Open letter to Rick Ellis – TVNZ

Kia ora Rick

I got a letter from Paora Maxwell the other day saying you guys at TVNZ were going to give MARAE a bit of a face-lift, and spark it up a bit by bringing in a co-presenter and shuffling all the staff around.

Great idea. Shane Taurima’s done a great job in revamping Te Karere, and a few changes to the MARAE set wouldn’t hurt - but is TVNZ saying that Shane is so bad that he needs a co-presenter? Because I disagree.

Shane Taurima is at the top of the class as a current affairs host and political editor. I know, because I’ve been on all of the current affairs programmes on all channels and Shane Taurima ranks up there with the very best of Pakeha journalists in his field, and in terms of Maori current affairs (love and best wishes to Wena and Julian), he rules the roost.

Shane Taurima is the best ‘hard’ Maori journalist in the business, and one of the best current affairs hosts in the country, in both English and Maori. He has the respect of politicians from right across the spectrum as an interviewer who shows no favours, and asks the tough questions.

And MARAE has benefitted from its association with him in delivering a high-quality, hard-hitting Maori current affairs programme.

So given his undoubted talents, the question has to be “what kind of show is TVNZ looking for?”

Do they want a ‘Breakfast’ type show - team Shane up with some blonde? Are they going for the ‘Crowd Goes Wild’ parody of the news? Are they after the 30-second stories about dogs with pink hair and Maori working in the circus? Or are they just wanting to dumb down the edgy, investigative nature of the programme?

Because if that’s what they’re looking for, then yeah – get rid of Shane Taurima, because he doesn’t fit with the dizzy blonde, laugh-a-minute, soft news genre. He’s a political journalist, and a very, very good one.

And ask yourself – does Julian Wilcox work with a co-presenter? Does Wena Harawira? Guy Espinor? Paul Holmes? Duncan Garner? Of course not. They are all serious political journalists in their own right. They don’t want their line of questions interrupted by someone on a different wavelength. They run one-man shows because they are good at what they do, and because they operate best in that environment.

Change the props if you want to Rick, but don’t change the main actor.

ENDS

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