What happened to Penney was a breach of trust

The decline of trust in the media won’t have been arrested by the recent ambushing and vilification of Crusaders coach Rob Penney.

Figures released in April indicated just 33% of New Zealanders trust the news they’re delivered, with 75% suggesting they actively avoid it altogether.

And you can see why, given what Penney went through.

It’s routine for television networks, in particular, to send naive, inexperienced reporters to the media standups of rugby teams.

Once there, these reporters read questions from pieces of paper or off their phone, designed to get a rise out of the interviewee and create a “gotcha’’ moment.

These aren’t questions dreamed up by the reporter, but by someone back in a newsroom who isn’t brave enough to come and ask them themself.

The instance with Penney was particularly distasteful.

Now, a man of his experience shouldn’t have taken the bait, nor sworn in exasperation afterwards.

But this was reporting of the lowest form, as was the pile on that eventuated afterwards.

The narrative should’ve been dubious, potentially deceitful media tactics seek to make a mockery of a rugby coach.

Instead it was cranky, losing, soon-to-be-sacked oaf shows how arrogant, thin skinned and out of touch rugby folk really are. As for what Penney muttered afterwards, who actually cares?

My only surprise was that Penney didn’t simply take the reporter aside and call him names to his face, because that’s usually how these things go.

That’s always been the beauty of journalism.

You have your opinion, you express it in ways that the people you’ve written about might not care for and then they get their right of reply.

No-one bleats about it afterwards or writes that so and so called me such and such.

It’s all part of the to and fro of real reporting.

You’re not the news and should never seek to be. The doers of the deeds are the people who are important and the ones that viewers, listeners and readers care about.

I dealt with Penney for years and found it an absolute pleasure..

He was accommodating and patient, to the extent that he would grant me additional interviews once the television reporters had stammered out the questions provided to them by a more senior colleague and the cameras had been packed away.

Penney appreciated those with a serious intent to ask educated questions and to inform the public.

That’s not to say I was ever any good at doing either, more that Penney was not the nasty or entitled person he’s been portrayed as since.

Ultimately, I don’t seek to absolve him of blame, but to try and give an example of why journalism in this country might be in decline and to suggest that the issues for that largely reside with us and not the people we cover nor those who consume our product, in ever decreasing numbers.

Eddie Jones once famously described New Zealand’s rugby media as “fans with a keyboard’’ and, yes, there is a bit of truth to that.

It’s an inevitable consequence of building professional relationships with coaches, administrators and, to a lesser extent, players.

Often, though, those relationships are robust and words can be exchanged off the record.

But that’s where they remain.

There may not be mutual admiration, but at least there is trust.

What happened to Penney was a breach of that trust and reflects more of the media than it does on him.