Maiki Sherman had no choice but to resign – Ani O’Brien gets 2 for 4 as right wing political assassin
The resignation of TVNZ political editor Maiki Sherman raises ugly questions about media power, political leverage and the increasingly toxic ecosystem surrounding New Zealand journalism heading into Election 2026.
TVNZ political editor Maiki Sherman parts ways with broadcaster following scrutiny
TVNZ political editor Maiki Sherman has announced her departure from the broadcaster after a turbulent 11 days.
The move comes after Sherman was issued a five-day suspension from Parliament for breaching parliamentary press gallery rules.
She also made headlines early last week for an incident in May 2025 in which she allegedly directed a homophobic slur at journalist Lloyd Burr.
In a post on X on Friday afternoon, Sherman said she acknowledged the events of the past week and announced her departure from TVNZ.
“The level of scrutiny on me this past week has been unprecedented, and this has placed enormous pressure on me.
NZME
The real issue was never the slur — it was the leverage
I take no pleasure in the fall of others.
Life is hard, it is complex, we are a smart ape that does dumb things, but Maiki Sherman had no choice but to resign.
I don’t doubt that her fight with Lloyd Burr was the usual pissed nonsense that journalists all embark upon, and I personally don’t give three shits what pissed journalists say to each other behind the scenes but Maiki’s greatest blunder was to have said what she said in front of the Government that she is supposed to scrutinise, because the millisecond this was hidden, it allowed the Government to have leverage over her for a full year!
Destabilising TVNZ before the election suits the Right just fine
The question immediately became, not whether she used the ‘f-word’, but did she pull her punches while scrutinising the Government, knowing they had this over her.
If we look at the gutless manner in which she cravenly cowered to Mark Mitchell over TVNZ doing actual journalism rather than spout crime propaganda, you would argue that was her pulling her punches!
She simply could not stay on after the leverage against her was exposed.
The machinations here are vile and part of a concerted effort to destabilise TVNZ six months before the election by crippling their political editor so that TVNZ is weak and broken enough to justify privatising.
That this all occurred because of far right hate troll Ani O’Brien was leaked the information should surprise no one.
In terms of political assassinations, Ani is as good as they get on the right. Her disgusting smear against Benjamin Doyle was a success, she missed getting any traction smearing Willie Jackson and was adjacent when Chippy’s ex went troppo, so Ani’s political scalp-taking is 2 out of 4.
This is the scum swamp the Right play in.
The reason why they play in that swamp is because, actually, they are useless at their jobs….masking that uselessness when the opportunity presents is all they’ve got to try and gaslight the public into thinking that they have ability…. when clearly they don’t.
They did the same thing with economist Craig Renney when he found flaws in Nikki- No-Boats Willis’s lunatic ill thought through economic plans/management….on mulitiple occasions.
For that they had a team pour over every one of his written words, found a typo, made a big deal about it…and then…he got locked out.
Neither Willis nor Luxon can handle well founded criticism…snowflakes…both of them.
As someone else stated:
“So our governing Party, ran a hit job, on the political editor of the State broadcaster ahead of a general election”
Fucking banana republic shit.
Meanwhile the white man who initiated this by using a racial slur keep his job and goes into hiding.
Structural racism and misogyny, you’re soaking in it.
What was the racial slur please, was it n word? I heard she was furious because faggot burr said something about her partner.