One can only hope that one of the main reasons behind the disapproval was the horrifying possibility that every newspaper in the country would start carrying Mike Hosking's column, and that local voices would be drowned out by the boorish braying of the radio host, assuring the whole country that everything was okay, because Mike has a nice house and a Ferrari. You just have to work hard, think smart, and act like a complete fuckwit, and you too can be just as beloved, Mike could tell you.
There is, unsurprisingly, more cross-pollination of editorial staff as companies consolidate and get together, with redundancies and double-ups ruthlessly sniffed out and eliminated. Radio stations and TV networks and newspaper publishers share the same masters, who fight the imbalance of the balance sheet by cutting out vital staff, and then act amazed when readers/viewers are turned off by an inferior product.
One of the unfortunate casualties of all this consolidation. has been the professional columnist, who is rapidly becoming an endangered species. Why pay an actual writer to offer up one decent essay a week, when your national TV or radio star can shit out a column during the ad breaks? It's not just filling column space, it's free promotion for the media company's brand, and everybody wins.
Except the reader, of course, but who gives a damn about that poor bastard? The problem is, radio stars make terrible goddamn columnists. What works during a three-hour radio show doesn't always work in print. Several high profile columnists have had their fingers smashed for writing things they can get away with saying on air, because with the audio there is often a dissenting voice, or some sort of context, or even an indication that the writer/presenter is taking the piss, all of which is lacking in the plain black and white of print.
Great hosts are often terrible writers, with meandering and mediocre opinion pieces about the same old bullshit everybody else is talking about. There are always exceptions – Kerry McIvor is still a cracking writer who doesn't fuck about getting to the point – but the art of the column is getting buried in all this goddamn cross-promotion.
(It's also notable that the TV and radio newsreaders, who just do the bulletins, often make surprisingly great writers, probably because they're used to speaking in short, sharp and clear sentences, and know the value of editing that shit down. In all the pieces about the bloodletting at Mediaworks last year - and there were a fucking load - longtime loyal presenter Carolyn Robinson wrote one the best for The Spinoff, capturing the thrill and joy of breaking news, making her cold dismissal at the end all the more personal.)
Everyone thinks they're a writer, and everybody has an opinion, but writing a column does actually take some skill, with a desperate need for structure and a proper point, or it's all just mad rambling. It's something that needs to be worked on, not tossed off in the break.
There are still some great columnists out there, and the very best are those whose opinion you totally disagree with, but you still end up reading their point of view. That takes skill, and a bit of courage.
Media companies are cost-cutting and penny-pinching, but dedicated column writers – not just the most popular voice on the radio - still have their place. It takes more than a good voice.
- Margaret Tempest
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