Tim Hunter’s Post

I usually avoid weighing in on anything remotely political here - but this piece is simply too well-crafted to ignore. Great work.

The Worlds of Journalism study (2022) shows NZ journalists skew noticeably left (by their admission), while the mainstream audiences of outlets like TVNZ & the Herald are older & more centrist or right-leaning. This creates a credibility gap, especially when editorial framing leans into sensationalism & doomscroll fodder. Outrage & alarm drive clicks, & when ad revenue depends on engagement, incentives blur. That's not an accusation, but an influence we can't ignore. While anonymous sources are vital, they aren’t inherently agenda-free. Under deadline pressure, vetting them properly & finding counterpoints isn’t always feasible. Pressure to publish first can outweigh the drive to publish fully. Editorial gatekeeping is editing? Sure. But the issue isn't what gets covered, it's how. The public notices when angles feel one-sided or are repeated without challenge. Spiral of Silence theory (one from my University days!) suggests when people feel their views are underrepresented, they go quiet or disengage entirely. So yes, public trust in media is low. That’s not a conspiracy, it’s feedback. Advertisers aren’t blind & their reduced spend in news is no coincidence. Crump’s prob just trying to keep the lights on.

So good. Thankyou.

Excellent to read this robust response Tim.

I resisted responding to Philip on what one unkind friend described as his "my first journalism" piece, but I did feel a seventh golden rule might have been justified. That is: admit when you're wrong. Philip's misrepresentation of the role of iwi in the previous government's Three Waters legislation in his Cranmer substack was hugely influential with those who were willing to believe that it created a Māori veto right, which it did not. I very much hope this was a "rare mis-step", but it is one reason why I feel somewhat jaded about what the NZME advisory board might portend, however sound an idea it may be in principle.

Tim, this is just fantastic, I wish anyone with an interest in what is happening at NZME could read it. That someone like Crump stands poised to potentially change the way trained journalists cover news (to, let's be honest, make them less left-leaning) is staggering. And does not bode well for NZME's future either.

Probably best we don't tell Philip about Private Eye, Tim

Hear hear Tim, i coudn’t agree more.

Criticism of Philip's list is all very well. But it does address the practice of journalism and not the wider surrounding issues that have lead to poor journalism such as the fall in numbers of journalists, the failure of the funding base and the wider loss of social cohesion in New Zealand society that means that journalists and editors are fearful of covering stories. I do note hower that whether as Thomas Cranmer or under his own name Philip has broken multiple complex, serious stories that other journalists have failed as a body to touch AT ALL. I would also criticise those journalists who present entire stories as a series of quotations or selectively assess articles as opinion to tell partisan stories, journalists who pursue the Gotcha aspect of an issue rather that addressing the substantive story that underlies it and editors who regularly sink stories that address serious issues of public interest.

What caught my eye was "NZME". Then, on opening the link to Hunter's article, the fact that Crump is a "lawyer". What a lethal cocktail that is. Mainstream media (newspapers in particular) were using lawyers to check stories for yonks. I know, I worked for NZME banners, even when they were under the APN umbrella but created NZME for legal reasons to split from its Australian arm. The inverted pyramid style of writing is entrenched. If the approach now is to flip the pyramid, MSM is doomed. NZME, when I was still working for them until I was made redundant during the 2020 pandemic lockdown (another story for another time although I've written a book on it), had a delegation of head honchos visit the provincial newspaper to remind journalists and photo/journalists to be mindful of what pays our salaries. Advertising. To give an example, we had published a front-page story on a supermarket chain as the most expensive in the country. It got the national coverage it deserved. Said supermarket franchise in the province had withdrawn its weekly, full-page advertisements indefinitely. That meant a loss of weekly six-figure revenue. The then editor had come under scrutiny for doing that. 1/2 (continued)