police on the beat, and there were now 10,475 police officers and 10,478 gang members.
National were not impressed, given that they had produced numbers showing a fall in violent crime, and it wasn’t mentioned.
It could have been because it was simply unrelated to the gang story covered, or maybe because National’s numbers were dubious at best, using one set of data to measure things under Labour and a different set for National, or it could have just been due to left-wing bias.
National assumed it was the last of these.
In reality, we had a gang story that was true but embarrassing for a government that wanted its story told, which was somewhat the opposite. Not entirely true, but appearing favourable, this was especially important given that crime is about the only area in which they’ve been viewed positively in the polls for some time.
Paul Goldsmith spoke with TVNZ board chair Andrew Barclay, saying that when they spoke of the story, “I didn't engage further in the discussion on that matter, I may possibly have grunted, but I'm not sure.”
Oh, come on, does the prim and proper Goldsmith of Epsom seem like the sort of man to involuntarily grunt? Yeah, right, maybe if it were Andrew Hoggard or Gerry Brownlee I could buy it, but Goldsmith?
The Remuera Grunter wasn’t the only one complaining; the Prime Minister’s chief press secretary, Finn Stichbury, emailed news and current affairs executive editor Phil O’Sullivan, saying “The data Benedict had is newsworthy but to omit brand new data announced yesterday … looks like a deliberate lack of balance,” and demanding to know “how TVNZ would ensure its political coverage was balanced heading into the November election.”
If the pressure from Minister Goldsmith and the PM’s office wasn’t enough, Police Minister Mark Mitchell took to social media to have a massive whinge.
It’s hard to take it seriously, as the report seemed quite fair and factual compared to the vitriolic reports the left often receives. Yet it clearly worked, because five days later, TVNZ ran a second report on crime numbers, highlighting the government’s success.
The Poison Pen.
So you might be asking yourself, "Why are you telling us about this now?” Well, the answer is that in the scurrilous Media Insider column in the NZ Herald this week, where Shayne Currie eviscerates his rivals tabloid style while turning a blind eye to anything negative about NZME, there was more information on what went down behind the scenes.
It turns out Political editor Maiki Sherman told TVNZ’s news boss she had seen the post by Mark Mitchell, in which he moaned about Benedict Collins’ article.
“Having read the Facebook post and comments, including the scale of engagement on the post, I acknowledge that the situation is not great and that it harms the credibility of our office and organisation, which is disappointing,” Maiki said to Phil O’Sullivan, who had told her about the story.
My first thought was: what kind of news organisation checks the reviews written by the people they have written about? If you have confidence in your content, it shouldn't matter that they don’t like it. Secondly, what difference does it make what the scale of engagement is? You’re supposed to report the truth, not what is popular.
Maiki said she had met an unnamed party, although it seems reasonable to assume it was either Mr Collins or someone with editorial authority, and “gone through where I think the story was lacking in balance”.
I could only laugh at this. I find Benedict Collins’ work far more credible than Maiki’s. The idea that she was going to lecture him, or anyone else, about balance was amusing.
From the paywalled article:
Sherman said she had apologised to Mitchell the morning after the story was aired, and told O’Sullivan she had outlined to him where “the coverage could have been improved”.
Sorry, what now? Is the political editor of our state broadcaster apologising to the government for less-than-favourable coverage? That’s unacceptable and incompatible with maintaining credibility as a reporter.
If you do your job properly, sometimes the government won’t like what you say, but your role is to speak the truth, even if those in power don’t like it.
It is also absurd for the government to expect that the information they release becomes an article; the role of the fourth estate is not simply to issue press releases on their behalf without questioning the truth of the information.
In his defence, not that he should be needing to offer such for simply doing his job, Collins said, “Our focus with the track was to break an exclusive law and order story showing gang members now outnumber cops, something Luxon had promised wouldn’t happen under his watch - this is important to highlight. There was no deliberate lack of balance.”
So what to take from this?
Well, I’ve gained respect for Benedict Collins, who produced a thorough piece of investigative journalism and didn’t bolt on government-satisfying pseudo-statistics at the last minute.
What little respect I had for Maiki is gone; she comes out of this terribly. Her gotcha style of journalism and propensity to make scandals out of nothing were bad enough, but to know she is going to Government Ministers and apologising when they are not happy, even when the article was factual, is a disgrace.
We need to ask serious questions about the roles of both Andrew Barclay and Phil O’Sullivan: whether their focus was on accuracy in reporting or on keeping the National Party happy.
As for the politicians, Goldsmith, Mitchell, and the Prime Minister in the person of Finn Stichbury, who look as if they’re trying to silence the media from criticism, I’d say grow a pair.
Look at what Chippy had to put up with over the smear around his ex-wife; there was no regard for balance or what was factual and fair. It was all fair in love and dirty politics, and now the same media outlet, which had little interest in Hipkins’ side of the story, is falling over itself to keep politicians in power happy.
It’s not a good look, especially not for Maiki, who, as the political editor of 1 News, appears to support a culture of keeping the powers that be happy. If that is how you are seen, how can you stand before the nation and do your job each night?
Have a good Monday, folks, and take care, all you lovely people, especially if you’re travelling at the end of the long weekend.
Ngā mihi,
Nick.
To end today, an Irish Choir with Radiohead’s No Surprises.
It looks like this is going to hit 100 likes pretty quickly, so I'm going to open it up. Thank you for subscribing and enabling me to do this.
If Maiki was willing to go blonde she might get a job in the current White House?