The 60th anniversary reunion of the boys who enrolled in 1964 was held in early March and Paul Cutler was the guest speaker. Paul spent 50 years in journalism and would serve as Managing Editor for three major television networks – TVNZ in Auckland, CNN Asia/Pacific in Hong Kong and SBS Australia in Sydney. In his after-dinner speech, Paul looked back at a fascinating career and, in particular, his role in two major events of our lifetime – the walkout of Dennis Conner on The Holmes Show and the 9/11 Twin Towers attack while he was at CNN International.

We asked Paul to both reflect on his career and look forward at the current troubled state of the media industry in the early 21st Century:

I don’t think there was ever a time when I didn’t want to be a journalist. I remember each morning at St Bede’s I would join a handful of boarders who would wait for a few copies of The Press to be delivered to the main study around 8 a.m. I would go through each page before classes.

My fascination with news was inherited from my father Les who served with the U.S. Air Force in the Pacific during the war. He returned with a very worldly perspective and, instead of comics, my brothers, Chris and Peter, and myself were immersed in news magazines like Time, Life and Reader’s Digest which were delivered to our Tai Tapu farm each week.

It was in fact my interest in news which led me to part of a championship YFC debating team over three years at St Bede’s. And I would later learn that my involvement in debating -where current issues are researched and defined - would be the main reason I was chosen in an elite group of 30 students for the 1969 intake at the School of Journalism in Wellington.

As it turned out, St Bede’s was honoured to have three students in the journalism course that year, the most of any school outside Wellington. Beside myself, there was Brian O’Sullivan (1964-68) from Sydenham and George Smith (1963-66) from Kaikoura. Brian would have a successful career in newspapers in the Midlands of England and George would cross the Tasman to work with the ABC.

Over the years, I would work and live on five continents where I would share enjoyable night’s out with the likes of George Best, Muhammad Ali and Marianne Faithfull and dine with political giants like Bill Clinton and Rudy Giuliani. Not to mention, getting insulted by Aussie big-names Shane Warne and Bob Hawke. But hey it was all part of the job.

Upon graduating, I cut my teeth on a provincial newspaper, The Daily News in Taranaki, before heading back to Christchurch for my long-held ambition to be a reporter on The Press. But after a couple of years, it was time for the big OE (Overseas Experience), even though by then I had a wife and young child. We saw it as one big challenge!

Our eventual destination was London, but we could take a year to get there. So, we headed to South Africa as we had become fascinated with the country, given the bubbling Springbok tour controversy, and decided to experience the Apartheid regime for ourselves. As it turned out, we ended up in Pretoria, the very heartland of Apartheid, where I would work as a sports journalist for The Pretoria News.

It would prove to be a fascinating, eye-opening 12 months when we would do our best to surreptitiously evade the various “whites-only” rules. As it turned out, I would learn a few years later that during our time in Pretoria I would, unbeknown to me, be shadowed at times by Government “Thought Police.” I was lucky to return to South Africa a couple of decades later when I happily recounted my adventures on the local TV Breakfast show!

On arriving in London, I literally walked into a job in Fleet Street, the nerve centre of journalism in the U.K.at the time. I had gone to the Reuters headquarters at 85 Fleet Street to see a friend who was working for the South African Press Association. When I got to the second floor I saw a sign which said: “Reuters Editorial.” I poked my head through the door – there was no security in those days - and said: “Gotta Job?”

That was lunchtime Wednesday. I started work at Reuters world headquarters the following Monday.

My job was on the sports desk as a writer/filing editor. I was in my early twenties and the sports world was my oyster. In my five years at Reuters, I would cover all the biggies in sport – various world championships across Europe, world boxing title fights, F.A. Cup finals, Wimbledon tennis, international rugby and both Olympic and Commonwealth Games.

Of all these, my most enjoyable assignment turned out to be the Wimbledon championships. I got especially lucky to be there on the day in 1977 when the great American Tracey Austin made her debut on the centre court at the age of 14. My intro read:

“Wearing pom-poms on his shoes, pig-tails in her hair and braces on her teeth, 14-year-old Tracey Austin today became the youngest player to make her debut on the centre court at Wimbledon.”

The story, under my by-line, would be run by countless newspapers around the world, including the International Herald Tribune. It would earn me a special commendation from the Editor in Chief, something considered very rare by the old hands at Reuters.

After five years at Reuters, it was time for another challenge. I saw an ad in the UK Press Gazette for news producers at the BBC headquarters in White City London. I was among 85 short-listed and three eventually selected and this in an era when most BBC recruits were from the elite Oxbridge brigade.

The transition from writing for print to that of broadcasting was a steep learning curve. But soon I was immersed in such major events as the assassination of Lord Mountbatten, the overthrow of the Shah of Iran and the election victory of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

I always felt my time at the BBC was somewhat of a privilege. But by the early 1980’s with, by now, two children a decision was made to return to New Zealand for their main education. It wasn’t hard to land a Job at Television New Zealand where I would spend twenty years, the first ten of which allowed me to broaden my TV producing skills across various genres of current affairs, general features and even producing documentaries.

But all changed in the late 1980’s when competition came to broadcasting in New Zealand. Radio was first and as the popular Newstalk format emerged on the ZB network, so did a budding motor-mouth named Paul Holmes. When TV3 was issued the first private licence, it soon became clear that the real competition would be waged in the 6-7 pm hour where TV3 were going to follow the Australian model into a hard-nose hour of news and current affairs.

TVNZ had no option not only to follow suit but get in first beforeTV3’s scheduled debut late in 1989. I was asked to establish the personality-driven current affairs at 6.30 directly following the news. And there was only one personality for the job and that was Paul Holmes who we soon convinced to add TV to his successful Newstalk Radio role.

The launch date for Holmes was April 1989, as it turned out, some eight months before Three. The big challenge was how to make an immediate impact, as in Day One! I can remember in much detail the pre-planning meeting when one of the team noting that American yachtsman Dennis Connor would be in town soon to promote a board game. I can still now see Paul’s eyes suddenly burst open. “Get him,” he declared. We did and the interview was set to be recorded a few days before the program launch.

Connor was Public Enemy No 1 in New Zealand at the time after calling Kiwi yachtie Bruce Farr “a loser” and “full of shit” after his controversial catamaran had beaten New Zealand in the America’s Cup some months earlier. It was clear from the outset that Paul would ask Connor if he would like to apologise to Farr and indeed the people of New Zealand.

On the day Connor arrived for the pre-record, Paul and I went out to his car to meet him. It was mid-afternoon and it was soon clear he had been to what is colloquially known as “a long lunch.” I suddenly recalled that when he had hurled abuse at Farr, it had been after celebratory drinks. I instantly talked to our camera operator who was recording the arrival and asked him to stick around the exit just in case “something happens’ in the interview.

Something of course did happen and when Conner walked out, we naturally recorded all the exterior shots after he had exited the studio. In the uproar which followed the actual broadcast of the interview – the following Monday – much was made of these departure pictures by rival media to support “set-up” allegations.

There was nothing of “a set up” in the interview at all. Connor knew full well that the controversy over the 1988 America’s Cup and his post-race behaviour would be raised in the interview. The only prior request was that his board game was referenced. This indeed is what happened. Paul’s interview – available on You Tube – was well structured. He was persistent in his questioning but hardly aggressive, as often described. And Connor did not “storm out,” as also alleged. He merely muttered “I’ve got to run” then got up, on a second attempt, and left the studio quite elegantly.

There had never been a launch to match this by any TV show in New Zealand and probably never will.

The controversy lasted weeks and there was only one word on everyone’s lips – Holmes! Some of the TVNZ executives, including myself, felt genuinely sorry for TV3 as we envisaged that when they eventually launched and went head to head with Holmes, the outcome for them would not be good. This is exactly what happened. Their rival show soon folded and Three wisely expanded their news to one hour, forcing TVNZ to follow suit. Holmes was rescheduled for 7 pm where it sat supreme for a decade.

Paul was a joy to work with and probably the hardest working individual I ever encountered. For 12 years he would start in the radio office at 4 am and most nights he was still at his TV desk around 8 pm. Yes, he was a hard task-master and, as expected, there were times when we held some “deep and meaningful” conversations about the show’s content and direction. And I always knew I was up against it whenever he pulled his trump card: “Don’t forget whose name is on the marquee!” Such fun in hindsight!

After more than five years as Executive Producer in Holmes I was integrated into upper management of TVNZ current affairs before being appointed Managing Editor. I held this post for nearly five years before a new challenge came out of the blue. One of my key contacts at CNN – TVNZ had been affiliated to the international news network for several years – rang me to say that the bosses at CNN’s headquarters in Atlanta were looking for a “Commonwealth journalist” to give a broader perspective to their world coverage. Was I interested? I sure was. And soon it was time to head off around the world again.

My role at CNN was Supervising Producer responsible for a number of hours of content each day from Atlanta. It was a step back from Managing Editor, but had the potential to be two steps forward, as would happen.

We had been in Atlanta only a few months when September 11, 2001, dawned. My abiding memory of the day is not necessarily the attack on the Twin Towers, but the fact that when I drove to work around 5.30, there was the most beautiful sunrise into a picture-perfect blue sky. Sadly, I was soon to find out this skyline would be all across the eastern seaboard of America!

I put my first bulletin to air at 8 am before switching to a business program from Hong Kong and then went downstairs for coffee. When I returned, I noticed most of the staff watching the TV monitors hanging from the ceiling. I looked up and saw images of the Twin Towers in New York. Smoke was pouring out of one.

“Paul one of the twin towers is on fire,” someone shouted. “Domestic are on it!” By “domestic” he meant CNN USA, our main network, and International had full access to any of their content. The hour was still my responsibility. I needed to get the pictures around the world as soon as possible. Rather to try and find the anchor to introduce the breaking news, I decided it was quicker to ring MCR (Master Control Room) and get them to switch all programming to CNN USA. “Go all regions,” I shouted over the phone to the master controller. Within seconds CNN was broadcasting the pillowing smoke to the rest of the world, well ahead of rival networks.

I always felt that if I was ever to write a biography, it would be titled “Go All Regions.”

After we had switched to the Twin Towers coverage, I headed for the control room to monitor the CNN USA output. I had been in there only a matter of minutes when the second tower was attacked. As in the first tower, there was some confusion on air as to what had actually happened. My boss, The President of CNN International, had joined me and he quickly turned and said: “I think I saw something move from right to left before the explosion.”

In my supervisor’s booth, there was a one-inch tape machine which I used to record the output of breaking news. I quickly rewound the tape and when replayed in slow motion, it clearly showed the second plane. We immediately contacted CNN USA and said International could replay the tape in slow motion if they wished to put it to air. Next thing I hear “three, two, one, roll” and I pushed the replay button with my forefinger. Suddenly the world had proof a plane had actually hit the Twin Towers.

Whenever I see that slow motion shot replayed, I glance at the said forefinger and smile!

Breaking news would continue to be a dominant factor in my career.

In 2003 I was appointed Managing Editor of CNN Asia Pacific. But before I could leave for Hong Kong, the Atlanta bosses wanted me to stay to oversee the breaking coverage of the expected US invasion of Iraq. On the night it actually occurred, I remember spending seven hours monitoring the output of a camera attached to a military Humvee roaring towards Baghdad with the US troops. On board was a CNN crew. There was a seven-second delay to the pictures being transmitted so it gave me time to cut the pictures if they were too graphic.

And when I eventually got to Hong Kong, I was soon to confront the demands of covering one of the biggest natural disasters ever to occur in Asia – the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami.

That was now 20 years ago. And since then there has been such a massive change in the entire media landscape that the sheer scope and distribution of breaking news bears little resemblance to the events of the Twin Towers, Asian Tsunami etc. Nothing was so evident than on the day of the tragic 2019 Christchurch Mosque attacks, the perpetrator was able to live stream his dreadful actions to the entire world on social media.

Now everyone can be a publisher. The best analogy relates to opinions. When I first started in the industry, if you wanted to have your say, you wrote a letter to the editor. You might post it on a Monday, it would be received on the Wednesday and you were lucky if it was published by the Friday. These days you can write your view and publish it to the world in less than a minute! There is no censoring, no checks and balances.

The dominance of what we call New Media – with its technical, commercial and social implications - has triggered the slow death of both the print media and broadcast appointment viewing.

Nothing was more evident that when the country’s leading broadcasters TVNZ and TV3 recently announced major cuts to their news and current affairs programming. Sad indeed. TV3’s news axing – now somewhat retrieved – was not unexpected given that it controlled by a multi-national media outfit whose priority will always be the bottom line. But TVNZ’s news cutback and sheer abandonment of long-form investigative journalism is much harder to fathom, given the broadcaster remains a state-owned entity. A three-hour plane trip across the Tasman will open one’s eyes as to how public broadcaster is able to still able to meet its responsibilities to deliver broad and balanced news and information.

And I have not addressed the looming media elephant in the room – AI (artificial intelligence). Soon, you might wisely ask: “Did Paul Cutler write this?”