Maiki Sherman has left Television New Zealand. And not before time. Her last day as TVNZ’s Chief Political Editor was 8 May. She claims she resigned, but it’s not clear that’s true. Almost certainly, she’s been paid a handsomely dollop of cash out of TVNZ’s trough in connection with her exit.
Maiki’s departure came in the wake of revelations that she called fellow phony broadcaster, Stuff(ed) journalist Lloyd Burr, a faggot, at a function at Parliament hosted by Minister of Finance Nicola Willis. Word of mouth has it that Maiki’s missile was in retaliation for Lloyd telling Maiki he’d love to do something sexy to Maiki’s stud bubby ((Night)Mare Maiki has six children to Anaru MacDougall - good for them.)
In my view, calling Burr a faggot is not a sacking offence. But unfortunately, Maiki was never a credible appointment as TVNZ Chief Political Editor. She was appointed because of her Māori ancestry and proudly abused her role to cheerlead for the Māori Party, announcing on her 25 March 2024 appointment:
“I’m proud to be the first wāhine Māori appointed as the Political Editor of a mainstream broadcast newsroom. That is something to be celebrated…My background means I bring a unique perspective to the role”
If Maiki Sherman is a victim, it’s only of TVNZ’s unmeritocratic Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) idiocy.
Just before being elevated from Deputy to Chief TVNZ Political Editor, Maiki produced preposterously partisan 6pm One News coverage of the current Government’s early stages in power, after a political poll. Frothing her wishful thinking, Maiki announced, “In reality the first 100 days of the coalition have been chaotic”, describing the poll as a “nightmare poll” and “mayday for the coalition”.
I’ve previously covered my complaint to TVNZ that Maiki’s parlous performance breached Free-To-Air Television Code of Broadcasting Practice (Standard 5 - Balance):
TVNZ PUBLIC DISSERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT
John McLean 28 March 2024
On 19 February 2024 I lodged an idle, irate complaint about the performance of TVNZ’s then Deputy Political Editor Maiki Sherman on the 6pm 1News that evening. Since then, on 25 March, TVNZ has appointed Maiki as its Chief Political Editor. Maiki announced through Radio New Zealand (RNZ) "I'm proud to be the first wahine Māori appointed as the Political…
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TVNZ’s response, both alarming and disarmingly honest, was that TVNZ’s Chief Political Editor needn’t even pretend to be politically balanced and that, for balance, viewers should look elsewhere – fine words indeed for the State television broadcaster:
“the issues in question have been discussed widely in surrounding media coverage, so it is reasonable to expect that viewers would be aware of alternative views that existed”
On 22 May, a fortnight after leaving TVNZ, Maiki Sherman was awarded Political Journalist of the Year. The judges in that category, Graeme Muir and Leigh Pearson, described Sherman’s work as follows:
“taking the viewer into a highly charged, multi-layered news story”
[drawing on] “contacts, knowledge, and insight”
“bringing impact and on-the-ground reality to a powerful political story”
“her storytelling was exemplary”
Maiki’s acceptance speech included the following:
“I don’t think anyone had Maiki Sherman resigns as political editor, and Maiki Sherman wins best political journalist of the year in the same fortnight” [beware anyone who describes themself in the third person]
“an even bigger part of me was determined...to stare this current situation in the face and be courageous in doing so, with humility as well”
“but this award simply reaffirms to me everything that I’ve known in my heart – that I am a darn good journalist” [not so humble]
[describing her journalism] “robust across the political spectrum”
“I won this award for my coverage of Te Pāti Māori last year. I am courageous and I am fearless when it comes to holding politicians to account, but that’s across the board, and I make no apologies for that.” [Yeah Right]
The Political Journalist of the Year award is self-selecting in the sense that journalists must submit their own work in order to enter. And the field is further narrowed by the fact that the News Publishers’ Association decides who is eligible, by working for a media channel that the NPA deems to be a “recognised news/current affairs outlet” and whether the relevant content qualifies as journalism. It’s safe to say that judge Leigh Pearson’s ex-husband, Sean Plunket (Suzerain of The Platform), doesn’t get a look in.
Until this year, the NZ Media Awards were known as the Voyager Media Awards. Voyager is a company that provides broadband and other communications services. The News Publishers’ Association dumped Voyager as a naming sponsor (but kept Voyager’s sponsorship money) after Voyager’s founder and chief executive, Seeby Woodhouse, inadvertently reposted something “offensive” on social media.
I understand that, unbeknownst to him, what Woodhouse reposted (and immediately deleted) contained something pejorative of Jews. If that’s the case, then it’s ironic given the antisemitic bias readily apparent in New Zealand’s publicly funded media outlets. Lady MSM doth protest too much about Seeby, me thinks.
- TVNZ and Radio New Zealand both consistently refer to Hamas and Hezbollah as “militants” rather than terrorist organisations.
- Radio New Zealand has repeatedly edited stories from international news channels, including Reuters, to instill anti-Israel slants:
- the headline “Israel’s Netanyahu returns with hard-right cabinet” becomes “far-right” (“far-right” being how TV3 described The Platform in its 25 May 6pm News)
- “Most world powers deem settlements built on land captured in war illegal” becomes “The settlements are, according to international law, illegal.”
- “Palestinian gunmen” becomes “Palestinians”; “militant” becomes “resistance”; “including eight gunmen” is removed from “10 Palestinians including eight gunmen were killed.”
- Then there’s all the credulous swallowing of Palestinian Gaza casualty figures produced by Gaza’s terrorist overlords, Hamas, as if they’re fact.
On 1 May 2024, shortly after Maiki Sherman’s appointment as TVNZ’s Chief Political Editor, TVNZ’s 1News reporter Corazon Miller announced to the audience that (and I quote), “[The International Court of Justice] so far has said it’s plausible that genocide is happening on the ground in Gaza”. What the ICJ in fact said was that Palestinians have plausible rights to be protected from genocide. Quite different.
On 14 October 2024, the discredited Broadcasting Standards Authority rejected complaints about TVNZ’s plausible genocide allegation, contorting itself to find that the coverage was not materially inaccurate or misleading.
Click to view
The best approximate figures I can find indicate that up to 70,000 Gazan Palestinians may have been killed in the conflict, out of a total population in Gaza of just over 2 million people, and that at least half of those 70,000 were combatants. If we assume that 30,000 civilians have been killed, that’s about 3.5% of Gaza’s civilian population. Which, while of course awful, isn’t remotely a genocide or - given Israel’s military might and the scale of the destruction of infrastructure - any attempted genocide.
To put this in perspective, the Nazi Holocaust killed about 6 million Jews, being about two thirds of European Jews. The worldwide population of Jews has only recently recovered to its pre-WWII level of about 15 million.
Will Maiki Sherman stand for Te Pāti Māori, to help combat the ongoing genocide of Māori, as repeatedly alleged by co-Leader Debbie Ngarewa‑Packer?
John McLean is a citizen typist and enthusiastic amateur who blogs at John's Substack where this article was sourced
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