NZ Herald Confirms Reason For Not Covering That Benjamin Doyle Story: "To Keep Grooming Children Less Obvious"

AUCKLAND, NZ — NZ Herald admitted it deliberately avoided reporting on allegations surrounding Green Party MP Benjamin Doyle, who is accused of posting sexualised images of children on a secret Instagram account, with editor citing "to keep grooming children less obvious" as their reason.

The controversy erupted this week when posts on X alleged that Doyle, the Green Party’s Early Childhood Education spokesperson, maintained a hidden social media account featuring inappropriate content of children.

“We had that Benjamin Doyle story on our radar, but we chose not to run it,” said NZ Herald editor-in-chief Murray Kirkness. “Our job is to report bad things politicians do on the right spectrum of politics, and on the left, we only cover the good stories. Plus, reporting this story could have exposed sexual grooming of children.”

After public outrage, the story was published on The Centrist. Sources close to NZME board allege that NZME owner Jim Grenon instructed The Centrist to run the story to put more pressure on NZME board, which he is trying to oust.

Police Minister confirmed no charges will be laid, “hard to do that when I have Benjamin Doyle in my office, collaborating with me on how take down Brian Tamaki. That is the real threat here guys, so grow up!,” said Mark Mitchell.

At publishing time, NZ Herald just ran their 999th story on school lunches.