Brash slams 'biased' One News

Don Brash

National leader Don Brash has accused TV One of providing "pathetic" news coverage of Prime Minister Helen Clark's involvement in ending Peter Doone's role as Police Commissioner.

Dr Brash told the party's southern region conference on Saturday that the state broadcaster seemed to cower in fear of calls from the PM's office.

The network's coverage of the story had been "quite frankly totally inadequate - indeed, if I might use the word, pathetic".

Mr Doone plans to take a defamation case against the Prime Minister for allegedly misinforming the Sunday Star-Times.

He stood down as commissioner in January 2000 after his partner Robyn (now his wife) was pulled over for driving without lights. Mr Doone was a passenger in the car, and she was not breath-tested.

Helen Clark has come under fire in Parliament for leaking information to the newspaper but has disputed exactly what she said.

Dr Brash said TV One had badly covered a story that had been a major focus during Parliament's question time.

"TV One has the resources to fly all over the world with Helen Clark providing photo opportunities for her but a story of this sort, which really goes to the heart of the Prime Minister's believability, is one which they don't bother to cover."

The network appeared intimidated, and keener on maintaining favour than reporting the news.

" It's my judgment that TV One's coverage has been not only relatively poorer than TV3's but in absolute terms has been quite pathetic."

He said the PM stepping outside Cabinet process and leaking information five times to the newspaper was a major issue.

There were times when he believed TV One was biased towards the Government and, if it continued, he would lodge a formal complaint.

TV One news and current affairs chief Bill Ralston declined to comment, but political correspondent Mark Sainsbury said on One News last night that Dr Brash was blaming the media for his not getting enough coverage from the story.