BSA cop out?
By Steven | September 3, 2026
I’ve just accused (below) the Advertising Standards Authority of copping out by refusing to uphold a complaint by finding that an assertion of fact is a statement of opinion. I think the BSA sometimes does the same thing. But at least it argues it out.
It recently rejehttps://www.bsa.govt.nz/decisions/all-decisions/garrood-and-nzme-radio-ltd-2026-016-24-june-2026/#searched-for-hoskingcted a complaint against Mike’s Minute. Hosking was giving his “observations” about the Covid report Whitiki Aotearoa. Here are some:
“Five: Did the Labour Government broadly cock it up? Yes.
Six: Badly? Yes.
Seven: The report says at its heart, people tried hard. They wanted to do the right thing.
Eight: Is that acceptable? Answer: sort of, but wanting to do well isn’t the same as actually doing well.
Nine: It’s hard to work out what’s worse – the medical cock-ups or the financial ones.”
The complainant made a series of arguments, and one was that the report simply didn’t say anything about medical or financial cock-ups. I haven’t read the report, but that seems to be right. At least, neither NZME nor the BSA suggested it wasn’t.
They both said that this was clearly opinion so it was an exception to the accuracy standard. In relation to the rest of the complaint, my take is that’s right. Listener’s knew they were getting Hosking’s views, and any doubt should be resolved in favour of the speech, since it’s a political criticism.
But the medical and financial cock-ups thing? I think it’s clear that listeners would assume that the report made at least some findings about medical and financial cock-ups. That statement comes just seconds after Hosking has said “The report says…” and the whole thing is “observations on the report.” NZME and the BSA say it’s obvious to listeners that at that point Hosking was just giving his own view about the government’s response. I can see the argument – just – but I disagree. What’s worse, this careless smear makes it sound like it carries the imprimatur of a formal report after a lengthy investigation. I think that disserves listeners and it’s what broadcasting standards are there to pick up.
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