David Seymour: ‘There’s enormous self pity from journalists’
Thursday, 7 March 2024
ACT leader David Seymour said journalists have been ‘celebrating and dancing at every slip’ a politician makes.
He made the comments when asked about hundreds of people set to lose jobs at TVNZ and TV3.
He told Stuff there had been “enormous self pity” from the media sector.
ACT leader David Seymour says journalists may want to consider their own “behaviour”, as hundreds of staff between TVNZ and TV3 face the axe.
TVNZ has confirmed 68 jobs are on the line, while about 300 jobs will go at Discovery when Newshub and most of TV3 closes at the end of June.
Seymour, asked about those cuts on Thursday morning, told Stuff there had been “enormous self pity” from the media sector. He said some journalists had directed “anger at politicians for not giving them enough sympathy”.
Earlier, speaking to Newstalk ZB, Seymour criticised reporting from 1 News senior political reporter Benedict Collins about Luxon’s U-turn on claiming a $52,000 accommodation allowance to live in a house he owns mortgage-free.
“They have spent years celebrating and dancing at every slip that a politician makes, competing to get scalps as they call them,” he told the station.
“And all of a sudden they say, ‘but when we have a bad day you’ve got to be kind to us’.”
He said that “delightful lack of self-awareness” was “a big part of the problem” facing media.
Asked by Stuff what he meant by that comment, Seymour said technological change was the main reason leading to job losses - but he suggested the style of television journalism may have contributed as well.
“While I think the technological issues are the the underlying story here, a bit of self reflection from people like that wouldn't go amiss either,” he said.
Seymour said Collins had been “grinning down the camera” during the report.
'You've got a whole lot of people in the press, who are saying, ‘politicians are tone deaf and should show more sympathy’. And you know what the reality is? These are people who are gleeful at politicians’ misfortune,“ he said.
“It's ironic behaviour.”
But he said the style of reporting was not the main cause of the massive cutbacks facing New Zealand news.
“They're going to have leaner structures than they used to, because they no longer have this miracle technology of television, which gives them the near monopoly on the news,” he said.
“Companies such as TVNZ have to adapt. Obviously, for the people who are losing their jobs, that’s very sad. But I think we also just got to be a bit realistic.”
Seymour told Stuff he did want to defend the news media.
“Here's the real issue. 80% of the ad revenue just went to Google and Facebook. They've got shrinking newsrooms, they've got to produce more words per day, they've got less time to do scrutiny. I mean, one of my favourite movies is All the President's Men.'
A TVNZ spokesperson said Seymour had singled out their reporter Collins for doing his job of challenging politicians and policies across the political spectrum on behalf of New Zealanders.
“We are not asking for sympathy as the minister suggested, but are asking for our politicians to respect the independence of our media so they can get on with their work,” the spokesperson said.
Media and Communications Minister Melissa Lee has been approached for comment.