The media were always going to give a lot of coverage to a major party leadership challenge, as they did when Simon Bridges outed the challenge of Todd Muller and the subsequent showdown and change of leader. It was big political news and should have received prominent coverage.
But it also showed a major flaw of the media – their use of political operators and lobbyists to comment on the story.
Matthew Hooton is often used by the media in support of stories, even though he is a professional lobbyist. He was given a shot at promoting his agenda without having to disclose any possible involvement in the challenge.
And Michelle Boag suddenly popped up out of the woodwork to and was quoted a number of times in support of a change. She would be most unlikely to be an independent observer.
NZ Herald – Anatomy of a coup: How Todd Muller felled Simon Bridges and who helped him
This is behind their paywall, but a key part is repeated on Twitter:
RNZ 18 May: Labour surges, National plummets in Newshub-Reid Research poll
“Clearly the leadership has failed. Simon Bridges is down to 4.5 percent. The public simply does not like him, that isn’t fair, the public simply did not like Andrew Little.
“He’s a perfectly pleasant person Andrew Little but the public did not like him, and so Labour had no choice in the end but to get rid of him, and National is now at that point.”
RNZ 19 May: Political poll results with Hooton and Jones
“This is a 25-point gap between National and Labour and that’s simply extraordinary. And the National Party has to take that very seriously, they are taking it seriously, although they do expect another poll to come out on Thursday from TVNZ by Colmar Brunton, and they’ll just see what that has to say.
“If it is as bad as this, I would expect there would be enormous pressure on the current leader and deputy leader to at least offer their resignations to the caucus.
However, a better showing in the Colmar Brunton polling might give Simon Bridges a lifeline, he says.
A “hunk” of National MPs are reluctant to be responding to polls, Hooton says.
“Their views on this is what’s going to decide Simon Bridges future.”
RNZ 21 May (audio): Collins key to National Party battle – Hooton Political commentator Matthew Hooton speaks to Kim Hill.
RNZ 21 May: Simon Bridges’ tactics likely to lose him the leadership challenge – commentator
Political commentator Matthew Hooton said Bridges’ move to call the leadership vote was an own goal.
“I think it was another example of the poor political judgement that has plagued his political leadership quite frankly.
“I think Simon Bridges’ move yesterday was probably one of the most extraordinary acts of political harikari that we’ve seen.”
Hooton said Muller’s supporters would likely have lost their nerve there would have been no challenge.
“But by taunting Muller, forcing him and … Nikki Kaye to act … there is now a vote on Friday.
“And I think, the way this is going, Mr Bridges will lose and Muller will become leader of the party.
If Bridges survived the leadership vote it would cost the party any chance of winning the election in September, he said.
If Muller and Kaye failed in their challenge Bridges would demote them to the backbenches which would cost the party votes.
“He cannot afford to lose Todd Muller and Nikki Kaye from his senior team, or else he will lose support from both farmers, provincial New Zealanders, and also urban liberals in Auckland.
RNZ 22 May (audio): Commentator backing Muller to win National Party challenge Political commentator Matthew Hooton is supporting Muller to win – Kim Hill asked him how close does he expect the vote to be.
But Hooton was promoting leadership change – in a last NZ herald column last month (24 April) Matthew Hooton (column): Simon Bridges’ leadership beyond salvaging
Hooton is a regular on RNZ and in NZ Herald and is usually a worthwhile commentator, but it’s fair to ask whether his opinions promoted this week were independent of the leadership coup.
If it turns out he was working for Muller that would not reflect well on him due to lack of disclosure, but woukld also refelct poorly onn the media who give him free publicity.
Michelle Boag is not a regular on media, but managed to be given a say on the challenge too.
Newstalk ZB 19 May – Michelle Boag: Bridges could be another victim of Covid-19 fallout
Michelle Boag says it’s no surprise people have responded positively to the Prime Minister – whose ratings shot up to almost 60 percent.
She told Chris Lynch Arden’s been visible everywhere during the pandemic and Bridges hasn’t.
“There is no doubt there’s a good chance of him becoming yet another victim of Covid-19.”
She says that will be up to the Caucus to decide the leader’s fate.
RNZ 21 May: Former National Party president Michelle Boag on leadership challenge Former National Party president Michelle Boag speaks to Corin Dann.
RNZ 21 May: Simon Bridges’ tactics likely to lose him the leadership challenge – commentator
Former National Party president Michelle Boag told Morning Report Bridges shot himself in the foot by holding the vote tomorrow rather than next week.
This was because it made it harder for other leadership contenders to jump into the race, and those unhappy with Bridges’ leadership could rally around one candidate rather than their votes being split between a number of challengers.
However calling for the leadership vote was the right decision, she said.
“I think it’s the right thing for the National Party to get this sorted as quickly as possible and I think the caucus will be really pleased to have an early opportunity to do that.”
She said the need for a leadership vote was not solely prompted by the recent poll.
“It is about months and months, and sometimes years, of these MPs having negative feedback about their leader, not only from party members but from constituents.
“So while the poll may have been the thing that sparked [it] – the catalyst for this challenge – there’s no doubt this has been building for a long time.”
Boag popping up in media is a sure sign that she is promoting some sort of outcome.
I think that with important political issues, and leadership changes rank right up there, media should take care not to promote people with interests in the outcomes.
Cameron Slater, one of the most agenda driven political operators around, was given some oxygen by John Banks on radio during the week to talk about the National leadership challenge, but the only leader Slater seems interested in promoting these days is Winston Peters.