On this site, we constantly complain about the poor standards of the media in this country. Actual news reporting seems to have completely disappeared. Everything is an opinion piece these days, even the news. (Have you noticed how many times TV and radio news presenters read out a headline in factual fashion, and then immediately add a question such as “But is it enough?” or something similar which just leads to an opinion rather than plain facts?) This is not news reporting; it reduces our entire media to the equivalent of Woman’s Day, where facts significantly take a back seat to emotions and feelings. It is the world in which our prime minister happily resides, completely oblivious to the goings-on in the real world. After all, ‘feelz’ are important; everything else is just fluff.
Well, if you saw anything to do with the NZ TV Awards on Wednesday, you will fully understand why we live in a world of ‘feelz’. There was hardly a journalist worth his salt amongst the lofty winners.
Shall we start with the winner of TV Personality of the Year?
The people have spoken – Hilary Barry has been judged the nation’s favourite TV personality for 2020.
Barry, who presents TVNZ’s Seven Sharp alongside Jeremy Wells, was crowned the winner of the fan-voted award at the New Zealand Television Awards last night. The awards were held at Shed 10 in Auckland.
I have the misfortune to watch Seven Sharp on occasions. I don’t do it deliberately. Hilary Barry comes across as a supercilious mother who constantly berates her teenage child, in the form of 43-year-old Jeremy Wells. If I were Wells, I would walk off the set. The constant put-downs by Barry are doing nothing to enhance his media career.
Why did the people choose Barry? Well, there are two reasons:
Barry edged several contenders for the gong, including MediaWorks’ personalities Patrick Gower, Kanoa Lloyd, and Tova O’Brien, along with 1 News presenter and former 1 News at Six anchor Wendy Petrie.
As you can see, the talent pool was as shallow as a car park puddle in the middle of summer. Wendy Petrie has been fired, Tova O’Brien is the most biased political reporter of all time, and what can I say about Patrick Gower, except that he was chewed up and spat out by Lauren Southern in an embarrassing interview not so long ago. Frankly, if I had voted, my vote would have gone to Mittens the cat.
Oops. Wrong competition. Mittens is keeping his powder dry for New Zealander of the Year.
Barry’s wit, faultless presenting plus her fearless call-outs of her outfit shamers are just some of the reason she remained a favourite this year.
Well there you have it. She called out her outfit shamers. How courageous. A real modern day Boadicea.
During Auckland’s second lockdown, there was this:
Foolishly, I thought she might have been doing some research into how different people were feeling about lockdowns.
Alas, no.
Nothing like a balanced view, is there? Journalists are supposed to look at both sides of the argument. Mind you, can we really call someone, whose career started by reading the news from an autocue and who has now graduated to sitting on a couch and criticising everyone, a journalist? She certainly is not my idea of one.
Well folks, that is your NZ TV Personality of the Year. Read it and weep.
The only bright spot in the night’s awards was Michael Morrah winning Reporter of the Year, for his work mainly on COVID-19. Unlike many other journalists, Morrah kept a balance throughout and asked the questions no other journalist would dare to ask. It was well-deserved recognition for a brilliant effort in a world where truth matters less and less.
Morrah though was the only bright light in a world of mediocrity, where the reasonably affluent and famous of the media world all pat themselves on the back for being mediocre and look forward to awards for more mediocrity next year. It is a strange world we live in when journalists of very average abilities win top awards because there is no one better out there.
As for Hilary Barry, if the country thinks she is the top TV Personality of the Year, then we really are in trouble. All she emanates is fluff, a complete lack of substance and a nasty streak just below the surface for anyone who disagrees with her. I often feel sorry for Jeremy Wells, having to sit next to that harpie night after night. He was a half decent TV personality before he started working alongside her.
I vote Mittens. Even if he was never in the running, he would beat Hilary Barry paws down.
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