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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