Media Insider: Mike Hosking, Prime Minister Chris Hipkins and a startling interview; the case of the rogue Kiwi reporter; Beacon Awards winners

The phone call is still seared in my memory. I was sitting in my editor’s office in the Herald on Sunday, listening in as the newsroom leaders and reporters gathered for the weekly editorial planning
meeting. It was Tuesday, October 18, 2005.

It was a typically lively news meeting. In those days we had no website to worry about – the NZ Herald, Herald on Sunday and nzherald.co.nz operations were separate, under individual editors. We needed only worry about our upcoming newspaper – the Herald on Sunday had just celebrated its first birthday and was finally finding its feet in the competitive Sunday market.

On that Tuesday morning, we were reflecting on a strong paper from two days earlier – a mix of prime weekend journalism, including a boy racer who was back behind the wheel after surviving a crash that killed four mates; a New Zealand Idol contestant described as overweight by a leading entertainer; and an exclusive interview with an Auckland police officer convicted of assaulting a teenager.

As the newsroom meeting was in full swing, I received a phone call from John Haigh QC, the pre-eminent lawyer who had earlier represented that police officer in court.

He opened the conversation along the lines of: “We have a problem.”

Newsrooms are unique places, fuelled by caffeine, creative ideas, and a sense of purpose.

They are not factory lines producing paperclips or fast-food outlets churning out cookie-cutter hamburgers and sides of fries.

Every interview and story has nuance and unique detail; there are so many variables in newsgathering. And the difference between a humming news day and a slow, boring slog is stark.

Newsrooms and journalists operate in a high-trust environment, more so than many other industries. Trust that we will handle and present people’s stories and difficult topics with care and sensitivity; that we will get those stories right, and that we’re fair and balanced.

Reporters play a critical role in crafting the first draft of history. We place trust in our journalists that they are accurately recording, and portraying, what a person has said to them. We place trust in editors to probe that work – to query any missing points or clarify confusing passages. We place trust in production staff and digital editors to edit and present that journalism with precision.

And we trust that our journalists have actually spoken to a person in the first place.

On that Tuesday morning in October 2005, John Haigh QC was calm and pleasant on the phone.

But he was clearly bemused by the Herald on Sunday article quoting the Auckland police officer. His client, he said, had never met, let alone spoken to, our reporter.

I clearly remember looking across at the reporter in the editorial meeting. I told Haigh I would call him back – to be frank, I had few qualms at that point; this was a highly experienced journalist with many scoops under his belt.

Any concerns I did have were further eased after the newsroom meeting. The reporter reiterated that he had indeed met and spoken to the police officer at his home. Yes, he had notes (the news editor had sat with the reporter and seen his notes); and yes, he would get me those notes.

Satisfied, I called Haigh back and told him all of this, suggesting he might want to jog his client’s memory of our reporter’s visit the previous week. I remember thinking Haigh’s client was probably trying to cover his own back.

Haigh called back again. His client was adamant: there had been no meeting, no interview. Clearly at a stand-off, I suggested we get the two men into a room, with us both present. It was an idea to which Haigh seemed receptive.

I ventured into the newsroom to see the reporter, thinking I also needed to see those notes.

He was nowhere to be found.

That week turned out to be one of the worst of my career.

I spent several days personally trying to find the reporter after he had left the newsroom, doorknocking houses in Auckland and trying to reach him through family, friends and colleagues. By now I was dealing with a formal complaint from Haigh and the police officer; and a publisher, like the rest of the newsroom, seeking an explanation.

We suspended the reporter on the Wednesday and terminated his contract – after finally finding him and conducting an employment meeting – on Friday.

I’ve listened to, and read, RNZ chief executive Paul Thompson’s comments this week as a scandal has deepened over a digital journalist who allegedly added pro-Kremlin details to international wire stories about the Russia-Ukraine war. So far, 22 stories have been identified as being “inappropriately” edited, with stories about Israel-Palestine and China now also caught in the net.

There is angst and heartfelt sorrow at what is a seemingly unbelievable series of events. I know exactly how Thompson and his team will be feeling. Their newsroom will be furious.

If you want proof of that sentiment, look no further than RNZ Checkpoint host Lisa Owen’s interview with Thompson, and her follow-on interview with RNZ chair Jim Mather earlier this week.

Those searing interviews in and of themselves should reinforce your faith and trust in journalism, far more than any audit, independent review, or apology – though, of course, all of these are vitally important.

Owen is a fierce and fearless broadcaster and journalist, and that was on show as she asked her CEO and editor-in-chief if he had offered his resignation (no); and asked the chair whether he and the board still had confidence in their CEO (yes).

Thompson will survive the scandal but his chances of becoming the new TVNZ CEO may have been tainted. He has long been considered a frontrunner.

After the infamous case of Jayson Blair – the reporter who was caught having made up stories at the New York Times in 2003 – the then-executive editor Howard Raines said: “It was like stepping on a landmine. It was heartbreak for me.”

“I think of Jayson Blair as an accident that ended my newspaper career in the same unpredictable way that a heart attack or a plane crash might have,” wrote Raines, a year after Blair was caught.

When we finally tracked down the Herald on Sunday reporter for the disciplinary meeting, he told us he felt extra pressure to get a story.

As a newsroom leader, you can’t help but reflect on that, and consider the wider culture.

But over that week and following weeks, we completed an audit that uncovered more stories and interviews that could not be verified, and people who appeared to be fabricated entirely. His previous employer, Fairfax – where he worked for two years – did the same and found 12 stories of a similar ilk.

We were dealing with a habitual offender who was able to escape scrutiny for years.

“Much of what editorial staff members do in all their work is based on a relationship of mutual trust – supervisors and staff have to trust each other for their honesty, reliability, integrity and high ethical, writing and personal standards. As in most organisations, this trust is normally given freely,” said Fairfax’s then editor-in-chief Peter O’Hara.

Trust is journalism’s biggest currency. We all, as an industry, have a job to rebuild people’s trust in media, especially after three years of polarised rage. We have a huge mission to highlight and combat a rising tide of disinformation, much of it on social media.

Newsrooms and editorial teams sign up to codes of conduct, and our newsrooms and media businesses are signatories to Media Council and Broadcasting Standards Authority principles and codes. We are governed by the law, too – the Defamation Act chief among them.

Will we ever avoid the extremely rare rotten apples? Unlikely.

No one in the news industry will be feeling any joy about what’s allegedly unfolded at RNZ. The broadcaster will no doubt find ways to tighten systems, and we will all heed the lessons. Newsrooms across New Zealand, including our own here at NZME, will be looking carefully, once again, at processes.

Ultimately a newsroom relies on the high-trust principles that drive the calling to our craft in the first place. No matter how many extra sets of eyes you add to the editing and production oversight, the last-touch person might still turn out to be that rotten apple.

Take the aviation and airline industry – a poster child for safety over the past three decades. The industry learns from every incident and accident. Enhanced reporting systems, human relations initiatives and technology advancements have made flying safer than ever.

But if an idiotic pilot wants to fly an aircraft into the ground, they will.

One Good Text

This week, we catch up with former Newstalk ZB general manager and crisis PR management expert Dallas Gurney.

Tetchy Tuesday: ‘I’m a very informed PM, Mike’

Some of the most captivating 10 minutes of New Zealand radio unfold from 7.35am on Tuesdays on Newstalk ZB.

Mike Hosking has lots of questions for the Prime Minister – but things became a little tetchy this week as, on several occasions, Chris Hipkins said he hadn’t been aware Hosking would raise certain topics. It’s been a longstanding arrangement that the PM’s office would be sent a list of general topics/themes beforehand.

It is understood some of the PM’s people are unhappy with the way things unfolded this week – but his office is adamant Hipkins won’t do a Jacinda Ardern and walk away from the Hosking slot. “The Prime Minister is used to robust interviews, welcomes them, and will continue them… it’s part of the job,” said a spokesman this week.

Here’s some exchanges from this week:

Hosking: The Auditor-General’s report into the Covid reset of the Provincial Growth Fund; you read that?

PM: I’ve certainly seen summaries of it.

Hosking: What’s it say, in summary?

PM: I don’t have a copy of it with me now; I wasn’t aware that you were going to raise that, Mike. Otherwise, I would have come more fully on top of the detail of that so that I could answer your question.

Hosking: Let me help you out…

There was a similar exchange as Hosking moved to discuss New Zealand’s $325 million contribution to the UN to help reduce greenhouse emissions around the world. Hosking questioned why some of this had gone into dairy farming in places such as Fiji, Myanmar, and Sri Lanka.

PM: Well, on both of those topics, Mike, if I’d known you wanted to discuss them, I probably could have argued with you more on them. But given that you give me a list every morning of what you want to talk about and neither of those topics were on it … I’m not in the position to mount the best arguments on those issues.

Hosking: Could I argue that I shouldn’t have to give you a list of anything because you’re the Prime Minister of this country and you might want to be informed on what’s going on here?

PM: Oh, I think I am a very informed Prime Minister, Mike. That doesn’t mean that on every topic, including every aspect of spending by the United Nations that I’m going to have at my fingertips or off the top of my head, every detail of everything the United Nations has ever done.

Hosking later turned to the economy.

Hosking: Do you know what the long-term average deficit is to GDP?

PM: Mike, as I said, it’s another one of those areas where if you want specific facts and figures…

Hosking: Do you want me to give you the answers before I ask them? So if I say, look, we’re going to talk about the current account deficit today. I mean, this is one of the key issues of the week. If we’re going to talk about the current account deficit, do you want me to supply you with the number so that you have it at your fingertips when I ask it? Is that what you’re asking?

PM: Well, often the numbers that you give me on the show, Mike, turn out to be wrong …

Hosking: They’re not wrong at all. What’s the percentage GDP to the current account currently?

PM: Mike, as I’ve indicated if you want …

Hosking: It’s 8.9, and it’s in the news in the last couple of days. It’s in the news this morning. The long-term average is 3.7.

After the interview, Hosking told his listeners that the PM should be across major issues such as the state of the economy, regardless of whether they were on a pre-sent list.

“If you as Prime Minister can’t come on a radio programme and talk about the issues of the day as we would all understand them, then you don’t deserve to be the Prime Minister – and sitting there bitching about not having a list in front of you is pathetic,” Hosking said.

A spokesman for the Prime Minister said: “The Prime Minister is used to robust interviews, welcomes them and will continue them unless NZME chooses not to for their own reasons. It’s part of the job.

“It’s been a long-standing courtesy across many governments for Prime Ministers to get question topics in advance, given the breadth of stories and issues on any given day, to ensure interviews are meaningful for listeners. Clearly, that doesn’t extend to seeing the actual questions.

“It’s also long-standing for Prime Ministers to be accorded a basic level of respect, regardless of the political party they come from.”

Karyn Hay and the independent investigation

Over the past several weeks, I’ve been investigating the four-month absence of Karyn Hay from RNZ’s Nights show. Hay resigned this week, announcing she would be focusing on her writing.

As we report today, Hay was the subject of an independent employment investigation conducted by employment barrister Richard Harrison, following a complaint about her alleged behaviour by a Nights producer. You can read the full story here.

‘You *****’

The initials have it…! MBM, NZME and TVNZ all snared supreme awards at last night’s Beacons.

It’s the glamour awards night for the advertising agencies and the media companies who work with them each day. “It’s one of the biggest nights you’ll never remember,” one advertising wag said last week.

MBM was awarded media agency of the year, ahead of finalists OMD, PHD and Together.

NZME was named media business of the year, beating Go Media, JCDecaux, Shout Media, TVNZ and Warner Bros. Discovery. “This is a huge accolade for NZME and I’m really proud of our entire team of 1300 in our 36 offices across the country for the part they all played in us receiving this award,” said NZME CEO Michael Boggs.

And TVNZ was named sales team of the year, ahead of NZME, Phantom Billstickers, Stuff, Val Morgan and Warner Bros. Disovery.

OMD’s head of integration Nick Ascough won the inspiring individual award in honour of Sandy Smith – and gave a memorable two-word speech of thanks. “You c***s”.

The audience roared its approval.

Special won best in show for its Partners Life Insurance integration with The Brokenwood Mysteries.

The Gold winners were:

Sustained Success – Spark NZ, Skinny: Get the Skinny

Social Marketing/public service – FCB, New Zealand Police: Survive the Drive FM

Retail/etail – Dentsu, Kathmandu: KM3

Fast-moving consumer goods – OMD, Silver Fern Farms: Cooks on Fire

Consumer services – PHD, IAG: Mistake Report and Special, Partners Life: The Last Performance

Charity – OMD, Wellington City Mission: The Silent Night

Best small budget – FCB, New Zealand Police: Survive the Drive FM

Best use of content – FCB, New Zealand Police: Survive the Drive FM and Special, Partners Life: The Last Performance

Creative media idea – FCB, New Zealand Police: Survive the Drive FM

Best use of insight – FCB, New Zealand Police: Survive the Drive FM and Special, Partners Life: The Last Performance

Most effective – PHD, Spark/Skinny: Skinny: Phone it in

Best collaboration – Special, Partners Life: The Last Performance

Congratulations to all of the winners – hopefully those hangovers ease in good time this morning.

Media disinformation workshop

It was timely – some might say ironically so – that the University of Auckland-based Koi Tū think tank and research centre hosted a “Disinformation and Media Manipulation” workshop this week.

RNZ was among many of the country’s major news organisations represented at the workshop, much of which operated under Chatham House rules (which is kind of ironic in itself).

They heard a 40-minute presentation – which was reportable – from Dr Joan Donovan, research director of the Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Centre on Media Politics and Public Policy.

During a somewhat sobering run-through of various memes and trends that dominated in particular social channels in recent years, she reminded the gathered front-line reporters, commentators, newsroom leaders and media executives that some social media and online discourse was “incredibly engineered”.

She said it was important the A, B, C and D of media manipulation campaigns, those being Actors, Behaviour, Content and Design, were recognised and guarded against.

As you’d expect, RNZ’s woes this week were mentioned several times during the morning. Dr Donovan, not necessarily referring directly to the saga but also to general processes and the internet, pointedly remarked that “everything open will be exploited”.

Important to remember in the lead-in to an election.

Magazine readership numbers

The New Zealand magazine industry is celebrating some strong readership results, with the release of latest Nielsen data yesterday.

It’s hard to believe that a little over three years ago, many of our most iconic retail titles – including the Listener, Woman’s Weekly and Woman’s Day – had stopped publishing, with the sudden closure of Bauer. Their futures were uncertain.

Are Media eventually took those three titles over, along with the Australian Women’s Weekly, Your Home and Garden and Kia Ora. It’s added a total 116,000 readers to its portfolio of six magazines, year on year, including increases for Kia Ora, the Woman’s Weekly, and Woman’s Day.

“These figures are a testament to the quality of Are Media NZ’s content,” said Are Media NZ general manager Stuart Dick. “It is also exciting to see the journey our readers are taking – enjoying our magazines in growing numbers, whilst also exploring more content via our digital platforms, and more recently even shopping directly from our e-commerce platforms.

“Magazines are a unique media delivering emotional connection as well as driving action. We are delighted to see such strong readership figures for our magazines,” said Are Media NZ editorial director Sarah Henry. “These increases show that New Zealanders more than ever crave quality reading experiences, to disconnect and take time out. There is a want and need to consume content they care about from brands they trust and love.”

The table below from Nielsen shows the sheer range of titles and specialist topics that the retail magazine industry now covers. The Motor Caravanner, anyone?

Other titles, such as Metro, are not part of the Nielsen measurement.

Editor-at-Large Shayne Currie is one of New Zealand’s most experienced senior journalists and media leaders. He has held executive and senior editorial roles at NZME including Managing Editor, NZ Herald Editor and Herald on Sunday Editor.