Television's current affairs veteran is over but not out

Cameron Bennett doesn't know what he will do next but thinks a radio role 'would be a terrific job'. Photo / Janna Dixon

Cameron Bennett looks oddly out of place in his comfy Mt Eden kitchen, chatting and oozing charm over freshly percolated coffee and cupcakes.

His lounge is filled with an impressive range of acoustic and steel guitars, and a fiddle. Bennett plays them all.

It is a different side to the slightly dishevelled, well-spoken correspondent Kiwis are used to seeing on their TVs, broadcasting from war zones all over the world or delivering earnest and well-researched local pieces for Sunday and, before that, 60 Minutes when TVNZ had that programme.

He was there for the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks in New York, went undercover in Zimbabwe, behind the lines in the Ivory Coast and covered the Boxing Day tsunami in Sri Lanka ... "the chance to reflect on unspeakable and unanswered misery there".

Bennett enthusiastically lists his other "greatest hits" - the Shackleton story in Antarctica, the Kahui aunties, the Hugh Hefner mansion, Iraena Asher.

An interview with comedian John Clarke also left a lasting impression. "It was a thought-provoking experience for me. I really valued that."

But now, at 53 and with a 24-year television career behind him, he is leaving after learning he will lose his presenter's position on Sunday and would have to reapply for his job as a correspondent.

Uncertain of his future, Bennett is understandably cautious about saying what he thinks of the changes afoot in an organisation he has worked for for more than two decades.

While bloggers and columnists lament the "blondisation" of TV, accusing both TVNZ and TV3 of replacing ageing journalists with good-looking youngsters, Bennett bursts out laughing when asked if he would still be presenting if he was a blond, perky 25-year-old.

"I don't know... if I was good it may be the case and if the face fits... I am not a pretty young thing but I have my own values and quality.

"The station's making over our programme, among other things, and the decision was that my kind of brand is not the kind of brand they want to move into the new format with."

Bennett is not sure what that new format is, other than TVNZ wants to "freshen" the programme and to "contemporise it". He, much like television viewers, will have to wait and see what that means.

Breakfast TV host Pippa Wetzell, expecting her third child, is rumoured to be the replacement presenter but Bennett says he's not sure there will be a presenter.

Anthony Flannery, head of news and current affairs, didn't answer a question about Wetzell and won't throw any light on TVNZ's plans for Sunday, saying the format changes are "a work in progress and will be announced when everything is sorted".

Bennett, he says, will be missed.

"He's a classic newsman and he's been a top employee and a well-liked workmate. But in the end it is every employee's right to make their own decisions about how they want to run their professional and personal lives."

To a certain extent, Bennett represents an end of an era. When he started as a young reporter TVNZ's Dunedin office was nearly the size of Auckland and there were big centres in Christchurch and Wellington.

The size of the offices, and the numbers staffing them, have steadily dwindled. The time allowed for investigative journalism has been compressed, budgets cut and now TV journalists will increasingly be expected to edit their own stories.

Bennett is from an era where a team of skilled people backed him up and, while he says he would be willing to give editing a go, there is a reason why journalists stick to reporting.

"I do subscribe to the notion that some people are very good at certain aspects of the job, that's why they do it. That's why a cameraman is a cameraman and I'm not.

"Sure, I could take pictures but the reason why we have talented camera operators is because of that - they add value. The reason we have editors is because they add value to the product, so in terms of crafted current affairs I would hope and expect that team aspect of it will remain. You won't see reporters on Sunday editing their stories, they will do a compressed edit [a rough cut]. It's just a newer efficiency so I don't have a problem with that."

Bennett remembers admiring the style of TV interviewers such as Brian Edwards, Ian Fraser and Simon Walker who tackled the bullish, and at times autocratic, Prime Minister Rob Muldoon head to head.

"So when Paul Holmes arrived there was frisson and energy around journalism and challenging the institutions and Muldoon particularly. "They were incisive, ground-breaking interviews and ground-breaking television... everyone would talk about it the next day."

And when Bennett secured Stars and Stripes America's Cup skipper Dennis Conner for an interview on the Holmes show in 1989, little did he realise the furore that would follow. During what was Paul Holmes' debut night, Conner walked out during the interview, leaving viewers stunned and sparking outrage.

"It was an amazing time," says Bennett. "When that Dennis Conner show went out, I mean, we were all highly excited... But the next day when all the reviews came in, which uniformly bagged us and bagged Paul particularly... it was the disgrace, the nadir of television, but it didn't stop there. Even in our own building we were pariahs, people were almost turning their backs on us, so it was pretty dramatic and exciting times.

"Paul, of course, was brilliant. He remains outstanding."

Bennett thinks studio-based interview shows will make a comeback. "A good interviewer makes great television and it's cheap television so I expect to see more of it."

Whether he'll be part of it remains to be seen and he's uncertain of his future in a business he has loved being part of, having stumbled into it with the help of a career guidance pamphlet.

After leaving Pakuranga College as a 16-year-old Bennett worked as a labourer until his father pointed out an advertisement about learning to be a meat inspector at a freezing works.

"So I went to a career guidance counsellor. At the end of that interview they produced a leaflet for ATI [now AUT] journalism so I applied."

After a stint as a newspaper reporter for the Northern Advocate in Whangarei and the Evening Post in Wellington, he transferred to television, working as foreign editor. He wanted the chance to work on Top Half with John Hawkesby, didn't get the job and was about to go back to newspapers. "TVNZ came back and gave me a reporting job."

It was a move he's never regretted.

"I just loved the process of television. I loved the story that involved pictures, sound and a new style of writing because it was a huge transition to go from print to television ... I didn't aspire to being a presenter."

The last Sunday in August will be Bennett's last day and he admits to being sad at the thought.

"I will miss it, no question. I will miss the gang in the office. We have done enormous things together. The humour there is great, the banter - black, funny and chipping."

With that chapter over and no new role on offer from TVNZ, Bennett talks about "a portfolio career... a bit of this, a bit of that".

"I quite like the idea. I would like to try radio actually. I think a radio broadcaster would be a terrific job. It is an opportunity for you to have your own opinions. I have never done it but if there was a job to be done that would be the one to have."

Bennett is not convinced that television has "consciously become ageist" and says there was no question of anyone saying "get that guy off the screen, he's too old".

People leave, take up new careers, he says. "So therefore there is an age deficit. I mean, there are not many of us that have stuck around that long."

And he knows there are younger journalists snapping at his heels, wanting him to leave and make room in the talent pool. Younger journalists such as his own sons Angus, 23, who works for Radio Live and Calum, 21, who is "trying to get a break".

"I am really proud they have gone down this route but I am not sure what the future holds for them in it."

Do they ask dad for tips? "No, I think dad gets in the way. They can do without their dad in the business."

Bennett will not be drawn on the "blondisation" of television journalism but he does wonder if it is the nature of television. "It's a glossy format, there is a glossiness there... TV has become commercialised just to survive."

However, he does say television "could do with more of an ethnic presence. And possibly some different hair colours as well."

Flannery rejects the young blondes argument, saying both factors are irrelevant to performance and TVNZ is a large organisation "with people of all ages and hair colours".

"I make no apology for hiring young talent, the people we've got are all top-of-the-class young journos and it's part of good succession planning to identify and bring on board the best young talent in the country."

While Sunday's ratings are good, he says, TVNZ would "be happy for them to continue to grow".

"When we were planning the detail of our news and current affairs multi-media project we spoke to some of the best broadcasters in the world who've already been through exactly the same thing. I think it's best summed up by the head newsman from CNN who told us that if you think you can stand still and do the same old, same old, you are much mistaken. You'll be run over."

So it's Bennett's last good night on Sunday at the end of next month, but you get the feeling that although it might be over, he's definitely not out.