Good news from MediaWorks. Story!

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Good news from MediaWorks – its new current affairs programme at 7pm, Monday to Thursday, is to be hosted by Duncan Garner and Heather du Plessis-Allan.

It’s good news because these are, in my estimation, two of the most professional and accomplished reporter/interviewers in the county. And, if we have to make the comparison, both could hold their own anywhere in the broadcasting world.

So what could possibly go wrong?

Well, there are some hints in MediaWorks’ news release about the new show:

First the title: Story. Well yes, journalists do refer to items as ‘news stories" and maybe I’m being picky. But when you take the word by itself, it does rather suggest that 7pm Monday to Thursday on TV3 will be story-telling time. Are we all sitting comfortably?   

Or maybe this is something worse than pickiness on my part. Maybe this is full-blown paranoia. If it is,  I blame the omens. What was that snappy term that MediaWorks CEO, Mark Weldon, used in reference to the arrival of the group’s new starlet Rachel Glucina? Oh yes: “snackable, shareable content.”

This is different of course. It’s a TV current affairs show for one thing. Trouble is “TV current affairs” is a broad church whose commercial creed begins, and can only begin: “I believe in the ratings …”  The people at Fox News would claim that the execrable fare they offer viewers is “TV current affairs.”

So when MediaWorks’ widely respected Group Head of News, Mark Jennings, tells us that Story will be “a smart, fun and thought-provoking show that will lead the way in daily current affairs,” the hard-core broadcasting puritan in me detects something nasty in the woodshed.

For one thing, isn’t that more or less a description of Seven Sharp? And I don’t want another Seven Sharp, thank you very much. I don’t want to hear the presenters’ inflated opinions on everything under the sun. I don’t want to listen to them chit-chatting inconsequentially about their lives, their children, their day. I don’t want Duncan Garner treating Heather du Plessis-Allan as a bimbette whom he honours with his encyclopaedic knowledge of, well, everything. And, while I’m at it, I don’t want any more of the mindless, pretend ad-lib sharing of pieces to camera that is currently a feature of 3D.

D: He’s led a terribly sad life, Samantha.

S: Yes he has, Duncan, and he deserves a break.

D: That’s right Samantha, but will he get it?

S: Good question, Duncan, and we’ll be looking at that very question next week.

D & S: Join us then.

Argghhh!

Garner and Du Plessis-Allan are just too good for that.

And here’s an idea: Cut the 3News hour in half: less weather, less sport, fewer cootchie-coo stories. Give the remaining commercial half-hour (actually just 22 minutes) to Story. 

And, if you have to call it Story, maybe put a screamer after it. That would at least give it a Kiwi dimension.

Story!

Media trainer and commentator Dr Brian Edwards posts at Brian Edwards Media.

To build your own NBR Radio playlist and enjoy instant on-demand access to any audio, sign up for our FREE smartphone-only subscription to NBR ONLINE.