Harsh words for Dallow

Mike Hosking

Keep your head down and be professional. And if you don't like it, bugger off.

That's the advice from former TVNZ presenter Mike Hosking to embattled newsreader Simon Dallow, after suggestions that he was ready to quit his One News career.

The network is again making headlines after Dallow used his Viva radio show to question the "One News, Your News" marketing campaign, an interactive news promotion where he and co-host Wendy Petrie ask New Zealanders for their views on topical issues. He also declared that he was "tired of it all" and that perhaps "it's time for me to go."

Dallow did not return Herald on Sunday calls yesterday, but TVNZ spokeswoman Megan Richards said there was no suggestion that Dallow would leave as a result of the controversy. It was simply a case of Dallow expressing his feelings on the day, she said.

However, Hosking said Dallow should be fighting his battles internally, rather than further eroding TVNZ morale with his comments: "He must have known it [the job] was going to be tough. If it gets difficult, you deal with that in your own personal way - you don't blurt it out on radio and damage your own brand, your own job and your own company. The last thing TVNZ needs is the front person ... editorialising about everything that is going wrong with the place."

Hosking said the irony was that Dallow was right about the campaign: "The campaign is crap. It's not news, not part of news, not clever, not original - and he's merely reflecting what most people think, anyway."