The soon-to-be deputy PM knew his party president was a sexual predator and the media doesn't care
I think one of the dumbest things you can do is complain that the media isn't covering some story, because nine times out of ten you’ll be immediately presented with a link to a media story covering the thing you just said wasn't being covered. There's lots of reasons why 'the media' (which isn't even some monolith hivemind thing, but, y’know, it’s quicker than saying ‘the owners and editors of corporate, ad-driven media outlets’) choose what to cover and how to cover it. But what that complaint is normally trying to say is “why am I not seeing THIS story everywhere, unlike [insert opposite political belief] which was EVERYWHERE”. It’s often a hard thing to pin down, because normally some outlet IS covering your story, but they’re smaller or the big guys have done one or two stories on it and it’s gone from their front page, and you missed it. I think what the complaint is actually trying to express is “why isn’t this being saturated everywhere?”. And that is because of the number one reason for the historical low levels of trust in the media (imo): opinion.
To recap: Tim Jago was the president of the ACT Party – a right-wing party that’s currently part of the coalition government of New Zealand – before resigning in January 2023. That story didn’t even hint that the reason for his resignation was because of any legal or criminal issue – his departure email was leaked to Stuff, who reported it straight.
In August 2024, the media reported a “prominent former political figure” was found guilty of indecent assault of two teenage boys in the 1990s. Because of ongoing name suppression, they couldn’t say who he was or what party he was associated with, but if you went on Twitter or Reddit, you could find out pretty easily. So if I knew, the media knew (that’s important). But, thanks to high-powered lawyers and deep pockets, Jago managed to keep his name out of the press through the 2023 election, which was likely the goal (which, again, the media knew).
Now, suppression has been lifted and his name can be revealed. Note the time that story was published: 5:49 pm on 31 January 2025. That was a Friday. As Mike Hosking once put it: “Fridays are for dumping bad news, and hoping everyone forgets about it over the weekend. But there is no chance something this big will have been forgotten over the weekend.” Sage words, Mike, and of course words that won't expose you as a hypocrite in a few paragraphs.
So here’s the bit where I say: why isn’t the media covering this?
Of course, the media is covering it – it’s how I know about it! But that umbrella term ‘the media’ isn’t doing us any favours here. RNZ, the state-funded broadcaster, has done quite a few stories on the Jago revelations, from the initial news of his name being allowed to be published, to smart follow-ups with survivors and legal experts. 1News, state-owned but commercially funded, has also done some original reporting on the case, including talking to a survivor.
But NZME? Owner of The NZ Herald and NewstalkZB and 50 other media brands? They have done zero original reporting on this case. They’ve carried the initial RNZ story and ACT’s defence and that’s it. As Mike would put, the story has been forgotten.
People are comparing the coverage (or lack of) of Jago to Green MP Golriz Ghahraman, who was convicted of shoplifting a year ago and was recently splashed back all over the news for another shoplifting accusation, which proved to be false and a pretty obvious right-wing smear. Yes, the media fell for that, and their coverage was unfair and over-the-top. I get the compulsion to compare her far lesser crime of shoplifting (and not-even shoplifting!) with Jago’s far more serious crime of sexual assault. But there’s a better comparison.
In 2019, the Labour Party president, Nigel Haworth, resigned over his handling of allegations of sexual assault. This was covered extensively by the media at the time, as it should be – it’s a serious accusation and it was happening in real time. The ultimate outcome of that case was that no sexual assaults could be established but, to be honest, that’s incidental. What the media focused on was what did the Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, know, and when did she know it? The classic journalist trope: it’s not the crime, it’s the cover-up.
But aside from the hard news reports, we also got a whole lot of opinion. This is what’s missing in the Tim Jago reporting. There’s been no opinion. Granted, did I expect NewstalkZB’s cabal of propagandists like Mike Hosking, Heather du Plessis-Allan, Barry Soper, Ryan Bridge, Kerre Woodham et al to actually engage with a story where their favourite political party was found to be hiding a paedo? No, I did not. But I thought they’d at least come out in defence of ACT and David Seymour. But not even that. Just… silence. I wonder if they talked about it at WIP on Monday morning or if it was just silently understood? After all, you do this for long enough, orders don't even need to be given.
NewstalkZB's entire Tim Jago coverage
And what about the supposedly-neutral political editors at other outlets who went hard on the Labour scandal like Jo Moir, Claire Trevett, and Audrey Young, not to mention those at Stuff or The Post? Nada. Not a word.
See, here’s what the journos and editors will be telling themselves: there’s no news here. The Jago offences were historical, he’s been found guilty, name suppression being lifted is all there is to report. But look at the angle of some of those Labour opinion pieces. One uses an opposition MP’s comments in Parliament as an angle to accuse Labour MPs of involvement in the cover-up (never proven). One uses the fact the party president resigned as an angle of saying that’s not good enough and the story will continue (How? By the media writing more opinion pieces about it! It really is a human centipede of shit.). A LOT of them try to pin the scandal on the leader of the party, Ardern, and how it’s indicative of a greater problem within the party. These are all self-generated “news” stories. Nothing has really happened, but the media has driven the story further because… ??? Well, I don’t wanna accuse them of bias, so I’ll just “ask questions”.
Now might be a good time to mention that ACT Party leader and soon-to-be deputy PM David Seymour was told Jago was a "sexual predator" nearly three months before Jago stood down from the role.
Also David Seymour referred the complainants to an employment lawyer.
Also David Seymour was once caught Snapchatting school children (yes, that is Barry Soper defending him).
Those are three angles you could take on this story, and those are just the facts we know about. Imagine what you might discover if you actually, y’know, investigated. But for some reason, our media just isn't interested in this particular scandal. Wonder why.