‘I’ll be the decider at the end of the day’
TVNZ political editor Maiki Sherman says she is surprised about the level of criticism aimed at her coverage of this week’s 1NewsVerian political poll but says she is also listening to feedback — and prepared to tweak her presentation style.
At the same time, she says she does not want to “lose my own flair and what I bring to this role”.
In presenting her first political poll on Monday, as the recentlyminted TVNZ political editor, Sherman has faced criticism and vitriol over her tone and language.
The poll was certainly newsworthy and a poor result for the coalition Government, with National, Act and NZ First all losing support — and falling behind the collective party vote support of Labour, the Greens and Te Pa¯ti Ma¯ori — after just six months in power.
But various politicians, commentators and viewers have taken issue with how TVNZ presented the story in its 6pm bulletin. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon described it as “a little frothy and sensationalist”, while former Labour MP Stuart Nash described the presentation style as “absolutely shocking”.
TVNZ is dealing with about 50 formal complaints, while 83 per cent of more than 14,000 respondents in an online NZ Herald poll said they found the bulletin’s coverage over the top.
Some viewers accused TVNZ of bias — citing what they believed to be a gleeful tone — while others couldn’t understand some of the language and political analysis when we’re still more than two years away from the next election.
Sherman introduced her 6pm report with the words: “Political turbulence ahead — buckle up, brace for impact.”
Among various adjectives, metaphors and analyses, she variously described a “nightmare” poll for the coalition that would “absolutely rock the entire Parliament”.
National, Act and NZ First were all down and Sherman described how — “bang!” — Winston Peters’ party, on 4 per cent, would be out of Parliament “in what could be mayday for the coalition”.
“It’s been a big and interesting week,” Sherman told Media Insider from the parliamentary press gallery yesterday.
She was aware there had been a lot of feedback but had not been able to fully engage with it all because of a hectic workload.
“Every day has been super busy and I’ve been dealing with a lot of things other than that issue which, honestly, I didn’t quite understand. I appreciate the feedback but I was surprised at the level of enthusiasm and criticism that people had towards the way that I presented the poll.” Sherman says she is always listening to her viewers.
“Because I care so deeply about doing a good job and taking the entire audience along with me and securing their trust, I am always open to feedback.
“I’ll be open to tweaking the way that I may present a poll, but not completely. I don’t want to lose my own style and my own flair and what I bring to this role. While I’ll take feedback on, genuinely, I’ll be the decider of where it lands at the end of the day.”
Sherman — a mother of six who has previously been described as “TV’s busiest woman” — was announced as TVNZ political editor on March 25.
She had been deputy political editor before that and her first poll has been something of a baptism of fire.
The feedback this week, she says, has been at a new level. “It’s been interesting for me, to be honest, to experience this. And I guess it’ll be something that I’ll need to figure out how to manage, going forward.”
Sherman, who has also worked for Whakaata Ma¯ori and Newshub, said people would make up their own minds about her coverage.
“This has always been the style that I’ve had in my journalism. I’ve worked for Newshub before, so I know that style.
“I worked under Patrick Gower [at Newshub] and then I’ve worked [at TVNZ] under Jessica Mutch McKay who was the consummate professional and very slick, so I’m hoping that I can take what I learned from both those political editors and mould it into a style that I can deliver for our audience.
“It may look slightly different to what people are used to. But nonetheless, the integrity and the quality of the analysis and coverage that I bring is absolutely there.”
I love, firstly, that Sherman fronted up to speak to Media Insider and spoke honestly about her approach.
There is little doubt the poll results were newsworthy but, by the same token, Monday’s bulletin was very full-on, in my view.
It will be interesting to see how Sherman and her TVNZ news bosses respond in the way future polls are presented — the state broadcaster’s political coverage has always been more conservative in style and tone compared with Newshub.
“They [TVNZ bosses] have just given me absolute backing and support,” says Sherman. “And they know the journalism and the analysis that I bring to this position.”
At the end of the day, she likes that people have responded.
“Believe it or not, I’m really actually happy with the level of attention and coverage that our poll has gotten because it was an important poll. And it means that people are engaged with politics and people are engaged with the media and we need that more now more than ever.”
I don’t want to lose my own style and my own flair and what I bring to this role.
Maiki Sherman