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Twitter is so shocked at the sight of a TV news host doing her job, the clip went viral

TV interviews with politicians *could* be like this in the U.S., too.

Adam Rosenberg

on October 18, 2020

After four years of Donald Trump, it's easy for a U.S. resident to believe that TV news reporters aren't permitted to ask tough questions or push back when given inadequate answers. So it can be quite jarring in 2020 to see such things happen in a live interview.

That's why this clip from a New Zealand news broadcast is getting so much attention. Newshub's Tova O'Brien sat down for a chat with Jami-Lee Ross, a controversial New Zealand politician with some decidedly Trump-y qualities who lost his seat in Parliament following the country's just-concluded 2020 election.

The four-minute clip highlights an exchange that's marked primarily by O'Brien's incisive questioning and unwillingness to let Ross dodge. She steers the conversation in a way that's meant to hold the ousted politician to account for his more questionable behavior.

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For U.S.-based TV watchers who have lived on a diet of domestic news coverage for the past four years, O'Brien's disposition throughout the interview might seem overly aggressive or hostile. But no, this is actually a professional reporter doing the job of digging into the sorts of questions viewers should want answered.

She doesn't let Ross get away with anything, and in fact openly calls him out because his attempts to dodge and re-frame the conversation are so shameless.

Predictably, the clip went viral on U.S. Twitter, accompanied by expressions of shock at O'Brien's approach and wistfulness for the American news media to reach a place where this kind of no-nonsense attitude is an expectation rather than a rarity.

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Topics Politics

Adam Rosenberg

Adam Rosenberg is a Senior Games Reporter for Mashable, where he plays all the games. Every single one. From AAA blockbusters to indie darlings to mobile favorites and browser-based oddities, he consumes as much as he can, whenever he can.Adam brings more than a decade of experience working in the space to the Mashable Games team. He previously headed up all games coverage at Digital Trends, and prior to that was a long-time, full-time freelancer, writing for a diverse lineup of outlets that includes Rolling Stone, MTV, G4, Joystiq, IGN, Official Xbox Magazine, EGM, 1UP, UGO and others.Born and raised in the beautiful suburbs of New York, Adam has spent his life in and around the city. He's a New York University graduate with a double major in Journalism and Cinema Studios. He's also a certified audio engineer. Currently, Adam resides in Crown Heights with his dog and his partner's two cats. He's a lover of fine food, adorable animals, video games, all things geeky and shiny gadgets.