A rare Hosking U-turn

Radio host Mike Hosking displayed his impressive intelligence last week.

No, not by spitting the dummy and saying he did not want the Prime Minister on his show, but by eating those words and admitting he had overstepped the mark.

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Reality check: Life has a deadline

Journalists are no strangers to death. They write about it with professional detachment…unless they are writing about one of their own.

I was sitting at my desk when I read an online story – reported with that professional detachment –about a body found in the surf.

The Northern Advocate reported on its website: “Tragedy has unfolded at a popular Whangārei Heads surf beach with the discovery of a man’s body in the water earlier this afternoon. Northland Police Senior Sergeant Shane Turner said a man of European descent and around 65-years-old was found dead in the surf at the southern end of Ocean Beach, around 35km from central Whangārei, shortly before 1.13pm.”

I read it with the same detachment I would have employed if I had written the story. It’s an approach that is central to unbiased reporting. It’s also a defence mechanism for journalists to avoid the cumulative effects of witnessing grief.

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Pacific Media Centre must break free to survive

For many years I thought universities were the ideal place to establish centres of investigative journalism excellence. Now I’m not so sure.

My views have been shaken to the core by the Auckland University of Technology gutting the Pacific Media Centre. Its future in anything but name is now in doubt.

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