As for his interviewing style – possibly the worst I have ever seen on television. A good interviewer asks open-ended questions – Holmes would do the opposite. His questions almost always consisted of making statements and asking his subject to agree or disagree with them. Very occasionally he would have someone on who would simply call his bluff on that little game and give one word answers, and it would completely flummox him with a mad scramble to fill dead air.

Sure, he got people watching. But at what cost? Perhaps he deserves accolades, but certainly not for advancing quality viewing or journalism.

Long live the system and may we knight those who don’t put a spanner in the works.

And that late-night pearl of wisdom came courtesy of NZ First.

Enjoy the day.

Let’s not forget that fantastic album…http://grooveshark.com/#!/album/Paul+Holmes+CD/5587989

I do recall him being pwnd by a Great Britain rugby league manager (a lawyer I believe). He couldn’t close the interview down fast enough.

A good entertainment diversion was Holmes…..sounding like a eulogy now, ha.

a simple shock jock, who has been overpaid by taxpayers for way to long.

The whole knighthood set up as it stands is sickening … hardly a hero in any of them …

Wasn’t the 7pm slot Sale of the Century?

Indeed. In the early days, the Holmes show ran from 6.30 to 7pm (still only a half hour news bulletin preceding it then.) When One Network News ran for the full hour (sometime in the 1990′s), Holmes moved to 7pm.

Ripping Michael Laws out for trash talking paralympians

Agreed. Paul Holmes has been happy to fight for the underdog.
Warm congratulations to Sir Paul.

Holmes looked very ill the other day, I’m glad he had what was a very special day. He changed NZ.

Aside from being a thoroughly decent bloke, Paul freed up a whole generation of broadcasters who were his contemporaries and successors to present a uniquely New Zealand style of broadcasting not found anywhere else. It’s easy to take for granted the effect of that till you go almost anywhere else in the Western world and see how dull its radio and TV current affairs are, even when they’re trying to be daring.

I know when I got my own show on radio his insistence on being himself – and nothing more nor less – was the benchmark by which I judged what I’d done when I came off air. If the audience had learned something – not just heard some news, but actually been taken beyond it and given knowledge as well as information – then that was a good show. Because that is what Paul did, usually through the sheer force of his humanity (though I don’t underestimate his skills as an interviewer): he showed his subjects as rounded human beings, not just politicians or Americas Cup captains or whatever, and allowed us insight into their underlying personalities and motivations. That sounds easy, but try getting that out of a professional communicator like a politician or a celebrity.

And when they challenged him he bested them, as RRM notes. That too isn’t easy when dealing with someone like Shipley.

I’m not sure whether it’s possible for him to distil what made him one of NZ’s greatest broadcasters but if it is, I hope he does so by way of a book, a monograph or even an essay. Even a bit of oral history would do. I know I’d grab a copy.

Everyone who’s entered broadcasting post-Holmes has benefited from his work, and future generations will too whether they know it or not; but it’d be fitting if they were guided by the man himself.

this convention is not always observed and the following styles may be used on occasions where the holder of the courtesy title considers it to be appropriate:

Bollocks.  The fact is that it is incorrect usage and should not be given any sort of official blessing.  All it does is mark out NZers as being uncultured ignoramuses.  

Given the husband of a dame is not given a courtesy title, perhaps the Herald would be better simply calling her Mrs Holmes instead?  Be more egalitarian and 21st century?

But with regards the knighthood itself: well deserved and I hope Sir Paul enjoys it for as much time as he has left (may it be longer than expected).

Dennis Conner walking out
Ripping Shipley out over budgets that were unplugging dialysis patients
Ripping Michael Laws out for trash talking paralympians while shagging random drug addicts
Backing his druggie teenaged stepdaughter 100% through all sorts of court appearances etc, to hell with the media attention.

What a total friggin legend that man is. It’s too bad that this discussion is probably going to have the air of an obituary.

As the honours secretariat points out NZ has no system of hereditary peerages so it can be acceptable to use that form of addressing

http://www.honours.govt.nz/honours/overview/titles-and-styles

“In the United Kingdom, the style “Lady Mary Smith” indicates that a woman is a holder of a peerage courtesy title in her own right, and is considered incorrect usage by the wife of a knight. In New Zealand’s more relaxed society, however, as there is no system of hereditary peerages, this convention is not always observed and the following styles may be used on occasions where the holder of the courtesy title considers it to be appropriate:

Lady Mary
Lady Mary Smith”