Is this really news?
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So last Thursday at around 2pm, I received an email out of the blue from a journalist at Stuff.
It included the following questions and a response deadline of 5pm the same day - three hours later:
Are you working for [private media company] in any capacity? If so, what is that work?
How long have you been working for [private media company]?
Who hired you?
Are you involved in training any [private media company] staff in any way - if so, what’s that training about?
What makes you suitable for training journalists?
Did [private media company] have any concerns about hiring you, including in relation to numerous allegations about inappropriate workplace conduct, including at TVNZ and Al Jazeera?
Have any [private media company] staff expressed concerns about your hiring?
And then later that evening, a follow-up asking for my response to a series of revised questions, with a new deadline of 5pm Friday. These included:
Your meeting with [personal friend] at the [private media company] office in Auckland on January 24, what was that about?
Who initiated that meeting between you two?
There are a number of very high-profile allegations about your workplace behaviour. You have also apologised for what you describe as “flirtatious, over-friendly” behaviour at work. So why did you consider it appropriate to hold a meeting at the [private media company] office in front of members of their editorial team?
Was employment, contracting or any other work for [private media company], paid or otherwise, discussed between you and [personal friend]?
Why were you introduced to members of [private media company] editorial team after that meeting?
Are you still, or have you ever been, in discussion with [personal friend] over employment at [private media company]?
If not, what was your meeting with [personal friend] at [private media company] about on January 24?
And then again, on Monday morning, a further email asking:
I’m following up on these questions from last week.
Do you intend to respond?
No, I didn’t respond.
Why should I?
What is there to respond to?
I do not work for [private media company] in any capacity, and I never have.
I am a private citizen, who met up with a personal friend at their place of work.
And yet an experienced journalist - at a time of national emergency and crisis immediately following Cyclone Gabrielle - felt it was important to inform the nation that I went into an office three weeks prior to meet someone who I knew.
So, as an experienced journalist myself, here are my own (very much rhetorical) questions:
How is the content of a private meeting between two individuals subject to a journalist’s scrutiny (and, from the tone of some of the questions, their judgement)?
Are my future employment prospects now a matter for the media to weigh in on?
IF a private firm wanted to hire me - be it a media company or the local hardware store - is that always going to be a matter for the public to be informed of?
Is this really what’s now considered ‘a story’?
I know my employment at TVNZ was of public interest. It was high-profile and TVNZ is a state-owned entity which makes it something the New Zealand taxpayer has a stake in.
And I know the allegations of my workplace behaviour in the past will inevitably give people pause. For any behaviour that may have made anyone feel uncomfortable, I have apologised and will reiterate it again now. I am sorry.
I would remind people however that those allegations remain, in most part, anonymous hearsay. Some lack context, some are lies, and I will speak to them when I am able.
The Stuff journalist informed me that I apparently made people feel uncomfortable just with my presence at [private media company]. Again, I am sorry people felt that way - though it’s not surprising based on what’s been reported so far. When people eventually have the full story, I hope they will reconsider their previous views.
The facts right now however (in relation to this ‘story’) are simple.
If I was going - or indeed do go - for a job interview, then that’s between me and the prospective employer.
And if I go into an office - or indeed anywhere - to meet someone who I already know, then that’s definitely not the media’s business.
But I WILL answer one question which was posed to me: “What makes you suitable for training journalists?”
24 years of broadcast journalism experience, reporting or anchoring from 23 cities in 14 countries
16 years as a frontline presenter for one of the world’s biggest international news channels
4 U.S. presidential elections, broadcasting for 12+ hours at a time, plus anchoring a live presidential inauguration from Washington DC
3 weeks covering a controversial and tense Zimbabwean election from Harare - the only international broadcaster to do so
2 panel discussions and multiple interviews with presidents, prime ministers, and political leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos
One-on-one interviews with two former British prime ministers
Hundreds of hours of live unscripted broadcasting of revolutions, shootings, celebrations, coups, natural disasters, anniversaries, and pandemics
Thousands of hours preparing for interviews, discussion shows, economics programmes, and creating carefully-crafted broadcast television
An Emmy nomination for a news bulletin which I presented, on a programme which I part-created
Suffice to say, if anyone IS interested in utilising all that experience, do get in touch.
