{"id":12475,"date":"2026-04-29T13:05:51","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T01:05:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/?p=12475"},"modified":"2026-04-29T15:26:40","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T03:26:40","slug":"ani-obriens-revelation-explodes-into-full-scandal-as-hosking-reveals-tvnz-legal-letter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/?p=12475","title":{"rendered":"Ani O\u2019Brien\u2019s Revelation Explodes Into Full Scandal as Hosking Reveals TVNZ Legal Letter"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Colin Ambler\/cvnznews.com<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ACT leader David Seymour\u2019s allegation that TVNZ used legal muscle to shut down reporting of an alleged slur inside Parliament has intensified \u2014 and now veteran broadcaster Mike Hosking has added fuel to the fire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking on air Wednesday morning, Hosking revealed that his Newstalk ZB team received a wide\u2011ranging legal letter<\/strong> from a corporate law firm after they began investigating the allegation involving TVNZ political editor Maiki Sherman. Producer Sam Carran had approached TVNZ for comment, but the broadcaster declined, citing employment matters. Shortly afterwards, the legal warning arrived \u2014 a move Hosking said had a chilling effect on the newsroom\u2019s ability to pursue the story. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The controversy was first pushed into the public arena this week by commentator Ani O\u2019Brien<\/strong>, who reported that Sherman allegedly directed a slur at Stuff journalist Lloyd Burr during pre\u2011Budget drinks in May 2025. O\u2019Brien\u2019s account reignited questions about what happened, who knew, and why the matter never surfaced at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finance Minister Nicola Willis has confirmed an incident occurred in her office, saying she returned to hear \u201coffensive language\u201d and immediately shut the gathering down. She checked on Burr the next day and says he did not want the matter escalated \u2014 a position she says she respected. stuff.co.nz<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Seymour argues that if a politician had been accused of the same behaviour, the media would have blasted the story across every front page. Instead, he says, the public broadcaster appears to have taken a legal approach to suppress scrutiny<\/strong>, something he believes is incompatible with TVNZ\u2019s role as a state\u2011owned media organisation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hosking echoed that concern, questioning whether it is appropriate for a taxpayer\u2011funded broadcaster to send legal threats to another newsroom over a matter of public interest. NZME, which owns Newstalk ZB, has not yet commented.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TVNZ continues to refuse comment, repeating that it does not discuss employment matters and declining to confirm whether it sent the legal correspondence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stuff, meanwhile, says it has \u201ccomplete faith\u201d in Burr\u2019s account and is respecting his wish not to comment further. National MP Simeon Brown says he only learned of the allegations through social media and denies any involvement in their release. Willis also says she had no role in bringing the claims to light. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Colin Ambler\/cvnznews.com ACT leader David Seymour\u2019s allegation that TVNZ used legal muscle to shut down reporting of an alleged slur inside Parliament has intensified \u2014 and now veteran broadcaster Mike Hosking has added fuel to the fire. Speaking on air Wednesday morning, Hosking revealed that his Newstalk ZB team received a wide\u2011ranging legal letter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12476,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[1076,1068,1075,113,945],"coauthors":[446],"class_list":{"0":"post-12475","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-david-seymour","9":"tag-maiki-sherman","10":"tag-mike-hosking","11":"tag-new-zealand","12":"tag-tvnz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12475"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12475\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12477,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12475\/revisions\/12477"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12475"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcoauthors&post=12475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}