I fairly refuse to watch TV1’s ‘news’ or ‘current affairs’ (Susan Wood?!? I’d rather watch a wheelie bin for half an hour weeknights) because it’s a load of patronising braindead shit. Still, I’m really happy to see the back of the ‘Mummy of the nation’. Sure, we all loved her and John Hawkesby on ‘Top Half’ in the olden days, but is $800,000 justifiable for reading an autocue? On TV News that’s so abysmal?

Take those promos with Jude in a meeting with the ‘news team’ – I’d love to have been at the filming, just to see them rolling their eyes at JB for four hours (“I’m off to get a story, where are you off to, Jude?” “Make up”). She’s a NEWSREADER, not a Journo. Fair play, she only negociated the biggest pay packet she could, but her bloated salary is symptomatic of the general malaise TVNZ are going through under Fraser and Ralston (go back to the politics reporting like you used to on Nightline, Bill!). They’ve just lost it.

TV3 were all over it last night, pulling out such Jude quotes from the promos like ‘it’s a shocker, a real shocker’. Now they’re really making TVNZ piss blood – it’s great payback for all those years of being caned and having their talent pinched. TVNZ’s problem is their slavish apeing of American news networks, where presenters are the stars instead of the stories. If I want my intelligence insulted, I’ll wait ’til my weekly pub quiz, thanks.

To quote Nathan Rarere – “I love the Olympics – it gives me a chance to use the ‘one’ button on my remote”.
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