14th August 2008

Last week (from Wednesday until yesterday) National Radio Morning Report showed the quality it is capable of when Shaun Plunket took a week off. His replacements displayed intelligence when interviewing their subjects by listening to what they had say without interuption and then responding with pertinent questions in order to tease out the story so that the listener could understand the issue and form an opinion.

The type of "ego-journalism" practised by Plunket does none of these things and invariably ends up a shouting match which is a big turn off for the listener. It is for me, as I generally change stations to the Concert programme. Why Radio NewZealand condone these rude and counter productive tactics is beyond me. They are not clever, but perhaps reflect the way journalism which used to be a profession has evolved. Mary Wilson in the 5pm spot is exactly the same. I have yet to find any of my aquaintances who have a good word to say on either of these two individuals, yet they continue year after year in their jobs.

Last week my optimism that good journalists were still out there was raised for 5 days days. Yesterday it was back to business as usual. Shame on you Radio NZ. The only counter weapon we have is the off button and I have just used it to nuke Plunket out of existence.

TC