MEDIAWATCH: Maiki Sherman must resign as TVNZ Political Editor immediately
The credibility of New Zealand’s state broadcaster is now under serious scrutiny, with calls for Maiki Sherman to resign following revelations she apologised to a Government minister over accurate reporting on gang numbers.
Un-fucking-believable!
Maiki Sherman must resign as TVNZ Political Editor immediately!
TVNZ has released internal and external emails and correspondence revealing how it dealt with the political backlash to a press gallery reporter’s story on gang numbers.
TVNZ’s political editor acknowledged the response to a colleague’s story was “not great” and harmed the credibility of the state broadcaster, according to internal emails released under the Official Information Act.
Political editor Maiki Sherman told TVNZ’s news boss that she had seen a Facebook post by Police Minister Mark Mitchell, in which he took aim at the story by 1 News political reporter Benedict Collins in late February.
“Having read the Facebook post and comments, including the scale of engagement on the post, I acknowledge that the situation is not great and that it harms the credibility of our office and organisation, which is disappointing,” Sherman told TVNZ news and current affairs executive editor Phil O’Sullivan, who had referred the Facebook post to her.
She said she had a conversation with a person – the name is redacted – “and gone through where I think the story was lacking in balance”.
She either resigns immediately on TVNZ sack her – there are no alternatives because her crime against Fourth Estate Journalism is so egregious!
When journalists start apologising to politicians
Firstly.
TVNZ political reporter Benedict Collins was 1,000% correct to point out that Gang numbers have gone up, because they have!
This was the Police Minister’s response to that TRUTH…
…this is Aotearoa NZ!
We are a liberal progressive democracy!
The bloody Police Minister doesn’t censor the public broadcaster!
That’s the sort of shit fascist regimes pull.
Let’s be 100% clear here, the crime propaganda lies Mitchell wants pimped are a joke!
The Survey methodology changed — so the drop may reflect measurement, not reality. The NZCVS is a self-reported victimisation survey — it measures people’s reported experiences with crime, not just police case counts. Critics note that changes in how the survey was conducted (timing, questions, mode of administration) can produce artificial swings that don’t necessarily reflect real changes in behaviour.
Secondly the water testing shows drug use has exploded…
Police minister says drug enforcement is working, despite cocaine use up 98%
“If enforcement is working, why are more drugs flowing into the country?”
…Thirdly the number of gang members has actually increased and Fourthly, COVID.
All over the planet, right after Covid lockdowns ended, crime surged as people went crazy.
The truth is that crime spikes all started easing around the planet, here in NZ we were seeing crime spikes crash BEFORE ANY OF THE GOVERNMENT’S HARDLINE LAW AND ORDER POLICY HAD EVEN BEEN IMPLEMENTED!
Read that sentence clowns.
The Stats had been falling in NZ BEFORE Nationals new get tough on crime crap had even started!
READ THE REPORT!
Numbers of repeat serious young offenders are dropping – and no one knows why
- The Government has set a target for a 15% reduction in the number of serious and persistent young offenders by the end of 2029.
- Documents released to the Herald show a rising annual trend in the number of these offenders for three and a half years, but it has now reversed for consecutive months.
- Most of the Government’s cornerstone policies on this issue are yet to be implemented, while one that ministers are exploring is raising concern: ‘more punitive measures for recidivist families’.
This isn’t about crime — it’s about control
So.
National are desperate to pretend crime has dropped because of their policies (when that isn’t true) that the Police Minister publicly attacks the State Broadcaster for not platforming their propaganda and the Political Editor Maiki Sherman throws TVNZ political reporter Benedict Collins under the bus and backs up the bloody Police Minister!
Not only is Sherman wrong about the issue, to turn on a fellow journalist and side with the powers she is supposed to challenge is a gutless spinelessness that the Political Editor of TVNZ can’t have!
She’s acting as the editor for the National Party, not Fourth Estate Journalism!
Benedict Collins embarrassed the Government by telling the truth about crime in NZ and Maiki Sherman has sided with those attempting to manipulate the story rather than stand by her reporter!
Her role as Political Editor is utterly compromised and she must be sacked if she won’t resign!
TDB will make this point throughout the remainder of this year as we face the Election.
Her gutless cowardice makes her position untenable.
As the Political Editor of TVNZ is it her duty to stand for the Fourth Estate Journalism they are tasked with, it is not to run cover for an embarrassed Government!
This sentence damns her to hell, “I have just gotten off the phone with Minister Mitchell and offered an apology as political editor of the office,
She goes now or TVNZ’s credibility is forever compromised while she stays in her position.
TVNZ reporting on the Election, as far as the Left are concerned, is now deeply compromised by her remaining and we must go into this election attacking TVNZ’s biased pro Government editorial line for the remainder of 2026.
Sickening acquiescence to Police Minister bullying. She has forever stained her position with this cowardice.
This is a bloody democracy, not a fucking Police State!
Yes Sherman needs to go she’s not doing her job she’s cowing to the National government. I don’t have any faith in her reporting shes compromised particularly with our up and coming election.
Can anyone point me to anything in the TVNZ charter that insists they must present “balanced” reporting?
I’m not aware of any such thing, which is why we have the BSA and the Media Council.
So Murky Mitchell should have pursued the proper channels for lodging a complaint instead of having an online tantrum.
Because “balance” in reporting does not mean what he thinks.
You don’t get to charge the topic or subject of the reporting, you introduce contrary or conflicting accounts or evidence.
In the case of the gang numbers, bringing in Jarrod Savage to inform people of how Police rarely if ever remove people from the gang register would have been “balance”.
Introducing bullshit unrelated to the subject is right wing modus operandi, but not balance in journalism.
If Murky wants to talk about bullshit police statistics, then that’s another subject and for “balance” we would get input from statisticians and experts who would rip his lying face off and shit in his mouth.
Fuck Maiki, her producer and the TVNZ board for this craven shitcunt behavior and their misrepresentation of journalistic “balance”.
So just to be clear and in the interests of enlightenment what you are saying is that here we have something similar to exploding fecal matter in one orifice contaminating another empty orifice by way of bovine scat projected from an already contaminated orifice known as murky