KEY POINTS:
A key man behind the rise of Maori Television, Larry Parr, is leaving amid tensions about the focus on English-language programming.
As a result of a spirited campaign and a Privy Council finding, the Crown has Treaty of Waitangi obligations to the Maori language but the channel has soared highest with English-language current affairs show Native Affairs.
Maori TV confirmed yesterday that Parr, the general manager of programming, had resigned "for personal reasons". He leaves next month.
Parr made a big difference. He played a major role in developing Anzac Day coverage. He pushed for programming aimed at audiences. He was also instrumental in the second Maori-language channel on Freeview, which allowed more English-language content to be screened on the main channel.
There have been issues over one or two programming commitments that went beyond budget. But Parr, whose previous role was as a director of failed film company Kahukura, was regarded by some as a breath of fresh air. He took over the role after a battle with Maori Television senior executive Tawini Rangihau.
With chief executive Jim Mather and his tight fiscal controls, Parr brought a special zing to the channel.
COFFEY FOR SALE?
Advertisers on the Television One and TV3 breakfast shows are increasingly able to secure editorial coverage to back up their spending - and the Breakfast show weather reports are up for grabs.
A public relations executive who asked not to be named said editorial tie-ups had been around in television for some time - TVNZ has a whole department for it - but news and weather had been off limits. But that was changing.
The person who approached the Business Herald said he was not necessarily concerned about the issue of editorial separation, but that the role of editorial plugs for commercial products was traditionally a public relations function. Nowadays it was increasingly being linked with advertising deals.
The PR insider said there was a high degree of advertorial content in TV3's Sunrise, while TVNZ had offered links to the weather as a sweetener, such as broadcasting from spots associated with the advertiser.
TVNZ spokeswoman Megan Richards insisted that Breakfast weather forecaster Tamati Coffey "was not for sale".
"We don't flog him off. What we have done is like the Air New Zealand grab-a-seat deal where it suited both Air New Zealand and us to have him around the country - that was good exposure for us and for their promotion."
TV3 marketing manager Roger Beaumont had a more straightforward view, saying it was the same as commercial television in Australia. That ain't public service TV.
STEADY AS HE GOES
Radio New Zealand has extended Peter Cavanagh's contract to run state radio for a second five years.
The appointment, keeping him in charge until 2013, was announced to staff last week. RNZ chairwoman Christine Grice said the early announcement - it is four months until his deal runs out - had nothing to do with the impending election.
But the early appointment will put RNZ on safer ground when politicians start turning on state media, as they inevitably will in this hard-fought election campaign.
Parties watch state TV like hawks at election time and some staff complain that Labour came to regard Radio New Zealand with a sense of ownership.
New Broadcasting Minister Trevor Mallard has eased those perceptions, but expect Murray McCully and Gerry Brownlee to complain about "Radio Labour" as the campaign advances.
Grice said Cavanagh's performance had been reviewed since December. She praised initiatives such as developing RNZ's online presence and audience and said RNZ wanted to retain his talents. Five years was not a particularly long time, she said.
Cavanagh has slipped into the Wellington milieu of RNZ, where a whisper in Molesworth St is viewed as a shout in the real world.
But he is viewed as a stable leader who fuels public radio on the smell of an oily rag and does not complain too loudly about RNZ's chronic underfunding.
An Australian formerly with the public service SBS, Cavanagh followed presenter Sharon Crosbie, who was embroiled in a bitter dispute with the RNZ newsroom.
Insiders say Crosbie actually initiated moves such as the online and Auckland headquarters but with funding problems resolved before Cavanagh started, he was able to make progress.
Cavanagh has pushed RNZ on to the digital space.
But a television industry source said he was resisting the role of the Freeview digital information channel TVNZ 7, believing it aims to usurp RNZ's role as the main source of public debate.
STUDENT POLITICS
Winston Peters has declined to appear on Campaign '08 - the Bill Ralston programme in which a panel interviews party leaders over seven weeks before the election.
Ralston was head of news and current affairs at TVNZ when a programme about scampi fisheries led to legal action against TVNZ. Ralston said: "Peters has, at this stage, declined to appear. But it is my experience with Mr Peters that he may change his mind as the election approaches."
Five of the seven programmes are to be produced by Ralston's partner, Janet Wilson. But Sky TV has come to a special arrangement for production of the programmes featuring John Key and Helen Clark.
Sky spokesman Tony O'Brien said Wilson had advised she would not produce the programmes featuring the Prime Minister and Opposition leader.
Ralston said the producer's role was an operational one, concerned with the look of the programme on air and did not have any editorial responsibility. He said Clark and Key's offices were considering requests to appear on the programmes and he was confident they would confirm once an election date was set.
Campaign '08 will screen without advertising at 8.30pm on Sky News this Sunday and on Prime the same evening at 10.30pm.
VISITING BLOGLAND
Blogland has long been a warzone between political creeds but the Winston Peters debacle has given an amazing glimpse into how party-political they have become.
With the Electoral Finance Act, the limited debate is appearing on party-friendly blogs like National's Kiwiblog or Labour's The Standard.
Depending on their alignment, blogs see conspiracies with their rivals and innocent explanations for outrageous events in their own camp.
Alas, the Winston Peters debacle has muddied the patch with some from the left forced to come to Winnie's aid.
FROM THE RIGHT
Still in blogland, there has been comment after revelations in this column last week that the National Party ad campaign was being conducted by Glenn Jameson, who has strong beliefs in the individualist cause.
This raises guffaws from the left, but Jameson and a colleague have also attracted opprobrium from the individualist set who think National is a bunch of socialists.
In the blog Solo, for Sense of Life Objectivists, Jameson's colleague "Olivia" replied to criticism. "I have been Glenn's creative partner on the National campaign team for this election. I was clear from the beginning that two reasons motivated me to pitch for the work.
"Earning a living and getting rid of Helen Clark as our PM. If you're going to damn Glenn, you can damn me along with him.
"I do not have a guilty conscience because of this ... as far as I'm concerned, though clearly not a bastion of objectivism, individual freedom or capitalism, National will be a better government than Labour. You obviously feel betrayed. But did any of you go to Glenn at the outside of an upcoming election and ask him for his services in advertising?"
Ah, where business meets philosophy.
