RODNEY HIDE: The Herald’s Shameful Attempt to Overthrow a Democratically Elected Prime Minister
- Administrator
- 3 hours ago
- 2 min read
This was not ordinary political reporting. It was a deliberate effort to manufacture and amplify a leadership crisis where none needed to exist. From 16 April 2026, when Coughlan wrote “Christopher Luxon’s limited options as he stares down toughest fortnight of his leadership,” the Herald pursued a relentless narrative of weakness and inevitable downfall. On 18 April, Coughlan published an exclusive claiming an MP had tried to warn Luxon of flagging caucus support. By 17 April, the paper was already running “What happens next in Christopher Luxon leadership saga.” Even on the day of the vote, 21 April, Coughlan’s headline asked “Christopher Luxon fires his shot – can he save his leadership?”
Between mid-March and 21 April 2026, the Herald published more than a dozen prominent stories explicitly questioning Luxon’s leadership, portraying him as embattled, out of touch, and on the brink of removal. Anonymous sources, leaked discontent, and dire predictions were deployed with clinical precision. The clear intent was to erode public and caucus confidence until the pressure became unbearable.
This is not journalism. This is an attempt by an unelected media outlet to engineer the removal of a democratically elected Prime Minister. Thomas Coughlan and the New Zealand Herald took it upon themselves to act as political king-breakers, using their platform to push a narrative that Luxon was finished and that a change of leadership was both necessary and inevitable.
Luxon’s decisive victory in the confidence vote exposed the campaign for what it was: a failed media coup. The Herald’s relentless assault did not reflect the will of the people or the National caucus — it reflected the paper’s own political preferences and hostility toward the current government.
New Zealanders have every right to be alarmed. When a major newspaper sets out to undermine and topple a sitting Prime Minister through sustained negative coverage and manufactured drama, it crosses a dangerous line. Democracy is not served by unelected journalists attempting to dictate who leads the country.
The Herald and Thomas Coughlan owe the public, and the office of Prime Minister, a full accounting for this partisan overreach. Their campaign was not reporting — it was an attempt to subvert the democratic process. Luxon’s survival is a rebuke to their agenda. The question now is whether the Herald will learn from this failure, or continue its reckless campaign against elected leadership.
Rodney Hide is a former Minister and leader of the ACT Party
Omnipotent Moral Busybodies.
“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.”
There are simply too many of these bothersome people in our social institutions that have been captured and corrupted by Modern Marxist critical theories and "woke" ideology. These people have a delusion of omnipotence that causes them to feel justified in telling everyone else what to…
Didn't Jim Grenon buy into the Herald to clean up its act so it published balanced and unbiased journalism? He might not be able to dictate editorial policy but he can sure as hell influence who to employ and who to sack to remove the bias.
While what Rodney Hide has written is true (and the media need to be severely punished for what they have done, preferably closed down by not buyiing their rubbish), Luxon and National have brought much/most of their problems on themselves. They have talked and talked only about putting the economy back on track, as though that will resolve all problems. But what they have not done is far worse: they have not undertaken what they told the electorate they would do. And that is remove the ToW provisions from all legislation, help those in need -- not by race, stop the "wonderfulness of Maoridom" (as though they were a happy, peaceful, fun-loving, rich single community, well-advanced in science and well…
The employment of Toxic O’Brien on tv1 morning and the unhinged John Campbell on morning RNZ is a deliberate attempt to skew and influence public thinking toward the left through print and airwaves media prior to the November election…..and WE ARE FUNDING IT!
The utter immoral failure of the mainstream media as purveyors of unbiased information for the public is going to become ever clearer as we head to the election.
But that matters and should be called out loudly and often to wake up the electorate.
The Ferald?
Learn something about democracy? You jest?