A familiar face on our television screens, this time Jack Tame appears on a laptop screen, for a conversation that covers early mornings, the 2023 election, and being called ‘earnest’ on social media.
“You’d think I would be getting better at this,” he laughs as he struggles to get the camera going on his computer at the start of our video call.
Interviewing a savvy television and radio journalist like Jack Tame would be a somewhat nerve-wracking job for any fellow reporter, but Jack’s trademark smile can dissolve any nerves, unless you’re a politician.
When reading up on Jack’s long list of achievements to date, the first thing that stands out is his work ethic. Knowing from an early age that he wanted to be a broadcast journalist, Jack got his first taste of the media world during an internship on TVNZ 1 morning show Breakfast while at Christchurch’s New Zealand Broadcasting School.
Seeing his potential and clear hunger for a career in this field, he was hired, and after some years working whatever shifts he could get, moved to New York to work as a foreign correspondent for TVNZ at the age of 25.
When he returned to New Zealand, he was greeted with the unsociable hours of a co-host on Breakfast, and now counts himself lucky that now he can “sleep in” until 6am, thanks to his current gigs hosting Saturday Morning with Jack Tame on Newstalk ZB and Q+A on TVNZ 1.
Compared to his earlier schedules, he’s a little more in control of his time these days, although he still manages to fill every minute of the day with something.
“I am just a shocker for filling up any spare capacity,” he says. “I don’t know what it is, but I find myself forever being one of those insufferable people who, when someone says, ‘How are you doing?’ I say, ‘I’m good, but I’m really busy.’”
Though he admits he doesn’t have to be quite as busy as he is, it seems he doesn’t know how else to be, having worked six days a week for more than a decade.
“I’m just someone who is, by their very nature, someone who wants to fill the hours of the day. I don’t do well when I’m sitting still. I don’t do well without purpose, without direction, without a project, and so maybe I’m suited to [working in media] or maybe I’m just finding convenient excuses for the fact that I’m definitely a workaholic.”
While this work schedule might lead to burnout for many, Jack says it is helped by the fact that he genuinely loves what he does.
“I don’t know if this is something about the industry or something about the people who are attracted to the industry, but I notice more and more that people who work in media, work massive hours. It probably also says something about the economic state of our industry as well. Things are pretty dire across the board, but I just can’t imagine doing a job that I didn’t find as satisfying as I find my job.”
Despite having worked in this fast-paced industry for his entire career, and with the same two companies (NZME and TVNZ) he points out, the feeling that working in media is a privilege has never gone away. “When I got into media, I just remember it felt like such a privilege to even have a foot in the door, and I still feel that way. I’ve never lost that feeling that we are super lucky,” he says.
News and current affairs has been a lifelong passion for Jack, who when he returned home to Christchurch recently, found an old certificate given to him when he was 10 that read: ‘To Jack for his keen interest in news and current events.’
“This is more than a quarter of a century ago, and here I still am nerding out on news,” he chuckles.
“When I was a boy, I used to get up in the morning and go to the top of our driveway, get the newspaper at like 6:30, and then dad and I would sit there reading different parts of the newspaper in silence and swapping the newspaper sections. I never thought anything of it at the time, but I just really loved news when I was a kid. I just loved getting a better sense of how the world worked. I think that’s the great thing that news provides me, and I still get the same sense of satisfaction today.”
Despite always having these news junkie tendencies, as a naturally curious person, he reveals there are many different careers he has looked at with interest. As he has got older, he’s become more interested in subjects that never previously interested him, such as economics and languages.
“But as much as my interests develop over time, I still just think my job is so awesome and I’ve never seriously considered doing anything else.”
This year, he is even more acutely aware of this privilege, given the current volatile nature of the media landscape. “One thing that makes our profession unique is that for people, especially people who are in broadcast on camera or behind the mic positions, you never really know when your time might be up. I’m always just grateful to have another show next week, knowing how quickly things can change in our industry.”
He’s also immensely grateful to be currently working on two shows that allow him to tap into two different modes and cover a wide range of topics.
“The thing I love about working for both Newstalk ZB and TVNZ is that I’m allowed to broadcast on two programmes that are quite different in their tone. My Saturday morning show on Newstalk ZB is much more conversational. Generally the subject matter is a lot lighter and we joke around a lot more. On Q+A it’s much more policy focused.”
But no matter whether he’s interviewing an artist, an author, or the Prime Minister, the most important thing an interviewer can be, regardless of the medium, is present,
he says.
“When it comes to interviewing, this sounds really silly, and I’m not saying that I have nailed it necessarily, but I always think the way to make a broadcast interview as good as possible is to be as present as possible. It sounds really obvious to say, ‘Make sure you listen when you’re interviewing’, but actually when you are in the moment and you have the pressure of being on live television or the pressure of being on radio and you’ve got a time limit and all of those other external factors, it’s really easy not to listen to your interviewee.
“The best interviewers are the people who, yes, can do a heap of preparation, yes, can come in with as much background information as possible and all of those other things, but actually the best interviewers are the ones who are able, despite the bright lights, the microphones, the pressure of the moment, to be present. And that’s what I always strive to do. That would be the thing that I try to achieve on both radio and TV. I always just try and make sure that I’m listening to the person I’m speaking to, and I know that sounds ridiculous, but it is a real skill to be sufficiently present that you can actually that you can pick up on what an interviewee is saying.”
It’s this kind of insightfulness that is perhaps behind his reputation, depending very much on who you ask, as being a firm but fair interviewer.
Personally and professionally, it’s been a busy year for Jack, although you might suspect he’s never not had a busy one yet. Not only did he get married to fellow TVNZ journalist Mava Moayyed, but it was also an election year – or a political journalist’s “Olympics opportunity” as he calls it.
Compared to other elections, the 2023 campaigns felt “bereft of hope” he says. “A lot of the campaigns seemed to focus on what parties wouldn’t be doing rather than what they would be doing, and the things they would be building or the New Zealand they would be building, so that stood out to me. I certainly think it felt grumpier than the last election.
“It was interesting the third parties had as much support as they did. I think that probably suggests quite a wide sense of dissatisfaction in the New Zealand voting populace.”
Despite this, the general population were more engaged than he had anticipated, with the televised debates and the election night coverage itself attracting strong ratings.
“Even though people were grumpy and even though people said they weren’t into it, and even though the whole campaign felt a bit negative, I still think its importance to New Zealanders wasn’t lost. It was still really central to people everywhere, and that makes me feel really good.”
Having been in front of the camera or mic for much of his career and having a public profile, I’m curious to know if he found the transition from unbiased journalist, to sharing his opinions with the nation, a challenge at all?
“I, of course, try and be a little bit thoughtful and deliberate about the things I choose to write about, or the analysis that I produce. I definitely hold back on some subjects just because I sometimes don’t think the world needs to know what I’ve broached from a certain subject. I don’t necessarily profess to have any greater insights to anyone else, but I think one of the great privileges of journalism is that, and especially on a job like Q+A for example, you are given this bird’s-eye position.
“For people who don’t work in newsrooms, they might have water cooler chat, and it’s just that, but in newsrooms, water cooler chat is the job. We debate what is important and what isn’t important. The significance of different decisions is the fabric of newsrooms everywhere, and I just think that’s the best.”
So, how would one describe Jack Tame the brand I wonder? Is the Jack Tame that appears on our television screens and radio waves the same Jack Tame that appears on my laptop now? “Good question. I don’t know,” he says after a pause. “A friend called me ‘earnest’ on Twitter, and I was like, ‘What me? Earnest? Are you serious?’ And my wife was like, ‘very earnest’ which was news to me.
“I feel like a lot of successful broadcasters have given more thought to their brand than I have because I’ve given zero. All I would say is that I think as with politicians, a lot of really successful broadcasters are authentic and they don’t try to pretend to be someone they’re not. So if they are a bit nerdy and they are a bit earnest, and they’re more likely to be someone your grandma would invite around for tea and scones, than someone who’s going to be a pinup, so be it, but I think the best thing you can aspire to be as a broadcaster is to be authentic.
“When you’re on TV or radio a lot, people see through bullsh*t. I think people see through anytime you’re trying to pretend to be something you’re not, but yes, maybe giving more thought to the brand ‘Jack Tame’ would be a good idea one day.”
This article was first published in our December/January 2024 issue.
