PM gives up NewstalkZB slot; rescheduling and not reducing her time with the media but that's not how some media see it (pn700)

UPDATE. Chris Trotter compares the old interviewer style of examiner with today's style of prosecutor, and thinks Jacinda correct in giving Hosking the metaphorical finger.

I really have more important things to do than criticise the media but if it continues as it has been, I have little  choice.  It must be challenged when its selection and comments on the news are so unbalanced and politically motivated. 

Today's NZ Politics Daily, presented by Bryce Edwards, is another example. It has 14 items on Jacinda no longer appearing weekly on Mike Hosking's early morning NewstalkZB programme. Almost all criticise her for doing so. 

• Hoskings says she can't take his hard questions. ""The reality is, too often, it's just noise, it's waffle, it's stalling, it's filling, it's obfuscation. She should be up for it. It speaks to a lack of backbone that she would want to bail and run. It also speaks to an increasingly apparent trait: they don't handle pressure well. I lose no sleep, I'm just a bit disappointed she isn't a more robust operator." [Former NZ Herald editor Gavin Ellis, however, said "she is more than a match for [Hosking] in their debates".] 
• Judith Collins says "what you're seeing is the absolute arrogance of the government." 
• This was repeated by ACT's David Seymour:  a sign of "escalating arrogance."
• Heather du Plessis was not surprised she's "turning her back on voters."
• John Key's former press secretary she "has a duty to front up to the media" (there was no mention of what his cleaner thought!). 
• Barry Soper said she's only "the master of soft, flattering interviews."   

There were only four moderate items. Martyn Bradbury of the Daily Blog thought she should not have given up the weekly slot. Yes, Hosking is "at times disrespectful, tedious, grotesquely uninformed, malevolent and disingenuous— but he's also the best in the game" [what a comment on our media!] and has a big audience of "bloomers" who, admittedly, are now less important politically than they have been. He thinks this is perhaps why she's left the show.

Others pointed out that the PM was rescheduling and  not reducing her time with the media. Mihirangi Forbes thought this was good because it would make the PM more accessible to other media. 

Jacinda echoed these comments, with evidence from her schedule. In the last two weeks she has given 21 interviews and 8 press conferences and stand ups.  I struggle to find a favourable NZ Herald-NewstalkZB-Hosking comment on any of them. 

-- ACW