23 Oct 2019

Midweek Mediawatch: TV faces the fire

From Mediawatch, 5:00 pm on 23 October 2019

Mediawatch's weekly catch-up with Lately. Colin Peacock talks to Karyn Hay about a creatively disrespected political biography in the UK - and while pundits and Paul Henry write off free-to-air TV, it has provided compelling coverage of Auckland on fire - as well as firefighters facing burnout.

TVNZ's trio of hi-viz reporters had it covered on Monday's 1News.

TVNZ's trio of hi-viz reporters had it covered on Monday's 1News. Photo: screeenshot / TVNZ on Demand

Facing the fire

Tuesday’s Sky City convention centre fire was a huge breaking news challenge - especially for TVNZ for whom it was right on the doorstep. 

That made it easier to cover the emergency in one way but - paradoxically - also more difficult because they were right in the emergency zone. 

Not only was it was a major emergency happening in bad weather conditions, it was also a public health emergency with the spread of potentially toxic smoke and fumes. And then there was ‘backstory’ of the convention centre’s terrible track record and the potential economic impact of the project’s latest setback. 

Early this morning TVNZ had to evacuate its Hobson Street premises minutes before the Breakfast show was due to air.

The show decamped first to a carpark - then to a back-up studio and was on air by 6:15am. Reporters and crew were allowed back into smoky newsrooms briefly to retrieve equipment and carry on. 

Bearing that in mind, the job TVNZ news did last night and Breakfast did this morning was remarkable - and vivid. 

Live blogs on major news websites were also good with lots of news-you-can-use for people in Auckland, such as Stuff's explainer on toxic smoke, the Herald's guides on where to go and where to avoid and The Spinoff's digest of expert engineering reaction.

Bum notes?

After 6 am, Three's viewers wanting overnight updates had to sit through Mark Richardson railing against “the stupidity” of the British people over Brexit, then all three hosts speculating on whether a single tradie with a blowtorch started it all.

Another question: TVNZ's resilience. 

On Wednesday, the midday news was shrunk to 5 mins, Te Karere and late show 1 News Tonight at 10.30pm were dropped. Does TVNZ has no other backup location- like Wellington - they can use? If not - why not? 

But TVNZ showed what a proper professional TV news operation can provide when it matters.

That's timely at a time when people have been reading the last rites of free-to-air TV. 

Timely firefighting expose

Last weekend TVNZ’s Sunday show aired Mark Crysell's account of burnout among firefighters.  

 

I learned a few things about the fire service I didn’t know. And while it was heavy stuff, it ended on a really uplifting and human note. Beautifully shot and edited too. 

 

In the same episode, Sunday had a fantastic portrait of ADHD artist Petra Leary from the Loading Docs series of shorts hosted by TVNZ on Demand 

 

Paul Henry stays classy

Comeback with MediaWorks? Doubt it  . . .

Comeback with MediaWorks? Doubt it . . . Photo: PHOTO / RNZ Mediawatch

Watching the Sunday show last weekend I thought about Paul Henry on RNZ’s Checkpoint last on Friday after MediaWorks’ announcement that it wanted out of TV: 

“TV is an old-fashioned term. No-one talks about free-to-air television any more,” he said.  “TV is withering and dying and it needs to change”. 

A cheap shot from a guy hugely enriched by TV in its profitable times and when it was on the slide - and then walked away when it suited him. 

However, the rest of media still talks about TV - and TV people - a hell of a lot. Just look at the news generated by the latest UK doco Harry and Meghan in Africa which is being screened as a schedule-busting TVNZ special on Monday. 

Back in August, Woman’s Weekly claimed Paul Henry is possibly returning to TV himself.

“He reveals he's in "very, very early" talks with Mediaworks to again front a New Zealand television show – his first since he pretty much abandoned these shores in 2016.

"I loved being able to do TV, but I hated having to do it. They're horrible bedfellows. Now I can do what I want, the things I genuinely have an interest in. It just has to fit in with my life. I'm concerned that by not ruling it out, I've basically said yes!"

Last month, Patrick Gower revealed Paul Henry turned down the On Weed documentaries MediaWorks promoted so heavily. It’d be a surprise if this ailing company really was about to pay through the nose to hire a guy for a medium he has just dismissed as “withering away”.  

Paul Henry said TV needs to change - not more Paul Henry.

Ardern in review 

No caption

Photo: supplied

 

A biography of a serving political leader usually generates a bit of news and coverage in the media, with the assistance of publishers’ publicists. 

 

There are extracts published in the papers and online and lots of interviews - but few reviews that actually tell us if it’s any good. 

 

The new Jacinda Ardern biography by Stuff journalist Michelle Duff is out: Jacinda Ardern: The story behind an extraordinary leader. 

The publishers promoted it like this: 

“This is an engrossing and powerful exploration of one of the most intriguing political stories of our time-telling us as much about one young woman's ascendancy as it does about the country that elected her.”

There was no as-yet-unknown revelation that excited news editors, but it was the cover story in the Sunday Star Times magazines with an extract inside headlined: What Jacinda and Clarke teach us about gender roles

 

Newsroom’s book editor Steve Braunias also said it was “strange”.

 

 

 

"There are no interviews with Ardern's family, staff, advisers, critics. There is absolutely no contact with Ardern. The book floats in that liberal bubble we hear so much about these days. It's all so tremendously unsurprising."

Duff, too, attempts to catch and analyse the sensation that something has changed since Ardern became Prime Minister. Her emphasis is on gender. And this is where the book has purpose and meaning. 

 

Meanwhile, the autobiography of Brexit-sparking former UK PM David Cameron has been creatively disrespected in the UK: