MEDIA WATCH: Tova O’Brien just called Winston Peters a 74 year old toddler

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Tova O’Brien just called the deputy prime minister a 74 year old toddler. It was after a very negative news story covering the NZ First conference where she repeatedly called NZ First supporters groupies.

Winston had a punch at Mediaworks pending shut down and Tova clearly took offence.

Which is totally human, but Jesus, that kind of Fox News style coverage won’t help the government think they should rescue them

I think in the last death throws of TV3, the journalists are just going to be dropping sick burns after sick burns until the plug gets pulled.

Less news, more Roast.

 

26 COMMENTS

    • “Maybe our new Chinese overlords will buy Media Works”

      aaaaaaarrrrgh!!!!
      We have to do whatever it takes to keep our Kiwi soul and spirit intact.
      (And before anyone spews any “Racism!” crap, some of my married-into family are from China.)

      “to spew out 24/7 CCP propaganda.” ..Yeah. That bit.

  1. “Less news, more Roast.” LOL! Indeed may aswell go out with a bang.
    A few suggestions going round now that ‘sky tv’ would be an option for takeover.

  2. Well she’s wrong anyway factually. It’s often the case with pots calling kettles black.
    It’s more like Winston skipped his mid-life crisis and went straight to curmudgeonhood, probably because Shane offered to take Winston’s off him a long time ago, and is now entering his own.
    But at least we know what to give Tovy for a redundancy present – a barbie doll and an air ticket back to London for her job interview on the Daily Mail

  3. The problem with Tova O’Brien is she regularly confuses her opinions with the actual news. Yeah, Peters is an ornery old goat inclined to go from zero to snark in 3.5 seconds, but you’re a fucking journalist, Tova. Throwing shade at Peters just makes you look unprofessional.

  4. So Tova, if Winston is a toddler that makes you a… twinkle in your mothers eye. In other words Tova, time to grow up.

  5. “Tova O’Brien just called the deputy prime minister a…….toddler.”

    Heh! As the saying goes: takes one to know one….

  6. “Fox News style coverage”. Fox News is way more informative and balanced than 3 News, Newshub (Whatever).

    Why should New Zealanders suffer for being smart enough to reject this slop. Let it Die! Let it Die! Don’t throw tax-payer-dollars at it! Found some YouTubers! Bring back Waatea 5th Estate!

  7. Well if O’Brien is going to be job hunting, then her lack of professionalism will help her enormously if she’s looking for a gutter press job.

    Calling NZ First supporters groupies is childish, and offensive to those who take politics seriously, which O’Brien clearly does not. Many of the supporters will be decent well-intentioned folk who deserve to be treated with respect. It’s very rude.

    Calling Peters a “toddler” is a figure of speech which I am struggling to locate in my rusty brain. Is it a transferred epithet ? If so, then O’Brien is really talking about herself.

    Trouble with these dreadful msm people is that they try to create the news themselves, when they should be merely reporting the facts. They get too big for their galoshes.

    I’m assuming that O’Brien is a TV3 person, and as I never watch TV3, I feel that it is my fault that they’re going under. Things could have been so different had I watched them, but I didn’t watch them, and now they’re stuffed. Sorry about that.

    Nitrium’s Chinese ownership suggestion had occurred to me too, and I am not anti-Chinese, but I quite like the idea of Russian ownership, and having a feast of their glorious cultural history -literature, music, opera – their folk singers are amazing, and if TV3 had had anything worth watching I might have watched it, but they didn’t, so I didn’t, and now look where they are. Morons.

    • Snow White: “….I quite like the idea of Russian ownership, and having a feast of their glorious cultural history -literature, music, opera – their folk singers are amazing….”

      Indeed. Besides which, there are quite a few TV channels in Russia, along with plenty of shows featuring politics and current affairs. There’s an environment there of very lively political debate: Russians are much better-informed in that regard than are westerners. A fortiori NZers…..

      And then – as you say – there’s the culture: we here can only look on in envy and despair at what Russians take for granted. Back in the early 1980s, when we were living in Auckland, we met a Russian woman, who was part of the cohort of Jews emigrating from the USSR at that time. She liked Auckland, but lamented the dearth of culture: where is the music, the theatre, the opera? she asked. At that time, we still had the Mercury and the Maidment, along with regular performances by the NZSO and the regional orchestra. We were rather taken aback, in truth: we thought that we weren’t doing too badly! Of course, we subsequently visited family in Europe; our eyes were opened to what was missing from our lives.

      “…..if TV3 had had anything worth watching I might have watched it, but they didn’t….”

      Heh! I’ve watched it, so that you didn’t have to. Many years back, we abandoned TV1 in disgust over its treatment of a newsreader or presenter (forget who). We never got around to going back, though we don’t ever watch that awful Project.

      I don’t see much TV, but TV3 has had the odd offering that’s been worth watching: most recently, “The Gulf”. Whichever channel one goes to, the news is mostly propaganda from overseas outlets, interspersed with variably watchable news items from NZ.

      If TV3 were to close down, I doubt that anybody would be worse off in terms of knowledge about what’s going on in the world.

      • D’Esterre – I stopped watching TV altogether when Trump became Potus. From time to time I’ve switched TV One on, and then an advertisement appears, so I switch off again for a year or two. Maori TV, and Choice, and Prime were good.

        You may remember when television contributed culturally in NZ. Dunedin television produced superb nature programmes. There were some excellent series, like ‘The Governor’ and another (Hunter’s Gold ? I forget )- their producer was a neighbour, and friend, before his family packed up and returned to the UK, because they didn’t like the way that NZ’ers treat children – their whole role in our culture.

        I agreed with them, but it’s almost impossible to talk with NZ’ers about it – and the silence of all the politicians about child deprivation, and child abuse, is totally disgraceful. They should be bellowing with rage, but, like the man said, they’re hollow – although Key managed a bellow at Labour to get some guts to send other people’s offspring off to kill, and be killed, to help maintain America’s dubious name.

        We are a cultural desert here, now, and I’ve been told that my recently lamenting, and trying to show case our European culture , apparently makes me a white supremacist.

        Returning here after living years overseas was bloody awful- even if you’ve not got a penny to your name, in overseas cities, there’s stuff to see and do, free; my first toddler’s strolls often included the Tate Gallery, and I stole containers of sand from Victoria Tower Gardens to make a rooftop sand pit – gathered leaves in Vincent Square, to burn in a tin indoors , so that she could know the smell of an autumn bonfire.

        Perhaps we here in NZ have been lobotomised by rugby – it all seems a lot worse now, perhaps since it went professional, but those great apes are the music makers and philosophers of old. Deo gratias this is anonymous.

        I read RT News most days; RT and Al Jazeera both have good documentaries, and when I post an RT item on Facebook and score a few likes, then it gives me a certain pleasure. Their whole culture, in spite of tragic histories, and tragic poverties, and tragic other things, carries glorious riches- portraits of a soul.

        Would a television channel more culturally focused have a following ? I think so, especially if it were advertisement free, and somehow it might be pleasanter for oldies in care, instead of being plonked in day-rooms watching repeats of animals and kids doing dumb things to trigger moms emitting high-pitched screams.

        • Snow White: I agree with everything you say here.

          “I stopped watching TV altogether when Trump became Potus.”

          I haven’t paid much attention to TV news since I discovered the full extent of propagandisation to which the msm has exposed us, over all of my considerable lifetime. And it was the rise of the internet in the 1990s which enabled that. This is one of the most recent examples: unthinkable that we’d have been able to read this before the internet:

          https://off-guardian.org/2019/10/18/the-isis-resurgence-is-fake-news/

          However. I like creepy shows; I remarked to a family member (much to their amusement) that my “creep quotient” is quite high. By that I don’t mean horror movies or anything with zombies in it; programmes like “Broadchurch”, “Vera”, “Breaking Bad” and the Black Mirror series are what I like. And TV has its uses for broadcasting – or enabling access to – such shows. The series “The Gulf” on TV3 is another such. I also liked “Fresh Eggs”: deliciously black. A few years back, “Six Feet Under” was an exemplar of US TV when it’s good. Much of it is crap, of course, but when it’s good, it’s a class act; “Breaking Bad”, eg.

          “Dunedin television produced superb nature programmes.”

          I remember. The Natural History Unit, wasn’t it? A part of TVNZ: gladsome days of yore!

          “….they didn’t like the way that NZ’ers treat children – their whole role in our culture.”

          Indeed; a stain on NZ society, and one which we are, it seems, unable to expunge.

          “We are a cultural desert here, now, and I’ve been told that my recently lamenting, and trying to show case our European culture , apparently makes me a white supremacist.”

          If that’s white supremacy, show me where to sign up! Western culture is indisputably superior; it doesn’t mean, however, that whites are intrinsically superior. Given that skin colour is an extrinsic characteristic only, that cannot be true. People who jump up and down with indignation at the idea of cultural superiority really need to read Jared Diamond. In his book “Guns, Germs and Steel” he gives a very neat explanation of the basis of Western cultural superiority.

          Speaking of culture: on our last visit to Vienna a few years ago, we went to a midweek production of “Salome” at the Wiener Staatsoper. A relative who works there got us seats (in an opera box, it turned out: yup, up with the rich bitches of Vienna, with their aquiline noses and their fur coats!). There was a different opera performed each night: we chose a Wednesday. We arrived early (by train from our apartment), at which point the auditorium was still largely empty. I remarked to my family that, were this Wellington, we’d be very lucky even to have a midweek performance of anything; and if there were, the auditorium would remain largely empty. Well: by curtain up, the entire place was jammed to the rafters – including all of the opera boxes and the cheap standing area for students and tourists. The Viennese sure love their opera. And to be sure, the population is much larger, but even so….

          And – also anent culture in Vienna – on an early visit there, we were fortunate to visit the Belvedere, which has, I believe, the largest collection Of Klimt paintings in the world. And – joy upon joy – Klimt’s “Woman in Gold” was at that time still there. That was before the painting was repatriated; an event accepted by the Viennese, even though they were very sad at its loss. Now it’s in the US: I’ll never see it again, unfortunately.

          “Returning here after living years overseas was bloody awful…”

          Indeed. It’s my view that neoliberalism and Rogernomics have a good deal to answer for with regard to the lack of culture here. By the late 70s, we were beginning to have a bit of a flowering; but neoliberalism’s focus on money and the bottom line put paid to that. The development of culture a la Europe and the UK is dependent upon a “man does not live by bread alone” worldview, such that the state applies resources to it – sees that as its job, in fact. That died with the arrival of Rogernomics. Everything had to pay its way.

          “I read RT News most days…”

          Heh! Yeah, me too. If one would know what’s going on in the world, go to RT, say I. In addition, their journos’ often gleeful poking of the borax at sundry pompous (or stupid) westerners is also very entertaining.

          I’m reminded by family members that RT is for foreigners: fair enough. I have no Russian. Suits me: it’s both informative and often funny.

          “Would a television channel more culturally focused have a following ?”

          A few years back, I’d have said so. Now I’m not so sure; not that there are none of us who’d be interested, but are there enough of us? I don’t know.

        • Snow White: speaking of creepy TV shows: “Tin Star”; it’s bloody fantastic. Joint UK/Canada production, filmed mostly in Canada. Terrific acting and music, seriously creepy. I cannot recommend it too highly. It was playing on TV3 (season 3, I think) at the time of the ChCh shootings; we were very annoyed that the channel withdrew it for a couple of weeks, for reasons that we couldn’t fathom.

          And, from a few years back, the US production “Justified”. It’s based on a story by the great US writer Elmore Leonard, and starred Timothy Olyphant (he of “Deadwood” fame) and Walton Goggins. Not so much creepy – though it was at times – as all-round damn good TV. Often very funny, too: US stuff at its best.

          And (speaking of culture) as I write this, I’m listening to Jonas Kaufmann and the sublime (and sadly deceased) Dmitri Hvorostovsky sing Bizet. Before that, Kathleen Battle and Wynton Marsalis (lost to jazz, unfortunately) performing Handel.

          • D’Esterre – My dream is Christmas in Vienna… but ordinary old Christmases in wintered UK were good – I think I sometimes bought my turkeys down the covered market.

            On my wall I have a printout of “Zhuravli” (Cranes) , as sung by Dmitri Hvorostovsky to bring the song to mind – his dying was one of those things which p….s me off, as he was young and brilliant, and beautiful, and old people who’d sooner not be here at all, linger on to 100 – mind you,in one interview Hvorostovsky talked of drinking a couple of bottles of vodka after every performance. He died with huge grace – his last performance, I think a concert at the Met Opera he looked haggard – but still fronted with a grin.

            Jonas Kaufmann dumped his wife, so I have to come to terms with men who dump the person who helped them on the way up- in the leaner early years – and who kept the electorate office running – then they pick up with someone from the press gallery- who then picks up the lady-hood along the track.(See Kaufmann and Domingo singing, ‘Dein ist mein ganzes herz’ , duet, You tube.)

            Observe the audiences at the Vienna Opera House. Observe them observing someone like Anna Netrebko or Elena Garanca, and see how supercilious, and almost disdainful, and patronising, and the languidly clapping audience can be towards great artists – English audiences are not at like that – almost everything in London has
            cheaper options for the cash-challenged anyway – but the audiences at the Vienna Opera can be fascinating(ly awful).

            DNTV-2 produced a good old concert hall programme, and showcased popular NZ singers, and we imported good English dramas etc, then while I was out the country everything went downhill (ho ho) , but, bearing in mind that we have an aging population, reverting to good quality TV could work – the oldies are not the contemporary Netflix generation.

            Get decent announcers like Erin Sinclair and Cathy Dowling, Dougal Stephenson etc, not cheeky chippies who have no conception of correct conduct, and who have the audacity to reprimand senior politicians. Stuff them.

            • Snow White: “My dream is Christmas in Vienna…”

              I can vouch for it! Though best if one has family there, I think. Stephansdom on Christmas Eve (or Day): ah, the music! The tradition is the big dinner on Christmas Eve: a tradition which we have followed for pretty much all of our married lives.

              “Jonas Kaufmann dumped his wife…”

              Indeed. I’ve accepted that I must look past such things, if I would appreciate these people’s artistry. And in fairness, by the time he fell off the perch, Hvorostovsky was on missus no. 2. Still and all, he was a treasure, lost far too soon.

              “…..see how supercilious, and almost disdainful, and patronising, and the languidly clapping audience can be towards great artists…”

              Cultural differences, I believe, although I recall a good deal of enthusiasm for that performance of “Salome”.

              “….almost everything in London has cheaper options for the cash-challenged anyway…”

              Yup. Wiener Staatsoper is very expensive, and it’s difficult to get tickets, as a neighbour (who lived in Vienna for 10 years) reminded me. We are fortunate to have – er – connections, as the saying goes. There are less expensive events available in the summer months. But Wiener Staatsoper is unashamedly elitist, as far as I can tell. Fair enough: their cultural treasure.

              “….we have an aging population, reverting to good quality TV could work…”

              Well, we’d certainly watch it. Wonder if the govt has the courage to – for instance – rescue TV3 and apply its resources to that purpose? Not holding my breath about that.

          • Totally agree with most of your reply D’Esterre, RT being my go to for a non murrican view of the world, foolish Putin puppet that i am. The only thing i would ask is do you honestly believe that things would have been any better under “we came we saw he died” killary?
            Not being a watcher of the “Direct from cnn/msnbc” joke that is called news in NZ, i got all excited that the buffoon hosking might be losing his job!! Imagine my surprise when i realised that, free enterprise, privatise everything, i did it my way mike has been sucking off the public tit for a large part of his working life!!!

            • G.A.P – What happened is that thousands of idiots like me signed a petition to have the inverted hearth brush removed from his job, thereby cementing him more firmly in place – his paymasters know that controversy lifts the ratings, and that any publicity is good publicity.

              If more people went abroad for their news instead of relying on the pitiful local MSM offerings, it could change the political landscape – television has to have played a large and possibly deliberate role in the dumbing down of our politicians, and the inexplicable popularity of the socially annihilating years of the destructive Nat govt.

            • G.A.P. “The only thing i would ask is do you honestly believe that things would have been any better under “we came we saw he died” killary?”

              Oh God no! It’s my view – and that of many people, a lot of Americans included – that the world had a lucky escape when Trump won that election. She spent the entire campaign talking up war with Russia.

              Had she (and that old goat of a husband) made it to the White House, she’s sufficiently stupid that she’d have talked her polity – and the rest of us – into a nuclear corner, out of which there’d have been no graceful way to escape. Our only hope would have been if said old goat who, despite his awfulness, was actually very good at politics, had offered to step in and de-escalate things.

              However. It was reported that she wouldn’t take his advice on her presidential campaign (which is partly why she lost); so I think that we can take it that she would be too stupid to accept his help to get her out of a nuclear quagmire. Had she been elected, it’s highly likely that we’d all by now be piles of radioactive ash.

              Trump had the right idea; if only the Washington Establishment had been willing to let him do what he proposed.

              https://www.moonofalabama.org/2019/10/when-trump-ignored-bad-advice-he-enabled-progress-in-syria.html#more

  8. Tova’s attacks on Jacinda and Winston, and others in the Coalition, have been relentless and often lacking in any real substance. She contributed to Nigel Haworth’s resignation and then tried to smear Jacinda with the same innuendos. She has made exaggerated statements about what certain polls meant for the government and for Jacinda personally. Rather than reporting news, she tends to spin events in a way that would have Nats cheering.

    • Just another National media plant. Tova has no credibility.Given her lack of talent it’s hardly surprising T.V. 3 is dead.

  9. I am sure many in New Zealand will remember Winston Peters more than a National Party Klingon called Tova O’Brien.
    In fact many will say “Who?” if asked as to whom Tova O’Brien is. She is a Has-been person who will not be remembered even after she has headed off to Toilet-free Planet Key.

    Right now in the mainstream NZ media there are a heck of alot of National Party supporters and wannabe National Party MPs eg Mike Hosking etc. And the reason why I cannot take whatever they say seriously nowadays is because they were so conspicuous with a lack of a voice of condemnation whilst there was a National government but so full of opinion now.

    I have switched off listening to the Mike Hosking, Katie Hawkesby, Tova Obrien, Barry Sloper, Heather du Plessis Allan, John Roughan, Audrey Young and so many biased towards National so-called ‘journos’ in the mainstream NZ media. They, the aforementioned, only merit a cursory look before I look at the weather or the horoscope in the tabloid NZ herald.

    The so-called journos that are the Tova O’Brien’s of the world think they are the most intelligent beings on the planet and their every words must be taken as unquestioned Gospel. Gawd to live on such a little planet as Planet Key must be so hard for them

    • “the aforementioned, only merit a cursory look before I look at the weather or the horoscope..”

      Heh 🙂 Yep. Got to weigh our priorities here, time-wise… 🙂
      (I don’t even bother with the cursory look, it clutters the mind.)

      You know there’s a MetService Weather link? So you can by-pass that paywalling institution if needed.
      http://www.metservice.com/national/home

    • I’m a considerably less angry person ever since I stopped reading Granny Herald. Hosking used to make me want to vomit blood.

  10. I am so completely over the Tovia Obriens, the Mark Richardsons and the Mike Hoskings in the mainstream NZ media. These overpaid and underworked “Groupies’ with strong and obvious alliance to the NZ National Party has, to me, way passed their “Best Before Dates’. They are now behaving like immature, temper tantrum throwing wannabe National Party MPs.
    Methinks many in NZ society are completely fed up to the back-teeth with those so-called journos who deem themselves as the Font of All Knowledge(something that John Key deemed himself ‘at the end of the day’ to be).
    As stated in an earlier posting I have completely switched off with Mike Hosking, Tova Obrien, Katie Hawkesby(Hosking), John Roughan, Barry Sloper and his wife, Audrey Young and so many other biased towards National so-called ‘journos’. Their behaviour now fringes on the ridiculous. Much like the stupid comments the also ‘Font of all Knowledge’ Simon Bridges is saying in the mainstream NZ media and is, sadly enough, given far too much air time to.

    • JustMe – Did Key really deem himself the font of all knowledge ? The guy with more memory lapses than my mother twice his age, and Auntie Betty, Auntie Lily, Uncle Ted, Granddad Goldstein, the man on the Clapham Omnibus, Maggie next door and even me ? Guess he must have picked it all up in the All Blacks’ dressing room – I have wondered why he hung around them like – you know.

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