It's war

Bill Ralston has come out with the following personal attacks just before John Campbell's current affairs show is launched:

On Prime:

• "If I were [Chris Taylor], I'd be shooting myself. I'd be pouring petrol over myself and throwing myself off Auckland's tallest building."


• Mr Ralston said Prime had waltzed in "talking big", but had failed dismally to register with viewers. Prime was desperate and "dumb".


• He also claimed Holmes and his team of "no reporters" rarely broke stories and Close Up showed them up every night. "Night after night after night we break stories and we treat them originally."


• On Prime's exclusive Cave Creek interview last week, Mr Ralston said: "Yawn, yawn, yawn, yawn, yawn."


• He criticised Holmes' Suzanne Paul exclusive before going on to say: "It's crap. You know it's crap, I know it's crap and the viewers know it's crap."

On TV3:

• He was critical of the decision to change TV3's 6pm newsreading team. "It's a major cock-up... it's a strategic blunder they will live to regret. It is going to cost them money." The network has lost about a 10% share in the Auckland market in its target 18-49-year-old bracket. Mr Ralston claimed TV3 would be "wetting themselves" over the figures.


• "TV3 are saying they can create an entirely new current affairs slot. They would need to take more than half the audience of Close Up, and half of Paul Holmes - which admittedly isn't hard because they have only got one or two watching. That is not going to happen. I don't believe that Campbell can do better than The Simpsons or better than TV3 news is delivering... They will not make it."

Prime's response:

• "Bill Ralston holds a very senior position in a government-owned entity as head of news and current affairs for this country's state broad-caster. It saddens and surprises me greatly that anyone in this business in his position would stoop to that level of talk. That's a sad day. We're not down, we're not out. And we're not going to give up." Chris Taylor.


• "When you look at the Close Up product and their resources, where are their stories? That's what Bill ought to be talking about. But I notice, gosh, he's still talking about me." Holmes said Mr Ralston must be "very worried" and he recommended he continue "taking his medicine".


• Chris Taylor cannot believe the tirade, and says anyone who makes recommendations of suicide is completely reckless and he is lost for words.

TV3's response:

• Mark Jennings dismissed the comments as "reckless". "In two years we won't have puddles of water under our desks. We're certainly not wetting ourselves."

From the Herald on Sunday