Karl du Fresne: RNZ's boss gives New Zealand the fingers

A few thoughts on the announcement that John Campbell will take over next year as co-host of RNZ’s Morning Report:

■ RNZ chief executive Paul Thompson had a choice. He could make a polarising appointment or a non-polarising one. He chose the former. In doing so, he gave the fingers to the large (and I suspect growing) number of New Zealanders who neither like Campbell nor trust him as an impartial journalist and commentator. Disregarding RNZ’s obligation to serve all New Zealanders, Thompson made an appointment that he must know will alienate people and almost certainly lead to a further loss of faith in RNZ. He didn't have to do it; there were alternatives.

David Farrar: So who is the bully

I love the Media Insider columns by Shayne Currie. They are my first read in the Herald. It is rare for me to disagree with one, but I must do so with this one on Google.

Peter Williams: Get the ads off the front page

Or stop being selective about whose money you take

The Media Insider column on the New Zealand Herald website each week is a column, funnily enough, about the media. It is way too long and even as someone who has worked in the media for half a century I find a great deal it of yawn inducing and requiring the fast scroll.

It’s written by Shayne Currie, who for a long time was the editor at the Herald so knows all about the internal machinations of the place. In his latest edition he’s written about the front page advertisement placed by the Council of Trade Unions earlier in the week which was a direct attack on the the National Party leader Christopher Luxon.

Karl du Fresne: I defended the media then; I wouldn't now

In his media column in the New Zealand Herald today, Shayne Currie reports that media organisations are having to think about security arrangements for journalists covering the election campaign. TVNZ went to the extent of hiring security staff for its news team at the National and Labour campaign launches, both of which were disrupted by protesters. Currie quotes TVNZ executive editor Phil O’Sullivan as saying: “Globally we’ve seen an increase in anti-media sentiment. We’re now seeing this in New Zealand too, with an increase in abuse directed towards our reporters while out in the field, and threatening behaviour in online spaces disproportionately impacting our female reporters.”