Last night, I sat through 13 minutes of TV One telling me nothing had happened with the cyclone before we finally got to the Iran situation, where something actually had happened.
First, One News took us to a reporter in the Bay of Plenty, who told us a tree had come down on the main street. A couple of older women joked about going for a swim in the swell, but really, nothing much had happened.
Then we went to Gisborne, where wastewater had flooded, and the guy in the caravan from the previous night was barely affected - because, again, nothing much had happened.
Next stop was Hawke’s Bay, where nothing had happened yet.
Then the Coromandel, where Simon Mercer reported large storm surges in Whitianga - but nothing had happened.
After that, the Far North, where the river was high - but nothing had happened.
Then the weather presenter wrapped it all up, and we were told Breakfast would be covering it in the morning - just in case something did happen.
Finally - after 12 minutes and 45 seconds of this - we got to the Iran situation, where peace talks had broken down and the US delegation had left.
That is a conflict that will affect every single one of us.
The weather will impact some people - potentially quite severely - but the situation in Iran will affect everyone here.
Diesel is tipped to hit $4 a litre, food prices will rise, inflation is forecast to peak higher than after COVID at around 7.5 percent, and ANZ is predicting three OCR hikes this year as a result.
I wondered whether this reflects audience interest - maybe people can’t get enough of the weather and don’t care about a conflict in Iran.
But I checked the Herald this afternoon. Both stories were top trending, and there wasn’t much between them.
So, I’d suggest the evening TV news might want to rethink leading with 13 minutes of nothing. I understand that pictures matter in television. And yes, they’ve paid to send reporters around the country, so they need something to show.
But pictures of nothing are still nothing - and there’s only so much time people will spend watching nothing before they simply switch off.
Heather du Plessis-Allan is a journalist and commentator who hosts Newstalk ZB's Drive show. This article was sourced from Newstalk ZB.
14 comments:
Grievance peddling about a TV show she decided to watch. The list of grievances is endless, there doesn’t even need to be any harm. Heather is truly a voice for the modern age.
Thats the far left msm for ya. Sensationalism about nothing. Trying to tell us what is important and what we should be doing and feeling. And still to this day they cant figure out why no one trusts them or watches tvnz.
Im stunned that they didn't have more on Palestine and flip to the 'aoteroa gays for Palestine' for comment. Or more about teachers wanting to bring back puberty blockers for children. Thats more tvnz narrative than REAL news.
Beatups. The Rain in Hendon sketch by Monty Python
Anon correcting my post it was Pythons on Rutland Weekend Television a good parody
Heather’s time is so valuable even 12 minutes on a topic with low return on investment is catastrophic. Or is she upset that people were well prepared and did the right thing? And what did Heather do with the next 12 minutes of her free time? The kiwi public demands answers. What does Heather have to hide?
Not a lot of people actually watch and listen to TV news. Anyone really interested in world news knows world and NZ news from other sources well before scheduled tv news. TV news is really entertainment for a limited number of people with pretty narrow interest scope and who havent realised that MSN dont actually bring news.
"Anonymous said...
Grievance peddling about a TV show she decided to watch. The list of grievances is endless, there doesn’t even need to be any harm. Heather is truly a voice for the modern age.
April 14, 2026 at 6:58 AM"
TVNZ being paid for by the NZ taxpayer as a new service, we should be able to expect actual news. Not non-news. I'm with HDPA on this.
Some years ago, we gave up on TVNZ "news" to listen to HDPA in the evening.
A decent mix of local , business, farming, and international news.
TVNZ and RNZ are very significant for the news that they don't talk about. If they are flubbing about in synthetic Maori language you can be sure that there are other far more important issues they are hiding.
Note for Heather. Have you just figured out that TV1’s news almost always has its main item running for over 10 minutes. I record TV1 news on my Sky box. Then fast forward through ads and whatever else does not appeal. More often than not I skip the sports news, which is mostly focussed on Auckland personalities.
I do punish myself by taking in the weather. Despite all of Dan’s gasping and high speed vocals it is possible to make some sense of the forecasts.
This is seen in supermarkets too
Nearly everyone I talk to about “have you got tinned food, rice etc” to hedge against the increasing prices for the very least looks at me blankly - they don’t see the connection to Iran conflict
But warnings of a storm?? All the bread and water in local paknsave gone
It seems to be the responsibility of tody's journalists to create stories rather than critically analyse 'facts' (if there is such a thiung any more). Why is this so? To sell more media, be it papers, on line or whatever? I don't think it's working unless your target market is the mindless, naive and gullible. God luck with that.
There are free weather apps with information supplied from a number of overseas countries that don't have an axe to grind for progressive causes in NZ like climate catastrophe. So ignore NIWA and Metservice and especially the legacy media.
You don't need weather reports, these things are very reliable. On Zoom Earth, it showed days out this cyclone heading for Auckland, the wind speed was decreasing but it was a fast travelling storm. The end result was rain and a bit of wind which was what it predicted.
Honestly, ignore the media. Don't listen and don't watch. They're idiots!
For Anon @ 6:50 PM
The Metservice radar is my best forecast system for rain and cloud cover. Our place is elevated at a point where we can see approaching southerlies and northerlies.
There is another world wide cyclone/hurricane watch on “earth.nullschool.net”. Basics only, wind flow shapes, speed, co-ordinates, no forecast tracking. With mouse pointer Earth map operates like a beach ball.
It is still raining in Hendon. No comment yet from Moscow (blamed for it) or Trump
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