Yeah, to be perfectly honest I'll always have a soft spot for wassisname.
He was proud to be a New Zealander and in that respect you couldn't really fault him. Unfortunately, he was faulted in every other way.
For a start he wore his politics on his sleeve and I think the majority of New Zealanders will agree with me that if you're going to behave like that then it's only okay if your name is Paul Henry or Mike Hosking.
There was also the problem with his intellect. He quite clearly had one. "That's not a good look, mate," I remember telling MediaWorks CEO Mark Weldon at his Queenstown estate over a few wines. Mark and I have long enjoyed a strictly professional relationship.
You couldn't imagine wassisname with his shirt off in a spa. He'd probably wear his suit. That sort of thing doesn't play well with the majority of New Zealanders and at the end of the day the majority of New Zealanders don't like the minority of New Zealanders.
I wish wassisname well but we all have to go some time and at the end of the day 7pm just wasn't the best fit for current events. It's when we want to watch Road Cops. Or Seven Sharp.
Helen Clark
There was a rumour going around that I once called John Campbell "a little creep". It's entirely fictitious. I called him the kind of names you can't publish.
We had our differences when I was Prime Minister. It was inevitable. I held the job from 1845 to 2007. But he was always a very polite young man, and I'll allow that he had certain skills as an interviewer. One of them was that he asked questions. I'll never forgive him for that.
But nothing lasts forever, and all we are is dust in the wind.
Ka kite Hone.
Sir Bob Jones
Readers will no doubt be expecting that my behaviour on an Air New Zealand flight the other day will be made fun of in this satirical column. However, its author sent an email to me saying, "Just a short note to express my dismay at the idiots hounding you on the flight, and after the flight. I hope that it will afford you a laugh at some stage".
I'm not sure that stage has been reached yet but I daresay it will, and the same applies to John Campbell.
As one of the pre-eminent broadcasters of the 19th century, I saw fit this week to send a patronising and graceless open letter to John Campbell on my popular "blog".
In it, I made mention of some of my many shows which brought me a level of fame that John Campbell, Mike Hosking, Paul Henry and Lorde will never know. There was the radio show on Saturday mornings when I said many charming and inconsequential things in a leisurely manner. There was the TV show which I created and is still being made but lacks a vital component. It's not for me to say it's me. However, it's me.
Some of those shows were axed and, as such, my advice to John was, "Shit happens".
And now I'm not happening. Shit.
Mike Hosking
As one of the pre-eminent broadcasters of the 21st century, I couldn't care less about John Campbell. He failed. He wasn't up to scratch. He got shown the door. And he has only himself to blame, because he was so unrelentingly negative.
