Claire Trevett: Will Willie Jackson survive Jacinda Ardern’s reshuffle as Broadcasting Minister - should he?

Broadcasting Minister Willie Jackson. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Whether Broadcasting Minister Willie Jackson will survive a Cabinet reshuffle to deliver the RNZ-TVNZ merger may be in the balance, but he has at least provided more entertainment than the two public broadcasters put together in the last week.

First up came Jackson’s interview on Q+A about the looming merger of RNZ and TVNZ and subsequent media questioning whether his sparring with Q+A host Jack Tame amounted to an attempt to get a TVNZ current affairs programme to toe the line on the merger.

At the same time Jackson was trying to get former National MP Simon Bridges appointed as chair of that merged entity: despite the PM and Deputy PM Grant Robertson voicing concern about appointing a former politician to that role.

Word of that made its way to the Herald last week. The Cabinet committee which weighs up senior appointments will consider it on Wednesday.

If Jackson actually likes the broadcasting portfolio (and he may not after this week), he couldn’t have picked a worst time for all of this. A reshuffle is coming up in a month or so. The PM is clearly not amused.

The names of Jan Tinetti or Carmel Sepuloni are circulating as possible replacements to see the merger through.

Jackson has tried to explain himself, putting the interview down to the “certain style” he has. He issued what amounted to something of an apology for being Willie – with a hint of accusation that the media who took exception to the interview were being pearl clutchers. That may have an element of truth about that, but it’s the PM he needs to worry about.

Ardern could simply have used the “Willie will be Willie” line on this – a line many PMs have used variations of for MPs who have a certain style.

But the critical factor is that he has put the media merger into the news.

The Government is under fire for a lot of reforms in a lot of areas. Until now, the merger had ruffled feathers in media circles, but has not exactly captured the attention or ire of the nation – and Ardern clearly wanted to keep it that way.

So it was that on Monday night National MP Chris Penk tweeted a droll “things are going so badly for the Broadcasting Minister that the PM has expressed confidence in him.”

Prime Ministers are usually only asked if they have confidence in a minister if that minister is either flailing or has done something naughty. Jackson was in between them.

So after the interview on Sunday came a Talking-To from Ardern on Monday.

Then on Tuesday, as the PM was trying to say why the merger would be the saviour of public broadcasting in one media cluster, Jackson was a few metres away delivering his mea culpa.

Asked if he had any regrets, he said “in retrospect, I probably regret the interview given there hasn’t exactly been five-star reviews, has there? So [I’m] disappointed with the response from the media.”

Jackson said he was sorry if there was an inference he had stepped over the line on editorial independence. He insisted he understood and valued editorial independence. It is of course possible to understand it - but a different thing to actually like it.

Jackson’s “certain style” is one of his more refreshing aspects. It made him a good broadcaster in his own time behind the microphone on radio (his certain style also occasionally got him into trouble then too). It is a nice reprieve from the scripted bland governmentese most ministers revert to. And he is always willing to state his case.

But it is also gets him into a spot of trouble and if it gets him into too much trouble with them it gets him into trouble with the PM.

He pleaded his own case, saying the merger was important. “I don’t think we should get hysterical about one interview that didn’t go too well.”

That may not be enough to get him a second chance.

In Jackson’s defence, he will never be a technocrat, not least because of his own time in the media.

He is still prone to talking like the entertainer he was as a radio host who occasionally wandered into shock jock territory. But his background in both iwi radio and mainstream commercial radio means he does at least understand how the sector operates, both commercial and public – and that most media organisations are more than capable of fighting their corner when it comes to independence.

When it comes to selling the case for the merger, Ardern had her own struggles.

She noted that RNZ was losing listeners, and the merger was essential to ensure some form of public interest journalism remained.

Her sales pitch for why the merger was needed was the same as Jackson’s: national identity, declining revenue, declining audience.

Ardern said people were moving away from traditional forms of media and the reforms were partly to ensure those people had other places they could get this quality public interest journalism that they were turning their backs on radio and tv.

She said Netflix would not feel duty-bound to tell New Zealand’s stories, and somebody should be.

Quite why a merger is the answer to that, or whether people who already weren’t interested in RNZ or TVNZ would be flocking to get similar content on whatever the merger serves up remains unclear.