Kerre Woodham: Substance in attractive packaging

Breakfast co-host Pippa Wetzell. Photo / Supplied

Former television journo Janet Wilson received a lot of press when she accused TVNZ and TV3 of hiring eye candy.

Tits and teeth smirkers, she called them, who looked better than their stories. The other media loved it, seeing a metaphorical jelly wrestle between a grand-ish dame of the industry versus upstart young wenches.

Some believe the walking of the plank by senior journo Cameron Bennett, to be replaced by Pippa Wetzell as the talking head for the Sunday show, has added weight to her argument.

It's true that a female version of Sean Plunket would never be hired by the networks.

Women have to be, at the least, presentable to have an on-screen presence. Men are given way more leeway. But there are plenty of women on the telly who are there because of their ability to tell a story.

The fact they're attractive and well groomed is neither here nor there. Barbara Dreaver, Amanda Millar, Sarah Hall, Melanie Reid, Francesca Mould, Lorelei Mason, Vicki Wilkinson-Baker, Rachel Smalley, Donna-Marie Lever - hundreds of years of news gathering between them and they're just the women I can think of off the top of my head.

Dedicated journos with a desire to hunt out stories that are as fresh as the day they started as junior cadets, they're doing a great job.

The young ones may irritate Ms Wilson with their presentation skills or lack thereof, but I'm sure she wasn't the consummate professional she is now when she was first in front of a camera.

I know I wasn't much chop when I started on Fair Go at the age of 22. It takes time to learn the skills of any job.

I don't think it's the individual reporters who are letting us down but the way modern newsrooms operate where there's simply not the resources to allow reporters the time to cultivate contacts and work on complicated stories. It's a little unfair to shoot the messengers.