Mau lashes out in husband's defence

Alison Mau

TV personality Alison Mau has come out swinging against the Herald and critics of TVNZ after her husband Simon Dallow's comments on One News promotions and the state of news.

Mau, standing in for Mary Lambie on the Viva FM 9am to noon show, this morning slammed the Herald's front page today, labelling the Dallow story the "beat up of the year".

Mau, who is married to Dallow, told listeners the "foreign-owned" media love to bash TVNZ.

Reading from the Herald's story this morning, she said: "Television presenter Simon Dallow is unhappy with a high profile One News promotion and upset with fluff in news bulletins."

"Well that's what the front page of the paper says. I also have Simon's transcript from yesterday, the very words he used, and they're somewhat different. In fact, I can't find what the Herald said anywhere. Listen to what he said. 'I like the hard news; I just want to make the news the news.' That's a direct quote folks. The Herald takes that and somehow it becomes Simon Dallow is upset with fluff in news bulletins."

In fact, Herald transcripts of Dallow's comments show him as saying: "I consider it a real privilege to be able to present the news and I'd like it to be more news and less fluff in almost every respect and that's on both channels."

Ms Mau spoke of the "glee with which the media love to bash TVNZ".

She said that newspapers regularly ran "beat-up" stories on TVNZ but left "foreign-owned" TV3 alone.

"Now, you may well know I've not been TVNZ's biggest cheerleader at times in recent years, but even though I'm left speechless sometimes by the way we're quite happy to slag off One News and yet not a thing is said about the opposition, the foreign-owned opposition."

She went on to say: " If you think I'm fired up about this, well you're so right, and yes of course I'm showing loyalty to the man I love. But the large part of me is speaking as a journalist - once a newspaper journalist actually - of 25 years standing, who is frankly appalled to see my morning newspaper which operates as a monopoly. Don't forget giving its front page to such a frankly nothing story. It's laughable."

Ms Mau went on to deconstruct this morning's Herald newspaper and argued that the Page 3 story on the capture of fugitive Nathan Fenton in Northland for the murder of a 17-year-old teenager should have been on the front page, rather than Dallow's comments.

(Fenton's capture had in fact led nzherald.co.nz all day yesterday.)

Mau, a former TVNZ presenter, and Dallow are married and have two children.

VivaFM's news site this morning also carried a story on the comments, with Dallow criticising foreign-owned media organisations.

He said while TVNZ was publicly-owned and its profits stayed in New Zealand, other media organisations were foreign-owned.

"It's no different to buying foreign goods versus local. Where do the profits end up? Which country's jobs are supported. As you can tell I'm tired of it all. Maybe it's time for me to go."

Viva FM, like the New Zealand Herald, is ultimately owned by Sydney-based APN, which owns radio stations and newspapers in Australia and New Zealand.

The story broke after Dallow revealed on his morning show on Viva that he had no say over an advertising campaign featuring him and co-host Wendy Petrie.

He told listeners that he had opened his session "feeling rather down" and apologised if he had dragged them down with him.

"I just feel the weight of pressure from what seems like an avalanche of criticism that Wendy and I and One News have been facing recently."

Dallow said a number of issues had come up as to what was potentially wrong with One News.

"I think these are issues that we are identifying and have identified as well, and of course you will realise that as the presenter of One News I don't actually have say over much of how the news is put together."

Dallow, a TVNZ presenter since 1993, said he realised that being in the public eye he needed to be more thick-skinned. "The thing is, though, that despite what you may believe we don't receive much praise or supportive commentary ...

"It's not a world of the glamour that it might well be portrayed as and it's not full of people sucking up to us."

The presenter also wanted "more news and less fluff in almost every respect and that's on both channels".

Dallow had called for listeners' views on One News, a move prompted by a "nasty and vituperative" letter to the editor published in yesterday's Herald.

The letter from a Titirangi woman described him and Petrie as "Stepford Muppets" who hosted the news and then "popped up in the evening in ridiculous advertisements".

One woman listener wrote in an email that the TVNZ opinion polls he and Petrie fronted were not news and "when I watch the news I want news".

Dallow said she made a "a really valid point" and added that marketing campaigns "were not something we drive".

"We have to face and present them, but at the same time I'm not certain either."

Dallow said the idea was to try to focus on interactive news, to give the viewer the chance to have a say on topical issues.

He was not sure how long the campaign would run.

Another listener said she did not think the problem was the presenters but rather the news content.

She had switched to 3News because it was "somehow lighter to watch" and did not seem to sensationalise as much as One News.

"I know many others who feel the same way," she said.

Dallow said he would pass that on to "the bosses" because "we often feel it's the other way round", but he said she might have made a very valid point.

Dallow said he considered it a privilege to be able to present the news.

After he came off air Dallow told the Herald the promos were arguably questionable but he was not making any criticism of TVNZ or its approach.

"I am not about to bite the hand that feeds me."

He was tired of the media treating TV One as a whipping boy.

TVNZ public affairs manager Megan Richards told the Herald the Crown-owned broadcaster had no problem with Dallow's comments. "It's not an issue ... We don't mind our staff having opinions."

She said Dallow was known as a hard-news junkie.


Readers' Views

I agree entirely with Simon Dallow's remarks about the fluff on TV Ones's news and the ads for public opinions. The ads are unecesary and not news and just take more public money and the news do tend to sensationalise everything. So TV One, be warned as we may try TV3 news too. Thank you to the NZ Herald for providing an excellent website which I have as my homepage.
- - - posted 4.57am September 9, 2006 by Ana

I don't care what Alison Mau's opinion is, nor do I give a fig about Simon Dallow's. I'm not a One News watcher nor do I listen to their radio stations. But I do have a huge amount of respect for her defence of her husband in an age where marriage doesn't seem to matter any more and celebrity's seem to have nothing better to do than appear in women's magazines talking about how they're banning boys from their life etc or get caught selling cocaine. Alison and Simon, I think you rock for being "real" people with opinions!
- - - posted 3.08pm Sept 8, 2006 by Mig