David Farrar: Good for Morning Report, but not necessarily for Radio NZ

Radio NZ reports:

John Campbell is returning to RNZ, as the new co-host of Morning Report alongside Ingrid Hipkiss.

RNZ’s Chief Audio Officer Pip Keane said the field of applicants for role on the flagship news programme was impressive but Campbell stood out.

Karl du Fresne: The case for objectivity in journalism

The cover story in the latest issue of North & South, headlined A matter of opinion, takes up an issue raised by me twice in recent weeks. The story is subtitled Did John Campbell cross a line? and occupies eight pages.

The catalyst was my blog post of January 23, in which I said it was wrong that TVNZ, a publicly owned media outlet, provided a platform from which its highest-profile journalist was allowed to pursue a campaign against a democratically elected government. This was after the TVNZ website had published a series of trenchant opinion columns in which Campbell made it clear he thought New Zealand voters had made a grievous mistake by electing a centre-right government.

Karl du Fresne: The John Campbell question

Once again, state-owned TVNZ has obligingly provided a platform from which its best-known (and no doubt highest-paid) journalist, John Campbell, can flail the government.

This is extraordinary and unprecedented. The government’s most potent communications medium has been hijacked by one of its employees and co-opted in a highly personal political mission.

Karl du Fresne: An epic display of dummy-spitting

As a believer in free speech, I would never question John Campbell’s right to unburden himself of a long, whiny lament about where New Zealand is going under the new government.

I do object, however, when it’s published on the website of a taxpayer-funded broadcaster, TVNZ, which has an ethical obligation to observe editorial balance and political neutrality.

If you wanted proof that brazenly activist journalism is not only accepted but encouraged, even by state-owned media, there it is, right there. Clearly, TVNZ is untroubled by the fact that the man it calls its Chief Correspondent adopts an unashamedly political posture and sets himself up as an outspoken adversary of a democratically elected government. It’s a measure of his ego that he can take such a provocatively defiant stance and expect to get away with it.

Graham Adams: Media knives flashing for Luxon’s government

No one is going to die wondering how some of the nation’s most influential journalists personally view the new National-led government. It has become abundantly clear within a few days of the coalition agreements being signed that they both loathe and fear it.

It is often said that the National Party attracts people who imagine they are born to rule. But since the details of the agreements between National, Act and New Zealand First were announced on Friday, it seems it is the left-leaning media who see themselves as the nation’s true aristocrats, endowed with a perpetual mandate to decide which ideas are suitable for public discussion. And which should be allowed to be put to voters in a referendum.

John Campbell: The politics of poverty

On Thursday afternoon, Chris Bishop, a former university debating champion whose performances in Parliament’s Question Time tend to span a continuum between controlled outrage and being really f*#@ing outraged, asked the Associate Minister for Social Development and Employment about people sleeping in cars.

It’s almost impossible to know, exactly, how many people sleep in cars. “None”, would be the best answer. But this isn’t a “best answer” world.

One measure is how many people on the Housing Register (essentially a waiting list of people assessed as eligible for public housing, but not yet in it) give their address as a car.

Mike Butler: Waikato River clean-up awaited

A progress report, or should I say lack-of-progress report, on the much-vaunted project to clean up the Waikato River, released by the Waikato River Authority on March 22, 2016, gave the catchment a C+ rating.

Some may recall that the Waikato River Authority was set up six years as part of the Waikato River settlement. That deal involved a total of $422.8-million, with $212.8-million handed over to Waikato-Tainui, Te Arawa, Raukawa, Tuwharetoa, and Maniapoto, of which part of that amount was spread over 30 years.

Mike Butler: Campbell Live PR job for Ngapuhi

TV3 presenter John Campbell told his audience last week that he felt slightly ashamed admitting that he didn't know much about Northland tribe Ngapuhi and their mega treaty payout expectations, so he grabbed his microphone and cameraman and went north to learn. Sadly, all he revealed little more than we already knew. Chief Ngapuhi claimant Sonny Tau was first to speak:

Campbell: How much land did Ngapuhi lose?

Tau: We lost by dubious means 2.1-million acres of land

Firstly, why did Campbell and Tau use the word “lose”? The word "lose" means "be deprived of or cease to have or retain". Both Campbell and Tau used the words “lose” or “lost” in the sense that the Maori Anglican minister used it in a sermon on Waitangi Day last year. He said: “The missionaries taught us to pray and when we opened our eyes all our land was gone”. Campbell and Tau should be a bit more honest and say Ngapuhi sold most land in the area claimed as Ngapuhi tribal district.