Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: The media is under scrutiny and we've had it coming

If it’s not already obvious to you, the fact that Maiki Sherman has lost her job should now make it very clear: the media—especially the state broadcasters, both of them—are about to find out what it means not just to make and report the news but to be the news.

Just look at what’s happened this week alone. And this is only a sample—this has been building for some time.
In one week, TVNZ political editor Maiki Sherman has lost her job over poor behaviour in a minister’s office. David Seymour, the ACT Party leader, has taken a significant swipe at RNZ for hiring John Campbell, who is well known for voting left—something he’s said himself. Seymour has even gone so far as to suggest the head of RNZ should lose his job over it.

Then there’s the BSA, effectively the head girl telling everyone off for bad jokes at the party, being abolished.

The politicians are coming for the media and Sherman’s case is an example of that. The National Party lined her up. They complained about her allegedly door-knocking Stuart Smith for 10 minutes at night. They confirmed that she had sworn at Nicola Willis’ event in the office—which was unusual, given that Nicola effectively broke Chatham House rules that MPs normally guard jealously.

Now, look—I feel sorry for Maiki losing her job. That’s a very high price to pay. But I don’t feel sorry for the media in general for what’s coming. We’ve had this coming.

For years, we’ve collectively pushed a certain world view through the framing of our stories. We decide who the victim is, who the bad guy is and what language we use—labelling things as “controversial” to signal to the audience that something is bad, like the “controversial Treaty Principles Bill”.

We flip angles too—turning a positive government crime stats story into a negative gang-focused story for the same government.

And when Radio New Zealand, which is supposed to be more impartial and balanced than any other outlet in this country, chooses someone to front its flagship programme who has explicitly said he votes for left-wing parties—well, that matters.

We deserve what’s coming to us in this election. We can’t shove the scrum for years and not expect to become part of the on-field play.

And I, for one, am not unhappy about what’s about to happen. I think it’s time for this to be sorted out. If this election brings media bias into sharper focus and forces all of us in the media to stop, reflect and think hard about what we’ve been doing, I don’t think that’s a bad thing.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
If it is not already obvious to you, the fact
that Mikey Schumann has lost her job should now make
it very obvious to you that the media and especially
the state broadcast is the pair of them are about
to find out what it means to be not making
the news, not reporting the news, but actually making the news,
actually in the news, actually the news itself. Because just
look at what's happened just this week, right, and this
is just a sample of one week. This has been

(00:21):
going on for ages. One week. Mikey Schuman's lost her
job for poor behavior in a minister's office. David Seymour,
the Act party Leader's taken an enormous crack at RNZ
for hiring John Campbell, who's well known for voting left
because he said so himself, and has even gone so
far as a seam or. He's even gone so far
as suggesting that the boss of rn Z should lose
his job over this. And then the BSA, which is

(00:42):
the equivalent of the head girl telling everybody off for
bad jokes at the party, is being abolished. The politicians
are coming for the media, and Mikey Sherman is an
example of the politicians coming for the media because the
National Party lined her up a they complained about her
door knocking Stuart Smith at night for ten minutes. Allegedly
they confirmed that she'd worn at Nikola Willis's party in

(01:02):
the office, which is really unusual that they did that
confirmation because Nicola actually broke the Chatham House rules that
they so jealously guard themselves as MPs. Now, look, I
feel sorry for Mikey for losing her job. That is
a really big price to pay, but I do not
feel sorry for the media in general for what is coming.
We have had this coming for years. We have collectively
pushed a certain worldview through the framing of our stories,

(01:24):
which where we decide who is the victim, who is
the bad guy? What words we use when we describe
things as controversial to let you know that this thing
is a bad thing, like the controversial Treaty Principles Bill.
When we flip the angle like a good government crime
stats story into a bad gang news story for the government,
like when Radio and New Zealand, which is supposed to
be impartial and balanced, more rarely than any other outlet

(01:45):
in this country, chooses a man to front their flagship
program who has been explicit about the fact that he
votes for left wing parties. We deserve what is coming
to us in the selection. We can't screw the scrum
for years and not expect to become part of the
on field play now. I for one, I am not
un happy about what is about to happen. I think
it is time for this to get sorted out. And
if this election brings media bias into sharp relief and

(02:06):
forces us all in the media to have a big,
long hmmm and I think about what we've been doing,
I don't think that's a bad thing. For more from
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