From Paddles the cat to Donald Trump, the Spinoff’s cartoonist tallies up the faces that he most often drew through the year. There’s probably an old saying that goes the quickest way to follow history is to follow cartoons. If there isn’t, there should be: a cartoonist’s job is to condense the day’s events into … Read more
At the end of every year, our columnist Aaron Yap wraps up his likes, dislikes and learnings from TV’s shifting media hellscape. Jeez, what a stinking hot mess. As 2017 thankfully draws to a close, reflecting on the year that’s been for TV has become quite the exercise in existential soul-searching – to couch it in the … Read more
Bringing you the best weekly reading from your friendly local website. Simon Wilson and Madeleine Chapman: The rookie and the food critic head to KFC “I know a lot of people hate KFC. It’s the epitome of grease and Big Fast Food and very few people who eat it for the first time as adults … Read more
It’s as predictable as your uncle saying something off-colour during Christmas lunch: the annual slew of scare stories about the risk of gaining a few kilos over the festive season. Let’s make a pact to ignore them all, suggests Kristin Hall. One of the last things I remember my mum saying to me before she … Read more
Super-wealthy internet tycoon, Trump-booster and ordinary Kiwi geezer Peter Thiel was spotted this week at an exhibition in Auckland based largely on his ideas. Who better to review the show than Peter Thiel*? Hello fellow New Zealanders. I mean, Kiwis. That’s what we call each other, right? I mean, I know we do, because I … Read more
NZ on Air has funded your favourite local website to ramp up its video output across all online channels, and make its first free-to-air TV show. Incredible news for fans of The Spinoff and/or the medium of television: NZ on Air has just announced that The Spinoff TV will be coming to both the internet … Read more
Originally conceived to notify you of important breaking news, news alerts in New Zealand have morphed into something altogether stranger. David Farrier reports. I’ve been in America a lot this year and it’s felt like I’ve slowly been descending into madness. I’ve found myself in a dark place where each day I’m reminded that the … Read more
Bringing you the best weekly reading from your friendly local website. Sam Brooks: A play-by-play of Kim Hill’s medium rare roasting of Don Brash “When it was announced that Don Brash was going to be interviewed by Kim Hill on Saturday Morning, I was both excited and dismayed. Excited because I knew that it wasn’t going … Read more
Last night the Herald published a story about a six-year-old Russian child described as the ‘most beautiful girl in the world’. Who on earth thought this was a good idea? Once upon a time, my mate’s beloved van was stolen from outside his house. As he was recounting the story, it just got worse and … Read more
After more than 30 years, Newstalk ZB’s pause-loving, conspiracy peddling morning talk host is hanging up the headphones. Duncan Greive tunes in. Leighton Smith has delivered the bad news. Not as bad as it seemed for a second this morning when he told his loyal Newstalk ZB listeners, “We’ve come to a decision that I … Read more
Bringing you the best weekly reading from your friendly local website. Toby Manhire: Today’s big NZ story that you probably missed, aka a victory for bullshit and delay “On the face of it – and Key has not yet responded to Fisher’s request for comment – this is dynamite. If the then prime minister, who … Read more
This morning on RNZ Kim Hill generously gave Don Brash 30 minutes in which to explain his problem with Guyon Espiner speaking te reo on the radio. Self-appointed Kim Hill expert and superfan Sam Brooks brings you her best burns. When it was announced that Don Brash was going to be interviewed by Kim Hill … Read more
As a journalist at a student magazine, Joel MacManus wrote a straightforward report on a media appearance by Winston Peters. In return, Peters called him a moron and questioned whether he deserved to be in university. Winston Peters is a man with many grudges. His desire for vengeance against those who wronged him is one … Read more
Tributes have abounded today for NZ reporter Yasmine Ryan, who has died in Turkey aged 34. Here, Kamahl Santamaria remembers his compatriot and former colleague. Below, on a recent trip home she joined media commentator Gavin Ellis to discuss doing journalism in some of the world’s most volatile places. Born in France and brought up … Read more
A New Zealand man was charged this week with drink driving after a chicken nugget-inspired rampage in a Sydney McDonald’s. As a quick Google reveals, he wasn’t the first and he won’t be the last to lose his shit at the Golden Arches. McDonald’s is truly the great equaliser: no matter what car you take … Read more
Tonight, in Los Angeles, the New Zealand podcast phenomenon The Worst Idea Of All Time comes to a close. Tom Augustine pays tribute to the show that took a terrible idea and transformed it into art. You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live … Read more
Use of te reo by the national broadcaster has come under fire this week from leading New Zealand thinkers including Dave Witherow, Don Brash and John Drinnan. The debate shows how far we have come as a nation – and how far we still have to go, writes RNZ chief executive Paul Thompson. RNZ’s small but significant … Read more
In 2015 Alex Casey interviewed Greg Sestero, star of The Room and author of The Disaster Artist, about his book about a movie that’s now a movie of its own. I remember sitting next to a middle-aged couple who had innocently wandered into a late-night screening of The Room at The Academy cinema one fateful … Read more
Bringing you the best weekly reading from your friendly local website. Madeleine Holden: Why is Sky bringing Tony Veitch back to our screens? “It’s an odd indictment of New Zealand’s insular culture that in a global climate in which high-profile abusers are being outed and ousted from public life, we are instead choosing to reward … Read more
With 2017 coming to a close, one brave fisherman has thrown his hat in the Worst Opinions ring with a rant against te reo and those who dare speak it. Madeleine Chapman responds. You might be thinking that the Spinoff publishing responses to bad columns is getting old. But so are these columnists and that … Read more
Henry Oliver talks to Ross Sutherland, a British poet whose VHS performance piece Standby for Tape Back-Up, a multimedia meditation on memory, meaning and grief, is on in Auckland and Wellington this week. A little over ten years ago, with a healthy dose of mid-00s meta-irony, a group of friends and I get stoned and … Read more
The broadcaster has bowed to a wave of public anger by quitting the sports pilot – though Sky sources suggest he would have been ousted regardless. Yesterday convicted domestic abuser Tony Veitch announced he’d be returning to our screens in a new “hard-hitting” sports show on Sky TV. The announcement was met with outrage, disbelief, … Read more
Convicted domestic abuser Tony Veitch is returning to television, he has announced. Madeleine Holden wonders why abusers like Veitch continue to be given prominent public platforms. Yesterday, Tony Veitch took to social media to announce that he will be appearing on Sky TV’s new show, New Zealand Press Box. He promised it will be “a … Read more
There’s a lot of trouble in Auckland right now. Homelessness is growing. Many mostly-young or poor people are facing the prospect of never owning a home in the city. But this week the media has highlighted the plight of another group of Aucklanders who are doing it tough: people whose houses are making too much … Read more
He was an underemployed journalism graduate who on a whim created a Twitter account for PM Jacinda Ardern’s cat Paddles. Then it went viral. Then Paddles died. I was in the supermarket in Newtown, Wellington when my Radio New Zealand app alerted me that Winston Peters had chosen to form a coalition government with Labour. … Read more
When journalist Angela Cuming was sent a “grossly inappropriate and offensive” “joke” by a Hamilton City Councillor she called the behaviour out online. It sparked a discussion about the everyday sexism women face in the workplace, assembled by Emily Writes. Comments, “jokes”, microaggressions, and out-right hostility by insecure men were common. Here are some of … Read more
‘You’ve seen what’s on his screen – imagine what’s on his mind’ warned the voiceover in a 1999 PSA about online paedophiles. The ad’s star Joseph Nunweek remembers its filming, and reflects on how our perception of internet safety has changed in the years since. Fame is fleeting, but it changes you. My television acting … Read more
Rachel Klaver (nee Goodchild) was one of the pioneers of New Zealand lifestyle blogging, gaining a dedicated following for her witty and insightful writing on topics from internet dating to diets. That meant she got free stuff – a lot of it. But was it all really worth it? These days it feels like everyone … Read more
TVNZ has pulled a story about Kmart from its site after The Spinoff obtained emails showing two online ‘influencers’ received undisclosed payments to appear. The revelations raise fresh questions about the murky and unregulated world of the influencer economy. Alex Casey investigates. Two prominent online “influencers” appeared in a 1News story about Kmart without having … Read more