TVNZ attacks news rivals

TVNZ news boss Bill Ralston has launched a personal attack on his rivals, saying if he were head of Prime he would pour petrol over himself and throw himself off Auckland's tallest building.

The outburst has been met with disbelief from TV3 and Prime, who say they cannot believe a senior news executive would make such comments.

"Bill Ralston holds a very senior position in a government-owned entity as head of news and current affairs for this country's state broad-caster. It saddens and surprises me greatly that anyone in this business in his position would stoop to that level of talk. That's a sad day," said Prime chief executive Chris Taylor.

Broadcasting Minister Steve Maharey wouldn't be drawn into the row, but National's Murray McCully said he was "surprised and dis-appointed" at Mr Ralston's "unfortunate comments".

"They're the sort of things a politician would say about his opponents rather than what you'd expect from the most senior news executive of the state broadcaster," Mr McCully said.

The flare-up comes on the eve of tomorrow's launch of TV3's new John Campbell-led 7pm show, set to go head on with TV One's Close Up and Prime's Paul Holmes.

Mr Ralston said Prime had waltzed in "talking big", but had failed dismally to register with viewers. Prime was desperate and "dumb".

"If I were him (Chris Taylor), I'd be shooting myself. I'd be pouring petrol over myself and throwing myself off Auckland's tallest build-ing," said Mr Ralston.

He also claimed Holmes and his team of "no reporters" rarely broke stories and Close Up showed them up every night.

"Night after night after night we break stories and we treat them originally."

He said the same could not be said of the opposition. On Prime's exclusive Cave Creek interview last week, Mr Ralston said: "Yawn, yawn, yawn, yawn, yawn."

He criticised Holmes' Suzanne Paul exclusive before going on to say: "It's crap. You know it's crap, I know it's crap and the viewers know it's crap." And he was critical of the decision to change TV3's 6pm newsreading team. Since newsreaders Hilary Barry and Mike McRoberts replaced Campbell and Carol Hirschfeld, the network has lost about a 10 per cent share in the Auckland market in its target 18-49-year-old bracket.

Mr Ralston claimed TV3 would be "wetting themselves" over the figures and the ratings slide would have serious repercussions on the success of Campbell Live, which depended on the audience the 6pm news could deliver for its ratings.

"It's a major cock-up... it's a strategic blunder they will live to regret. It is going to cost them money." Mr Ralston, who is a fan of Campbell and offered him a job last year, was also doubtful he could make a success of his show.

"TV3 are saying they can create an entirely new current affairs slot. They would need to take more than half the audience of Close Up, and half of Paul Holmes - which admittedly isn't hard because they have only got one or two watching. That is not going to happen.

"I don't believe that Campbell can do better than The Simpsons or better than TV3 news is delivering... They (TV3) will not make it."

Mr Taylor said ratings for Paul Holmes were on their way up and no-one at the network was suicidal.

"We're not down, we're not out. And we're not going to give up."

Holmes said Mr Ralston must be "very worried" and he recommended he continue "taking his medicine".

"When you look at the Close Up product and their resources, where are their stories? That's what Bill ought to be talking about. But I notice, gosh, he's still talking about me."

TV3 news boss Mark Jennings dismissed the comments as "reckless". "In two years we won't have puddles of water under our desks. We're certainly not wetting ourselves."

- HERALD ON SUNDAY