Breakfast TV news is back for 2021, and Tara Ward got up early to watch. “Thank god it’s almost Christmas,” John Campbell said during the opening minutes of Breakfast’s premiere episode of the year. “2021’s been rough so far. I’m buggered”. We’re all buggered, to be fair, but I’m worried that John’s peaking too soon. … Read more
Hints for a happy, healthy vegan life as the AM Show host prepares to adopt a plant-based diet for the next 12 months. In July, MediaWorks broadcaster Duncan Garner was very confident that come election time, Labour wouldn’t receive enough votes to govern alone. So confident that he said if they did, he would do … Read more
The 2010s will go down in media history as the Take Decade. Hayden Donnell combed through every single take made in New Zealand in the last 10 years to compose this list of the worst ones. If there’s one overarching media trend from the 2010s, it’s our inexorable move toward a take economy. Look at … Read more
The big boys are here and they want to make it clear: they do not like young women raising their voices. Josie Adams on Mike Hosking and Duncan Garner’s visceral reactions to a tearful 16-year-old telling them to emit less. Teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg’s global reprimand at the UN this week was delivered in … Read more
Facing streaming giants with multi-billion dollar budgets, the state broadcaster has announced it expects a big 2020 loss. Duncan Greive goes to find out why TVNZ CEO Kevin Kenrick is still smiling. Kevin Kenrick is dreaming big. “I think our biggest competition, because of their ability to wrap their hands around the digital revenue streams, … Read more
The government recently announced that it would ban smoking in cars when children under 18 are present, making the act a fineable offence. But social scientist Dr Kyro Selket argues the decision isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. On Sunday, I stopped at my local Franklin takeaway for one of their exceptional butter chicken … Read more
Alex Casey woke up at 6am this morning to flick between the first episode for 2019 of both The AM Show and Breakfast. Here are some of the highlights. Nothing captures Monday morning ennui like The AM Show. “Welcome back my friends,” belts out prog rock band Emerson, Lake and Palmer, “to the show that never … Read more
The furore over whether or not Santa can be a woman has roared through the New Zealand mediasphere over the weekend, and even into this morning. Alex Braae offers a counterpoint on the debate. You may have found yourself on the spot in the last few days, being asked whether or not Santa Claus should … Read more
Whanganui High School invited only Māori and Pasifika boys to a Joseph Parker speaking event, which some believed to be racism in action. Hint: it wasn’t. Here we go again. On Tuesday, news broke that Whanganui High School had limited a Joseph Parker speaking event to Māori and Pasifika boys and their fathers. Some parents … Read more
Breakfast carnage continues on Newshub as Mark Richardson and Duncan Garner tear chunks out of Mark Richardson and Duncan Garner Last week New Zealand had barely begun recovering from the sight of broadcaster Duncan Garner’s blistering attack on broadcaster Duncan Garner over free speech when broadcaster Mark Richardson stole his fellow broadcaster’s thunder with a … Read more
Yet another blistering AM Show attack as cricketer-turned-broadcaster condemns cricketer-turned-broadcaster Earlier this week high-profile broadcaster and host of the AM Show Duncan Garner launched a blistering attack on high-profile broadcaster and host of the AM Show Duncan Garner over his role as Chief Constable in the Speech Police. Not to be outdone, his co-host, Mark … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Free trade with Britain moves closer, police and government at odds over drug driver testing, and EQC checks may be recalled. The PM is in London reassuring Britain that New Zealand is very keen on a post-Brexit free trade deal. The meeting between Ardern and Britain’s Theresa … Read more
The AM Show host has unleashed a merciless broadside in response to remarks by the AM Show host. High profile broadcaster and columnist Duncan Garner has this morning spoken truth to power, or more specifically, truth to high profile broadcaster and columnist Duncan Garner. In a blistering attack on Newshub’s simulcast AM Show, Duncan Garner … Read more
Alex Casey checks in with the gang from The AM Show for their first show of the year. Awful. Hopeless. Horrible. These are just some of the words Duncan Garner used to describe his sleep last night, the eve before the return of The AM Show online, on radio, and on telly for 2018. Falling … Read more
This year Toby Morris joined The Spinoff. In the first episode of his new cartoon series The Side Eye, he presents a 12 step guide to a perfect non-apology. This post first published October 27, 2017.
As 2017 draws to a close, we ask eminent guest columnist Ernest Penman to reflect on the year that was. When I cast my mind across the year 2017 I am transported immediately to that moment, L’éphanie. Allow me to explain. I gently adjusted my fedora as I mounted the undulating Kmart snake, lining up … 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
Thirty years ago this weekend, writer and filmmaker Ghazaleh Golbakhsh arrived in New Zealand with her family, immigrants from war torn Iran. Inspired by Duncan Garner’s recent outburst, she reflects on life so far as an immigrant New Zealander. I was not surprised by Duncan Garner’s hideous column about immigrants at K-Mart. He comes from … Read more
Duncan Garner’s recent column on immigration and K-Mart underpants has had the unfortunate – though highly predictable – effect of reigniting New Zealand’s often-poisonous ‘immigration debate’. But there’s a better way, writes Jess Berentson-Shaw. Immigration has never been an easy thing to talk about in New Zealand. When it gets raised in a public forum, … Read more
All eyes are on Winston, but still there’s a clamour for a National-Greens coalition. Simon Wilson looks at why the idea has such appeal and what it might mean for politics in this country. It’s like when your parents say they really like your music. Only they wish the words were a little easier to … Read more
Yesterday AM Show host Duncan Garner wrote a column for Stuff which started in the queue at K-Mart and ended asking about your grandchildren. Joe Nunweek dissects this strange creation. Duncan Garner is a man who knows what he wants. A 3-pack of workwear cotton rich socks for $12. A seven-day rotation of fitted trunks. A five-pack … Read more
Following Metiria Turei’s resignation as leader of the Greens, The Spinoff TV writers report back on how our news outlets and commentators reacted to the political bombshell/earthquake/catastrophe. “A catastrophic, disastrous result… an absolute political nightmare,” said a typically chilled-out Paddy Gower last night as he thundered out the news of his Newshub poll, and Metiria … Read more
Winston Peters battled Duncan Garner to the death in a live TV interview this week. Spinoff body language expert Hayden Donnell scoured the footage for hidden secrets. It’s been eight long months since the last installment of the New Zealand Herald’s groundbreaking interview series with body language expert Suzanne Masefield. In the series, Masefield revealed … Read more
The Spinoff watched and listened to the first episode of The AM Show, Three’s new offering to the multi-platform breakfast news buffet. Here’s what we reckon. It’s bright. Maybe too bright. With the telly roaring to life at the fragile time of 5.58am to a visual feast of bright red dresses, searing hot pinks and scorching … Read more
A new promo video for The AM Show has unearthed a grisly revelation: Duncan Garner is not only replacing Paul Henry, he is… becoming him. Everyone is talking about +HR=E this week, be it the confronting new rebrand or the inexplicable colonial garb worn strictly by comedians in their bold new channel vision. But there’s … Read more
Radio host and political commentator Duncan Garner calls protestors at the Waitangi Marae “self-appointed meatheads” who “hijack the holiday for feeble grandstanding and cheap shots”. It’s just the latest attempt by Pākehā to ridicule and invalidate the Māori tradition of protest, says Madeleine de Young. Prime Minister Bill English’s decision not to attend the Waitangi … Read more
Fresh from reporting on the American Trumpocalypse, Newshub’s larger than life political editor Patrick Gower tells Toby Manhire about the lessons his US experience offers to NZ media, and how he’s preparing to tackle an election here in 2017, all over the course of a mere seven hours, in the latest instalment of On the … Read more
The exit of Paul Henry and the dumping of Story make for another miserable glut of headlines. But the talent that does remain, Duncan Garner and Guy Williams especially, lends hope that the darkest hour is before the dawn, writes Duncan Greive. Over the past 18 months, there have been a number of disastrous periods … Read more
Former Mediaworks news chief Mark Jennings writes on the background to the departure of TV3’s heaviest hitter, the huge hole it leaves, and the challenge ahead for heir apparent Duncan Garner. When Paul Henry’s expletive-laden interview appeared in the New Zealand Herald eight days ago it looked like a clear case of presentercide. By deliberately labelling … Read more