Jonathan Milne: A clumsy clash of the titans

Rosanne Meo probably didn't know what hit her when the new prime minister demanded her resignation as chairwoman of TVNZ in 2000.

Held responsible for departing newsreader John Hawkesby's multimillion dollar golden handshake, Meo was one of Helen Clark's first scalps.

Meo's successor, Ross Armstrong, was Clark's man at TVNZ, there to tidy Meo's aggressively commercial television network into a worthy public service broadcaster.

But when Finance Minister Michael Cullen caught him promising infrastructure developers an "inside track" in government deals, his time was up as well.

And when present chairman Craig Boyce flew to Wellington on Thursday with his resignation letter, he had every reason to expect it would be accepted. But it was third time lucky for TVNZ.

Perhaps the government realised the media might lose patience with government disregard for editorial independence. Perhaps it realised that it had few grounds to condemn TVNZ.

The broadcaster is a Crown-owned company, allowed to run its business at arms' length from the government. And Judy Bailey will not be paid by the taxpayer - it is largely ad money that pays her wages.

The government feigned outrage at the salary and at the board's breach of its "no surprises" obligations.

But the outrage is more about politics than a legitimate reaction to some crime committed by TVNZ. The broadcaster was perfectly entitled to pay Bailey what it wanted to as the "TV wars" heat up.

At the lower levels of TVNZ, the board's accession to Bailey's salary demand is being interpreted in Machiavellian ways. With Bailey widely expected to be replaced next year, the suspicion is that the board was relaxed about news of her salary becoming public - just not so soon.

It would have been impossible to hide when TVNZ's annual report was tabled in Parliament, just as it had been impossible to hide Paul Holmes' $750,000 pay packet.

It would destroy her image with the blue-rinse brigade, lessening the backlash when her contract wasn't renewed. The soft-focus lens would be shattered.

Instead, it was shattered early with a leak Bailey's lawyers could regard as an actionable breach of personal privacy.

But if it was a surprise either to her or to the TVNZ board, it shouldn't have been. When she sought to use the competitive environment to up her salary, she should have known it was a mucky battle.

Not only did she mimic former sidekick John Hawkesby in extracting a payment that got her bosses in trouble, but she has also mimicked his daughter Kate in her approach to negotiations.

Both gave TVNZ the impression that they were being headhunted by the competition in order to up the stakes. And in both cases, the competition denied any poaching attempt.

There is only one thing certain in this sorry saga of government and TVNZ ineptitude. Standing beside Maharey after their meeting, Boyce was asked whether he had been politically naive. "Perhaps," he responded.

But Maharey cut in: "Yes".