HeyJaredNot The News - with Paula Penfold
Journalist Paula Penfold writes about the things that are not in the news.
- Indexed issues, last 90 days
- 9
- Latest publication
- Sep 29, 2026
- Audience
- Checking…
- Earliest in this view
- Jul 8, 2026
Latest issues
Goodbye from me (opens the original)
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Dear Reader,I am writing to let you know that I am stepping away from writing Not the News for the foreseeable future.I’ve loved sending you this newsletter. It’s been a creative outlet as I’ve tried to lift the curtain a little on journalism and what goes on behind the scenes of investigations. How and why we do what we do. The challenges and rewards that come with each story we tell. Why I think what we do matters.But it is time for me to shift my focus.Thank you for the incredible support you
Yes, it matters in Aotearoa when Trump bans journalists from the White House (opens the original)
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Eighty-six years ago, on September 21, 1940, journalist and war correspondent Edward R. Murrow stood on a London rooftop and described for American radio listeners a city being bombed.I’m reading about it in Bob Edwards’ Edward R. Murrow and the Birth of Broadcast Journalism. Reporting for CBS, Murrow said that for reasons of national as well as personal security, he couldn’t give his exact location. In the distance he saw anti-aircraft fire. He saw searchlights and described the explosions comi
Fact checking the fact check of my fact check (opens the original)
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On Monday I wrote a fact check about a New Zealand First candidate’s claims on Facebook regarding New Zealand’s abortion legislation. Then people started fact checking my fact check.Elizabeth Mundt talked about a full-term abortion bill. She said babies could be killed right up until the day of birth. She said babies who survived abortions had been left to die in hospital sluice rooms.There were other claims too.It’s probably obvious that I didn’t set out to have an argument about abortion. Peop
A chief executive, a dead dog and an emergency department (opens the original)
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On Thursday evening my mate and I went to a discussion at Auckland University on the future of journalism.Call me a sucker for punishment because, yes, there was plenty about it that was depressing, and why would I want to think about that in my spare time?But I also found it strangely uplifting. Partly because the room was full, so it seemed evident people were interested. Partly because the panel had plenty to say about why journalism matters. Also because unexpectedly there was nice food and
Slightly warm but not smoking guns (opens the original)
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In a noisy, echoey cafe I kept glancing at the recording app on my phone, worried it would even be able to pick up the woman’s words: she spoke so quietly, so nervously, her hands slightly trembling.I wonder if people think that sources who talk to journalists are gung-ho throw-caution-to-the-wind types who think the story must be told at any cost.Somet… Read more
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