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When journalists become the story

Sunday, 3 May 2026

A 1News microphone being held on Parliament’s black and white tiles, where journalists can ask MPs questions.
A 1News microphone being held on Parliament’s black and white tiles, where journalists can ask MPs questions.

Stewart Sowman-Lund’s media column, The Sunday Report - dissecting talking points from NZ media, entertainment and pop culture - appears weekly on Sundays on thepost.co.nz and in the Sunday Star-Times.

ANALYSIS: What a week to start a media column.

It’s never a good sign when journalists themselves make news, but TVNZ and particularly its political editor Maiki Sherman have made several headlines.

On Tuesday, it was reported that Sherman had allegedly used a slur against a fellow journalist, Stuff’s Lloyd Burr, during a pre-Budget drinks in the office of Nicola Willis close to a year ago.

By Wednesday, the story had shifted after claims that TVNZ had attempted to shut the story down some months prior following investigations by Newstalk ZB.

On Thursday, a different story - Parliament’s Speaker, Gerry Brownlee, confirmed he was investigating a complaint by National that TVNZ’s political reporters had potentially broken the rules after attempting to interview an MP in a part of Parliament where filming isn’t typically permitted. Sherman was later handed a five day ban from reporting at Parliament.

The prime minister heads for Singapore today, and it’s understood Sherman won’t be on the trip as intended - a call that wasn’t made by Christopher Luxon’s office.

None of this is good for media trust, even if the alleged behaviour relates to personal conduct rather than any actual reporting.

Where exactly the slur story originated from, and why it only emerged this week, isn’t yet known.

It was first reported by a blogger, Ani O’Brien, who, unsurprisingly, has not revealed her source - other than to claim it was a member of the media who tipped her off, rather than anyone from the Government.

That’s interesting, given journalists tend to rely on sources rather than act as them, and with the relationship between TVNZ and the Government seemingly at an all-time low, it was plausible to conclude that this may have been planted by someone wanting to put further pressure on the state-funded broadcaster.

Stuff explainer editor Lloyd Burr was the subject of alleged comments by TVNZ political editor Maiki Sherman.
Stuff explainer editor Lloyd Burr was the subject of alleged comments by TVNZ political editor Maiki Sherman.

Nicola Willis has strongly rejected any suggestion it came from her or her staff, saying her primary concern was for the journalist subject to the alleged slur who did not want to take the issue any further.

But even before the allegations were published, they had been circulating in some form on social media for at least a week, courtesy of some anonymous Twitter accounts.

It was supposedly an ‘open secret’ among many in the Beehive and the wider media, so there’s a very long list of people who may have known and felt compelled to try and see it reported.

There are valid questions to ask about why the story only emerged this week, though many do not have satisfying answers. For example, the suggestion - put forward by some, including ACT’s David Seymour - that journalists would have been clamouring to report on the issue should it have involved a member of Parliament is a pointless one.

Of course some would have been: MPs are elected officials and there is no world in which a journalist would be held to the same standard. Even then, offensive remarks made during a private dispute at a private event would not necessarily warrant reporting. Any journalist will also tell you that reporting on a story in which the subject does not want to speak out instantly makes it significantly more difficult to actually publish (the original blogger did not make contact with Burr before publishing her story).

That being said, having been reporting on the media for a few months now, there are also questions to be asked about how open and transparent our organisations are. I have experienced minor roadblocks in attempting to ask questions of media companies, roadblocks we would not tolerate so easily were they presented by other companies.

(For clarity, none of these stories have been on issues as juicy as this, and they have all been reported largely as I intended - but in many ways that makes the lack of willing engagement from media companies even more frustrating.)

The fact TVNZ is said to have engaged lawyers in an attempt to stop the story coming out is more concerning, given there is now little doubt the event did happen. That also dampens trust. It’s since emerged that Stuff, owners of this paper, have also gone the legal route within the last few days - though this has been in an effort to prevent the spread of alleged defamatory misinformation.

Then there is the question of public interest. Said long-serving political reporter Richard Harman on Tuesday: “Anybody who's worked in the press gallery knows that there's often … incidents, if we want to put it that way. They have no political importance at all. If I insult somebody at a private party in Parliament, then it's got nothing to do with my journalism or that person's political performance.”

But the story has taken on a new life of its own, partly due to details slipping out in drips rather than in a flood on day one. How much the public really cares about the alleged behaviour of one person behind closed doors is debatable, but the existence of legal letters and claims the story was prevented from being reported instantly makes it more enticing.

Given TVNZ is subject to the Official Information Act, there’s likely more to this story - it’s just going to take a few more weeks to come out.

In other news….