Ten questions: Charles Wooley

Veteran 60 Minutes reporter Charles Wooley says NZ PM Jacinda Ardern was not offended by his interview last month.

Charles Wooley says it’s a bad time for journalism.

60 Minutes aired a bizarre profile on New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern last month. Veteran reporter Charles Wooley grilled her less about her policies and more about her pregnancy, but she was not offended, he tells Dana McCauley.

The controversy over your 60 Minutes interview with Jacinda Ardern was reported around the world. Were you surprised by the backlash?

I was as surprised as Jacinda Ardern told us that she was. The controversy wasn’t actually about my report, it was about the mindless echo chamber of social media. Fanatics, ideologues and rabid haters — they have always been with us but now they come with smartphones.

Your question about Ardern’s conception date has been describe as “creepy”. Could you have stepped more lightly?

She wasn’t offended by it — everyone in New Zealand had already been asking her those questions. There is no point in defending stuff you do on television. The only thing television can ever do is to reinforce people’s prejudices.

What are you up to at the moment?

Last week, I stepped into a pothole. Metaphorically, not the first time I’ve done that, but it is the first time I’ve broken my ankle. I fear my AFL career is over.

You star in the Australian Museum’s new podcast series Treasures. How did the project come about?

I have always been interested in history and it’s exciting to reveal the stories behind some of the greatest wonders of the world. Museums bring out the kid in all of us.

You call yourself a “slow adaptor”. How did you go about adapting yourself for the podcast world?

I’m a journo old enough to remember reporting on an Olivetti typewriter. The first few stories I wrote on a computer I had to rewrite, because somehow they disappeared into the ether. But a podcast is not unlike the world of radio, in which I started.

You don’t come across like a museum nut. Are you?

I have always been interested in history, since I was a little kid growing up in Launceston. We had the brilliant Queen Victoria Museum and I would drag my parents there every weekend. It was a window into the world for me.

At 69, you are one of the oldest working television journalists in Australia. Will you ever retire?

No, I don’t think so. I was talking to Ray Martin about this and decided to keep going as long as there is something I can do.

Was it easier to do long-form current affairs reporting in the era of This Day Tonight, Sunday and Nationwide, compared to now?

It was easier in that you could do a story and know that people would watch it. Now, before people have even seen a story they are on their Twitter feed. It’s a bit Orwellian. We do not live in a great age for journalism.

What is the most memorable story for you of your career to date?

When David Bowie died they put up an interview I did with him in Paris. He was so urbane and sophisticated and clever, despite all the drugs he had taken. I tend to remember locations rather than stories. I stayed in a cave in the Himalayas with James Scott, who had survived 43 days lost in the snow. I remember being absolutely amazed at the infinite possibilities the Earth affords.

Being based in Hobart, does it frustrate you that Australia’s media is so focused on Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra?

Yes, absolutely. It’s no wonder people go to less reliable sources such as social media for news.