PM bails on ZB

The Herald reports:

Newstalk ZB breakfast host Mike Hosking says the Prime Minister is “running for the hills” and lacks a backbone after Jacinda Ardern cancelled her regular weekly interview with him.

Instead, Ardern says she and and other ministers will now appear on the country’s top-performing commercial radio show “as and when issues arise”.

Hosking said Ardern was “running for the hills” and the Government was “over being held to account”.

“She no longer wants to be on this programme each week. The somewhat tragic conclusion that is drawn is the questions she gets, the demand for a level of accountability … [is] a little bit tough,” Hosking told listeners this morning.

“They are just over being held to account.

“Without being too unkind to some of the other players in this market, the reality is the Prime Minister enjoys a more cordial and more compliant relationship with them. The questions are more softball, she favours a more benign pitch where the delivery can be dispatched to the boundary more readily with no obvious chance of an appeal,” he said.

PMs have been doing regular slots on the ZB morning show since 1987 when it was David Lange and Paul Holmes.

The Government has obviously decided to focus on doing Facebook Live broadcasts where no one can actually ask questions, rather than do shows where a host will vigorously question you.