Bloodied But Not Beaten

I carried a piece on this just-published memoir from veteran journalist Rod Vaughan on Monday and last night spent a most entertaining few hours reading the book.

Vaughan has been at the forefront of news and current affairs for more than 40 years and has reported on an extraordinary array of events and issues. In his book he revisits some if his biggest investigations including Bill Sutch, Ray Smith (Goldcorp), German conman Ralf Simon, child sexual abuse, 9/11, nuclear testing, working with Paul Holmes, Peter Ellis, and the Aramoana massacre.

For a look back at the past 40 years and many of the big stories  this is well worth a read.

The publisher has kindly agreed to let me reproduce the opening paragraphs of Vaughan's chapter on working on The Holmes Show.

Some memorable moments on the Holmes Show

By the time I joined The Holmes Show in 1990 it had been running for a year and created enough waves to sink a battleship.

The celebrated walk-out from the very first programme of America’s Cup supremo Dennis Conner set the pattern for what was to come and it ushered in a radically new and exciting era in television current affairs.

To old hands like myself Holmes himself was a strange beast, the like of which we had never encountered before: there weren’t enough words to describe him. Quirky, cantankerous, idiosyncratic, self-opinionated, smart, kind, volatile, unpredictable, charming, funny, intense, brittle, egotistical, sensitive and sometimes manic. But never boring.

His personal meltdowns in those early days were a sight to behold and held us spellbound as he ranted and raved about perceived problems with the programme. It was high drama and we grew to love those occasions when he would spiral out of control and launch a torrent of invective at anyone who dared cross his path.

I had never encountered such public displays of anger in my life before and I wondered what possessed him to behave in such an obnoxious way. But I soon came to the conclusion that he was a driven man, determined to put his mark on television in the same way that he’d done on radio and to hell with anyone who tried to stop him. And he succeeded spectacularly, perhaps exceeding his own expectations; The Holmes Show went on to become an extraordinarily successful daily current affairs’ programme.

And for one very memorable year I was part of the reporting team.
Pushing the boundaries was the name of the game and I found myself in

unchartered waters, the constraints of public service television subsumed by the race for ratings. It was heady stuff and I relished the challenges and pressures of working in such a competitive environment.

I grew to respect and, yes, even admire Holmes himself. By any standards his workload was phenomenal; his day began around 6.00am on Newstalk ZB and finished at 7.30pm on TV One. Sometimes he would disappear for a nap in the middle of the day but more often than not he would be out and about filming a story before presenting the show in the evening.

It was a punishing schedule that he maintained for most of the sixteen years that the programme lasted and there is no doubt in my mind that it would have killed a lesser man.

Of course he was well rewarded for his efforts, his income at TVNZ peaking at around $700,000 a year, probably twice as much as top television presenters are paid in this country today. By accident or design he was at the forefront of the star culture that emerged at the state broadcaster where presenters received obscene salary packages and were treated like show ponies.

Regrettably it developed into a class system which saw presenters flying business class or better while their producers and camera crews were sent to the back of the aeroplane. It aroused resentment and, of course, envy, but given his talent and his work ethic I don’t think any of us begrudged Holmes getting a bit of pampering.

He was also intensely loyal and generous to those around him.

The staff Christmas parties he hosted at his house were lavish occasions where vast quantities of the finest French champagne were consumed along with the most delectable items of haute cuisine that money could buy. Typically the festivities would degenerate into drunken revelry and I well remember one such time when a number of senior news executives and various glitterati ended up in his swimming pool very much the worse for wear.

Like him or loathe him, and some did, there’s no doubt in my mind that Holmes was the pre-eminent broadcaster of his generation, as was Brian Edwards before him. 

Bloodied but Not Beaten

Rod Vaughan

David Ling Publishing - $39.99

Photo below shows author signing copies at the book launch on Monday evening. Front left foreground is publisher David Ling.