Ex-Breakfast host says 2561 documents released to him by TVNZ are “enlightening”; TVNZ CEO accepts business invitation to Paris Olympics - why she’s paying personally; Wall St Journal reporter freed from Russian prison; Herald’s AI error of judgment; The All Blacks’ new media manager; Who will replace Simon Barnett on
Media Insider: Former TVNZ host Kamahl Santamaria’s new legal move; TVNZ CEO’s Paris Olympics trip at personal cost; new All Blacks media manager revealed
Former TVNZ Breakfast host Kamahl Santamaria; TVNZ chief executive Jodi O'Donnell.
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It’s the third and latest formal manoeuvre by Santamaria in his ongoing legal battle with TVNZ following his resignation:
- He already has proceedings against the state broadcaster at the Employment Relations Authority. The case is set to go to a full, substantive hearing after mediation was unsuccessful;
- He initiated a Privacy Act request with TVNZ, requesting all documents that the broadcaster held about him – including staff members’ emails between each other. So far, he’s received more than 2500 documents in two tranches – he says there is another set to come.
Santamaria says he can’t release any of the 2561 documents he’s so far received as they form part of his evidence at the ERA and the HRRT, but he claims they make for “enlightening” reading.
“What I can do is speak to what I have found, and the general issues and concerns they’ve raised,” he said in a written response to questions.
“What I’ve found is a lot of motivation to either not have me in the role in the first place, or to have me removed from it, regardless of anything which did or didn’t happen.
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“As I’m sure you can imagine, there were a few noses put out of joint when I was hired for the Breakfast role. I can understand that. On-air roles are highly prized, and there’s probably always going to be some level of resistance to an outside hire.
“But it’s the extent and the grounds of that opposition which has really taken me aback – and filled in a lot of blanks as to why things panned out as they did.”
He says this includes comments about “my race”; “soon-to-be colleagues questioning why I was hired and how I would fit in, as late as the day I arrived in the country”; and “defamatory rumours about me being spread around TVNZ, even prior to my arrival”.
He said if he had known any of this, “I highly doubt I would ever have accepted the job”.
I put all of these specific claims and comments to TVNZ.
A spokeswoman replied: “We cannot comment on individual employment matters, complaints or concerns.”
Earlier in the week, in response to other questions, the spokeswoman said the state broadcaster had not heard from the Human Rights Review Tribunal and she said a date for the ERA hearing had not yet been set.
In regards to the report that Santamaria was seeking, the spokeswoman said: “The Margaret Robins’ Report was a broad review into TVNZ’s recruitment policies, processes and practices. TVNZ declined Mr Santamaria’s requests for access to the full report as it includes confidential material and to protect the privacy of people involved.
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“The Office of the Privacy Commissioner took the same view.”
As David Fisher reported for the NZ Herald last December, Santamaria arrived at TVNZ in April 2022, after a 17-year stint at Al Jazeera, as a high-profile new Breakfast host to replace John Campbell.
His last appearance on screen was on May 18, 2022.
TVNZ initially said a “family emergency” was behind his absence – a statement that was later discredited after the female colleague’s complaint emerged of inappropriate behaviour. This was followed by claims of inappropriate messages to female colleagues at Al Jazeera.
Santamaria’s resignation from TVNZ was announced on May 28, 2022.
He has said the alleged incident at TVNZ was instinctive, with no ill-intent and that it was “never alleged at the time by the complainant to be sexual and/or harassment”.
He apologised later for making his colleague feel uncomfortable. The public has not heard the colleague’s side of the story.
TVNZ hired employment lawyer Margaret Robins to examine its hiring processes for presenters, the broadcaster’s complaint process and harassment policy, and how it went about hiring Santamaria.
Santamaria believes he should have been involved in the review and he believes he has a right to see the report.
“I have wanted this access since the report was released, but it’s become more crucial given what I’ve learned since about people’s views of me, and the incorrect information being spread about me,” he said.
“This dates right back to when my name was first raised as a potential Breakfast host.
“Also, if the Robins Report was designed to find out what did and didn’t happen when I was recruited, then I would have thought that my input was crucial. If this was about investigating the recruitment process which led to my hiring, it seems absurd that I was never interviewed.
“On top of that, the Privacy Commissioner said that I could not have offered insight into my own hiring to the extent that other TVNZ staff could. That simply doesn’t make sense. I have documentation, conversations, and messages – and hence, insight – relating to my recruitment which no one else could provide.”
Santamaria said he was awaiting the Employment Relations Authority to rule on a preliminary issue, “raised by TVNZ concerning whether some of my claims can be heard by the authority. Only after that is decided will we have an indication of a future timeline”.
He said he wanted to be clear: “My proceedings are against TVNZ regarding its actions and its actions alone”.
He said he had never had an issue with facts being known “but for 15 months after my resignation, I said nothing, while anonymous voices, journalists, former colleagues and even TVNZ itself made all sorts of claims about me and my character. As a result, I have no career or job prospects and my reputation has been destroyed by people with motivations which have never been challenged.”
He has taken issue with much of the way media outlets have approached the story, including – he says – his teenage daughter being pursued by reporters. She had had to change her name, he said, “to avoid association with me and who has to live with her father being labelled ‘disgraced’ at every turn”.
“I owe it to her and to my family who’ve carried us through these past 26 months to keep fighting for that record to be set straight.”
He has set up his own news website, The Balance.
“Where returning to the media industry is concerned... well, of course, I need to be able to work again.
“I am only 44 so I have plenty of working life left and 25 years of experience to offer. But I also now have the experience of being on the other side of a story and how it affects a person, their life, and their family.
“I’ve learnt first-hand about how clicks, headlines, and this insatiable news cycle which now exists have become the driving forces of modern journalism. The way facts are either ignored completely, or manipulated – even subtly – is quite stunning... it’s really given me a new outlook on the job of a journalist and the industry as a whole.”
TVNZ CEO off to Olympics – at personal expense
TVNZ chief executive Jodi O’Donnell has accepted an invitation from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to attend the Paris Olympics.
But there is one rather unique twist to her trip to France – TVNZ says O’Donnell is taking leave and personally paying for the trip herself.
Flights and accommodation ”will be funded by Jodi. There will be no costs incurred by TVNZ”, says a TVNZ spokeswoman.
The trip – she leaves tonight and is back on August 8 – comes at a time when the state broadcaster is eyeing further cutbacks as it confronts the harsh reality of a subdued advertising market and as it transforms itself into a digital-first business.
TVNZ does not have the rights to the Olympics, and O’Donnell was in the spotlight for a recent business trip to Los Angeles after a fellow executive posted images on social media of the pair enjoying social occasions while soon-to-be-axed staff were embroiled in a legal fight for their jobs back home.
So the IOC invitation and the Paris trip come at an interesting time.
If it was purely a business trip, O’Donnell should not be paying for it herself.
As this column has opined previously, it is critical that business leaders continue to operate in the best interests of their firms and broader strategies, even in tough financial times – if that means overseas meetings, conferences and other events, fine.
The biggest problem with O’Donnell’s US trip was the tone-deaf Instagram posts. Even O’Donnell, as late as this week at Parliament, described them as “very inappropriate”.
Similarly, if the trip to Paris had been a planned personal holiday, then, of course, there would be no issues with that either. No one could begrudge anyone a decent break, least of all someone in a highly scrutinised and stressful role.
The trip appears to be a hybrid - she’s been invited as the TVNZ CEO and will be involved in business meetings, yet has decided to fund it personally.
I suspect she and TVNZ will be wary of people seeing it as some sort of Olympics jolly, and made the call to pay her own way.
A TVNZ spokeswoman said: “Jodi was invited by the IOC and received accreditation for the four days she will be on the ground. While in Paris, she will take up the opportunity to meet with sporting bodies, key partners, and support our news team on the ground”.
The spokeswoman said TVNZ was in “a multi-year period of change and transformation, and it’s important throughout this period that we’re in the right places to discuss partnership and content opportunities”.
“Sport is a core part of TVNZ’s current and future content strategy, and we are keen to understand how TVNZ can play a role in bringing sport and major events to NZ’s largest free-to-air audience.
“TVNZ is not the rights holder of the Olympics and it is explorative only, so Jodi made a discretionary call to self-fund the trip on this specific occasion.”
Rights for the next two Olympics – in Los Angeles in 2028 and Brisbane in 2032 – are up for negotiation.
It is highly unlikely that TVNZ would be a serious contender for official broadcaster of live rights, given its forecast operational losses over the next several years.
It may well be a future free-to-air partner for, say, Sky – just as it was for the Tokyo Olympics.
But that would be Sky’s call to make, and in a converged media world, the likes of an NZME or a Stuff might well consider themselves a free-to-air partner.
Sky has the rights to the Paris Olympics.
It also has several execs in Paris on official business including chief content and commercial officer Jonny Errington, chief customer officer Dan Kelly and chief media and data officer Lauren Quaintance. Errington, especially, is likely to be figuring large in discussions with the IOC over the next set of rights.
Sky chief executive Sophie Moloney is not there, but spoke this week of the challenges and opportunities for Sky with future rights.
Wall St Journal reporter freed
Incredible developments overnight, with the news that The Wall St Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich has been freed from his unjust imprisonment in Russia, and is on his way home to the United States.
His release is part of one of the biggest prisoner swaps between Russia and the West in decades.
Gershkovich, 32, a Wall St Journal reporter based in Moscow, was arrested in March last year and sentenced two weeks ago to 16 years in jail on charges of espionage and spying.
The charges were trumped-up and wrong - Gershkovich was simply a reporter doing his job; experts believe the Kremlin detested the way he was covering the conflict with Ukraine.
As The Wall St Journal website reported this morning: “Russia freed wrongly convicted Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and more than a dozen others jailed by the Kremlin in exchange for Russians held in the U.S. and Europe. Among those released by Moscow were former Marine Paul Whelan and journalist Alsu Kurmasheva, in a sweeping deal that involved 24 prisoners and at least six countries.”
The New York Times reported this morning that Emma Tucker, the editor-in-chief of The Wall Street Journal, had emailed staff with the news of Gershkovich’s release.
“I cannot even begin to describe the immense happiness and relief that this news brings and I know all of you will feel the same. This is a day of great joy for Evan and his family, and a historic day for The Wall Street Journal.”
Read more here.
AI and that NZ Herald editorial
NZME newsroom staff have been called to a meeting next week to discuss use of artificial intelligence (AI), following a case in which NZME says it should have applied more “journalistic rigour” in the way AI was used to help create a recent NZ Herald editorial.
RNZ reported this week that the editorial – published in the Weekend Herald and on nzherald.co.nz on July 20 – contained elements of what appeared to be passages created by AI, such as truncated sentences and repetition of key words.
RNZ said it had run the editorial – a piece focused on the All Blacks’ midfield position – and a sidebar editorial about UFC star Israel Adesanya “through AI detection tools and several returned positive results”.
NZME editor-in-chief Murray Kirkness said: “Like many media companies, we use AI as a tool in our newsrooms, as indicated in the footer of every article page.
“Any piece of content that uses AI is reviewed, edited and has journalistic oversight. In this particular case, we accept more journalistic rigour would have been beneficial, and we will communicate this to our team.”
Newsroom staff have been called to a meeting next week to discuss the matter, which comes as NZME and other organisations work hard to build trust in journalism after a torrid four years for media, particularly as society has become more polarised.
While AI offers many enhancements – fixing spelling and grammar, transcribing interviews, suggesting headlines and ideas – this case is a timely reminder that the humans need to maintain control.
And we certainly need to be transparent with readers, ensuring they are clearly informed if AI has played a tangible role in our storytelling.
In an email to newsroom staff yesterday, Kirkness said: “We’ve been clear that, like many media companies, we use AI as a tool in our newsrooms, and this article on our website (which is included in the footer of every digital article) goes into further detail about how we use it.
“I’m keen to hold another of our regular All Hands meetings next week, which will include discussion about our use of AI now and into the future.
“As always, trust and credibility are vitally important to us and will be part of the discussion.
“Next week’s session will be an opportunity for us to talk further about our use of AI and the standards we need to maintain as we use it.”
Just on editorials...
Once upon a time, the Herald had a dedicated team of editorial writers, or at least senior editors who had a special focus to consider the newspaper’s opinion on daily issues.
Now, the responsibility falls on a wide cross-section of staff, including journalists who might be specialists in particular areas.
I personally believe the time has come to scrap the daily editorial, and have, perhaps, a weekly or twice-weekly editorial.
Who will replace Si and James?
More than a dozen names are understood to be chasing the Afternoons hosting role on Newstalk ZB.
Simon Barnett and James Daniels will finish in September, with Barnett joining More FM in early 2025. Daniels, himself a legend in broadcasting, has decided the time is also right for him to leave, following his partnership with Barnett over the past three years.
It is understood a range of internal names are keen on the job including Andrew Dickens, who has been filling the role every Monday, Francesca Rudkin, Roman Travers, Tim Roxborogh, and Tim Beveridge.
I’ve been enjoying Hauraki breakfast host Matt Heath on ZB’s Huddle commentary segment, while one of the producers of Barnett and Daniels’ show, Tyler Adams, is also highly regarded and is a regular voice on the show.
Wilhelmina Shrimpton has been filling in on ZB shifts and doing a great job - she’s also started her own successful PR and media business so might not be a fulltime option.
In terms of names outside of NZME, there are a swag of potentials – among them several Newshub and TVNZ refugees.
Paddy Gower, Jeremy Corbett, Melissa Chan Green or Pippa Wetzell would certainly be huge names. At MediaWorks, the two Roberts – Robert Rakete and Robert Scott – are top broadcasters, among others.
The field seems wide open.
One Good Text
This week we catch up with one of New Zealand’s most successful film producers, John Barnett – the man behind hits such as Whale Rider and Sione’s Wedding.
All Blacks’ new media manager
It was one of the most fiercely contested media and PR roles in the land.
The All Blacks now have a new communications manager, former Crusaders and Canterbury communications manager Juliet Calder.
More than 170 people applied for the role, including some reasonably well-known industry names.
Calder has an extensive career in public relations and corporate communications, less so in journalism.
She is, by all accounts, a highly regarded communications professional, who most recently has been a director at Cosgrove & Partners, working alongside former MP Clayton Cosgrove.
She also worked closely with All Blacks coach Scott Robertson during her seven-year stint at the Crusaders and the Canterbury Rugby Union.
Her professional links with Robertson and a couple of other All Blacks coaches will give her a good head start when she starts the new role on Monday week.
One of her first tasks will be helping build some bridges between the team and the likes of Newstalk ZB and its breakfast host Mike Hosking.
As Media Insider reported last week, NZR has been working hard to rebuild relationships between the All Blacks and media – but it has a way to go.
NZR chief communications officer Paul Stevens said Calder was “massively excited” about the new role.
“It definitely helps that she’s got an existing relationship with Scott and a couple of the other coaches, but that certainly didn’t play into it in its entirety. Juliet’s a highly regarded comms professional and can build great relationships.
“We’ve obviously been looking for an outstanding comms professional. She is well-rounded, so can work with players on being well-briefed [for interviews] but also strategic.
“What you see around what the comms professional does with the All Blacks is the tip of the iceberg.
“There’s so much that goes into it in terms of planning, working across commercial requirements, media, the team, building great relationships.”
Former Sunday News editor dies
One of New Zealand journalism’s best-known editors and stalwarts has died.
Mike Blake edited Sunday News for almost a decade, from early 1985 until moving into an executive role in late 1994.
Blake, 77, died in Hamilton on Monday after a brief illness - a day after the last Sunday News rolled off the presses.
The Waikato Chamber of Commerce paid tribute this week to one of its life members.
“As a journalist, Mike began his career with the Waikato Times and moved through the ranks to edit newspapers and magazines in New Zealand with stints on The Fiji Times and the Fiji Sun,” the chamber wrote on LinkedIn.
“On his return to Hamilton in the early 2000s he became editor of Waikato Business News and several other titles within the NMMedia stable. He was responsible for bringing National Grey Power Magazine into the fold and added that to his eclectic mix of work subjects.
“The Waikato salutes you, Mike, for your contribution to our business community. Our thoughts are with the Blake family at this sad time.”
Blake will be farewelled at The Hamilton Park Chapel, Morrinsville Rd, Silverdale, Hamilton, on Monday at 1pm.
Best ads since the 1970s
There’s certainly plenty of interest in the Marketing Association’s quest to find the best television ads for each of the past five-and-a-half decades.
The association celebrates its 50th anniversary in October and is marking the milestone with a public vote to find the best ad of the 70s, 80s, 90s, 00s, 10s and 20s.
So far, voting has opened for the first three decades.
For the 1970s, the KFC Hugo and Holly, Crunchie Train Robbery and Pinky ‘It’s a bit kinky’ advertisements are leading the votes.
For the 1980s, leading contenders are the BASF Dear John, Toyota Scottie and Crumpy and Pixie Caramel Bar ads.
And for the 1990s, it’s the Christmas Scorched Almonds, Toyota Bugger, Telecom Spot, and Mainland ‘Good things take time’ commercials.
Tony Williams created several of those famous ads - Media Insider caught up with him recently to learn about some of the secrets of his success.
Editor-at-Large Shayne Currie is one of New Zealand’s most experienced senior journalists and media leaders. He has held executive and senior editorial roles at NZME including Managing Editor, NZ Herald Editor and Herald on Sunday Editor and has a small shareholding in NZME.
